Building a Large Peer Workforce (Leadership for a Recovery Organization)
An Interview with Shannon McCleery-Hooper, Deputy Director of Peer Support Services
This video podcast relates to MHOTRS settings who are seeking to grow their peer support workforce. In this episode, Lori Ashcraft interviews Shannon McCleerey-Hooper, Deputy Director of Peer Support Services in Riverside County, California. Shannon discusses the journey of developing the peer workforce in Riverside County that was brought forth by her predecessor. She developed it further over 12 years, from it’s infancy from 17 peer staff when she was hired in 2007 to 367 peer specialists in 2023 at the time of the video. One of the critical factors in this growth was the development of a career ladder. The ladder has a variety of levels including volunteer, internship, trainee, journey level, senior peer, and peer manager. This career ladder was developed in 2010.
One of the challenges Shannon has faced in developing the peer support workforce is that peer staff often get poor supervision. By supervision, she is referring to non-peer supervisors providing appropriate guidance, support, and integration into the organization. To help address this, she created the role of a senior peer to be a bridge between the peer staff and supervisors. The senior peer shares peer values, perspectives, and approaches so expectations would align with the values and outlook associated with peer support. Senior peers also coach peer staff on resources and techniques to maintain wellness in the work environment, discussing how to apply recovery principles to their job performance.
Her team has created many programs. These include:
- Supporting everyone on staff to create a “WRAP™ Plan” around “what stops you in your life.” This helped non-peer supervisors better understand the concept of peer support.
- Working with Universities in the area to have peer staff talk to classes about recovery and the value of peer support.
- Being part of an innovation project to address interventions through technology. They came up with the very first live peer chat for people who don’t want to, or can’t, be seen. Called “Take My Hand, Live Peer Chat.”
In the future, her team will be training the local medical center to develop a peer support program for their medical staff. This program will teach peer support techniques to clinical staff so they can be peer supporters with each other, such as nurses supporting nurses and doctors supporting doctors.
Shannon states that having the working peers come together as a group to provide support and maintain the application of recovery values in the workplace can be beneficial. Bringing peers together in person is an important piece and something the virtual world cannot replace. When asked about what wisdom is important to gain to make one’s best contribution, she stated that getting connected with our authenticity creates a richness in our relationships with others.
© 2024, Crestwood Recovery Resilience Solutions, All rights reserved.
Viva La Evolution #008 – Interview by Lori Ashcraft. Used with permission.
Summary provided by Stephen Nawotniak, Alliance for Rights and Recovery (formerly NYAPRS).
More About Viva La Evolution and Crestwood.
Developed by Crestwood Behavioral Health
With Contributions by the Alliance for Rights and Recovery (formerly New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services)
For PeerTAC
