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).
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.