Organizational Self-Assessment
The purpose of this organizational self-assessment (OSA) is to provide clinical leadership and staff that are responsible for the daily operations of clinical services, e.g., administration, clinicians, supervisors, quality assurance (QA), human resources (HR), compliance, front desk, and information technology, a tool to identify their organization’s competencies in delivering peer support services. In addition to organizational strengths, this tool allows organizational leadership to consider areas that will require modifications that will lead to a more recovery oriented culture and more effective teamwork for the inclusion of Peer Specialists/Advocates (PS/A).
The organizational self-assessment (OSA) is both an educational tool and a way to reflect on how prepared your organization is for the successful inclusion of peer support services in your service delivery continuum, whether it is starting up a new service, making improvements to an existing service, or growing your peer support services. The OSA has been adapted from nationally-recognized resources on successful peer workforce inclusion.
- If you are just getting started, you can use the OSA as an educational tool to learn key organizational competencies needed to provide effective peer support services.
- If you already provide peer support services, you can use the OSA to consider ways to improve the quality of your current services or add a new type of peer support service to increase your ability to provide peer support services across the lifespan.
You may be completing this OSA as part of a team. If so, you will want to compare your responses. This allows you to look for agreement with others on the team and to understand if there are different perspectives that need to be addressed in order to work together.
If you are completing the OSA on your own, use your responses to look for areas where your organization can make the work environment better suited for the inclusion of PS/As. Use the relevant competency statements in this OSA to advocate for needed change. Research has shown that organizations with high levels of competency in the areas identified in the OSA offer better quality services for those receiving services, realize greater retention of peer support staff, and achieve an improved environment for all staff.
People who provide peer support services use their relevant life experience to give and receive support based on shared understanding, respect, and mutual empowerment between people in similar situations. While this OSA uses the term Peer Specialist/Advocate (PS/A) to reflect the many similarities in those who provide peer support services across the lifespan, when necessary, three distinct credentials are used separately to indicate the different designations in the adult-serving or child-serving systems: Adult Certified Peer Specialist (NYCPS), Credentialed Youth Peer Advocate (YPA-C), and Credentialed Family Peer Advocate (FPA-C). Each PS/A specialty has its own training and guiding principles, core values, code of ethics, and scope of practice that serve to define fidelity to that specific peer practice.
As you complete the self-assessment, consider who within your organization is responsible for the quality of that competency. If they are not already involved, ask yourself how you can involve them in the inclusion effort<span class=”s1″>s</span>. Do you need buy-in from the leadership team, a particular department, a specific group, or an individual? PeerTAC has resources and experienced organizations that can offer technical assistance. You can use the Ask PeerTAC feature on the website or send email to info@peertac.org.
The OSA contains four main competency sections: Knowledge of Peer Support Practice; Organizational Culture; Recruiting, Hiring and Onboarding; and Supervision. You may find your organization has unrecognized strengths in some areas and unexpected opportunities for improvement in others. Be sure to acknowledge and celebrate those areas where your organization excels as you identify areas for improvement. Each section in the OSA contains feedback on your ratings. The end of the OSA provides ideas for creating an action plan to accomplish those improvements.
Remember:
- If you are just getting started, use the OSA as an educational tool.
- If you already provide peer support services, use the OSA to improve the quality of your current services.
If your organization is just getting started or at an early stage of including PS/As, don’t be discouraged by the ratings. It takes planning, commitment, time and collaboration to establish effective peer support services. Every organization is at a different stage and each one has unique challenges. The OSA allows you to identify opportunities for improvement and to reflect on the most critical areas for organizational change for a sustainable peer support services program.
Cronise, R., Kelly, Y., Franco, L., Spagnolo, A., & Vogel, M. PeerTAC Organizational Self-Assessment (OSA). This instrument was sponsored by and developed for the Peer Support Services Technical Assistance Center (PeerTAC), a project of Rutgers University Academy of Peer Services (APS) & NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research Community Technical Assistance Center (CTAC)