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Support & Engage Peer Workers

Peer support plays a vital role in behavioral health care when peer workers (like peer specialists, recovery coaches, and behavioral health aides) are understood and valued. Defining the roles of peer workers well leads to smoother collaboration and more consistent and human services.

Many organizations struggle with uncertainty about how to truly integrate peer roles. This uncertainty, along with unclear expectations or limited supervision, affects everyone. It makes it harder for peer workers to do their best work.

Getting clear about peer roles isn’t just a paperwork exercise. It’s about honoring lived experience, supporting ethical practice, and respecting one another.

What Your Organization Can Do

Use the resources below to strengthen role clarity, promote ethical practice, and support the integration of peer workers across your organization

Define Peer Roles Across Systems

Establish shared language around peer titles, responsibilities, and boundaries. This helps reduce confusion across clinical and non-clinical teams.

SAMHSA BRSS TACS

SAMHSA Core Competencies for Peer Workers

Outlines the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for peer roles in diverse behavioral health settings. Useful for hiring, training, and supervision.

Champion Lived Experience in Service Delivery

Integrating peer roles is about more than hiring. It requires cultural and operational shifts to truly value lived experience.

Florida Department of Children and Families

Recovery-Oriented System of Care Toolkit – LSF Health Systems (PDF)

A comprehensive toolkit for building recovery-oriented systems. Includes tools for clarifying peer roles and embedding lived experience at the system level.

Promote Ethical Practice & Mutuality

Ground peer work in shared values and peer-led standards. Ethics guidelines help protect both workers and the people they support.

National Association of Peer Supporters (N.A.P.S.)

National Practice Guidelines for Peer Specialists and Supervisors (PDF)

Covers 12 core values, including mutuality, shared power, and ethical boundaries. Designed to support both peer workers and their supervisors.

Improve Communication and Supervision

Clear communication practices help teams collaborate effectively and support peer role integrity across disciplines.

SAMHSA-HRSA Center for Integrated Health Solutions

Collaboration and Teamwork in Integrated Behavioral Health Care

Provides practical guidance for building effective multidisciplinary teams in behavioral health settings. Covers essential skills like recognizing team member roles, resolving conflicts quickly, facilitating warm hand-offs, and fostering shared decision-making between providers, peer workers, and those receiving services.