Certified Peer Specialists

Certified Peer Specialists complement medical and mental health treatment by serving as a model of the recovery process. Peer specialists can help clients with their social, vocational, educational and self-care goals in many ways, including:

Crisis support

Recognizing the early signs of relapse
Implementing coping strategies
Preventing hospitalization and the use of emergency services when appropriate
Development of a Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP)

Development

Identifying educational, occupational and volunteer opportunities
Obtaining reasonable accommodations for psychiatric disabilities
Learning to be an active community member

Housing

Learning how to access and maintain stable housing

Individual advocacy

Discussing medication or diagnoses concerns with the client’s health care providers at the individual’s request
Guiding the client toward taking a proactive role in his or her own treatment

Self help

Cultivating the ability to make informed, independent choices
Connecting with a network of contacts who have had similar experiences

Self improvement

Planning and facilitating experiences that increase self worth and improve self image

Social networking

Teaching skills for initiating and maintaining friendships, family ties and community relationships
Improving or eliminating unhealthy personal relationships

Developing communications skills

Why Engage a Certified Peer Specialist?

Certified Peer Specialists have been where you are.

A Certified Peer Specialist is passionate about helping his and her peers on the journey to recovery, and will work one-on-one with you to ensure that each client’s individual recovery goals are developed and pursued. They assist the client to envision an increasingly meaningful life; make informed, independent choices; set goals, and facilitate community integration.

Certified Peer Specialists have gone through intensive training and are certified by the state to help their peers identify and achieve self-determined recovery goals. Stairways is licensed by the commonwealth of Pennsylvania to provide CPS services to adults in Erie County. These services are not an alternative to current professional mental health and medical care. Rather, peer services complement and join the client’s current treatment team by providing a mentor for recovery.

Eligibility

Any Erie County resident interested in getting help on the journey to recovery is eligible for Certified Peer Specialist services. Candidates must be diagnosed with a serious mental illness and experiencing functional impairment.

Program enrollment also requires a written recommendation from a licensed psychologist, physician, nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant.

Download Stairways Behavioral Health
Certified Peer Specialist Brochure »

Contact Information and Location Map

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Stairways Behavioral Health
Becky Clark 814.453.5806
E-mail: bclark@StairwaysBH.org

2185 West 8^th Street
Erie, PA 16508
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