A National Overview of Peer Support Training & Certification Programs

The certified mental health peer specialist workforce is growing in the U.S. A peer specialist is an individual with lived experience who has initiated his/her own recovery, and assists others in theirs. As of 2016, all but 5 states have established programs to train and certify peer specialists, and 3 of the 5 are in the process of developing them. Click the map (or the link below it for accessible data) to learn:

• whether the state has a peer training and certification program
• whether peer services are Medicaid-reimbursable 
• the number of trained and certified peer specialists statewide 
• a web site to learn more about that state’s peer training program (click on the state abbreviation to visit the web site). ​

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Click here for map information that is accessible in plain text. 

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Leading Practices for Certifying Peer Specialists

Learn about the GAO's survey of best practices for training and certifying mental health peer specialists.