Peer Support Specialist

Peer Support Specialist

The Peer Support Specialist provides peer-based engagement, de-escalation, and recovery support during mobile crisis encounters. Drawing on lived experience with mental health or substance use challenges, this role helps individuals feel safe, understood, and willing to participate in services. The Peer Support Specialist partners with the Crisis Counselor to support stabilization and connection to care, while the Crisis Counselor retains responsibility for clinical assessment and decision-making. Through this collaboration, the Peer Support Specialist strengthens the individual's ability to understand, accept, and engage with the identified care plan.

The Peer Support Specialist leads the human connection on scene so that clinical assessment can occur effectively. They reduce emotional intensity, increase cooperation, and help the individual participate in the plan that is clinically determined. This position is not responsible for determining level of care or clinical dispositions.

Core responsibilities include:

• Engagement and De-escalation
  • Establish rapport and psychological safety with the individual and involved supports.
  • Apply lived experience and recovery-oriented strategies to reduce fear, resistance, or withdrawal.
  • Model grounding, coping, and emotional regulation skills during the encounter.
  • Assist the individual in expressing needs, preferences, and concerns.
  • Support voluntary participation in services whenever clinically appropriate.
• Environmental Stabilization
  • Help organize the scene to reduce chaos, overstimulation, or safety risk.
  • Assist family members, natural supports, or bystanders in understanding the situation.
  • Identify immediate practical barriers such as transportation, childcare, shelter, medication access, or communication needs.
• Support of the Clinical Assessment
  • Provide observations to the Crisis Counselor regarding the individual's behavior, communication, and readiness for services.
  • Help the individual understand what is happening and what options are available.
  • Encourage participation in the assessment process without conducting the clinical evaluation.
• Recovery and Safety Planning Support
  • Help translate the clinical plan into understandable and achievable steps.
  • Reinforce coping strategies and strengths identified during the encounter.
  • Increase the individual's commitment to follow-up services and community supports.
• Linkage and Follow-Through
  • Facilitate warm handoffs to providers, natural supports, or community resources.
  • Help the individual prepare for the next step in care.
  • Reduce barriers to attending or engaging with recommended services.
  • Assist individuals with navigating behavioral health, substance use, medical, social service, housing, and community-based resources as appropriate.
  • Support coordination and communication with referral partners, treatment providers, hospitals, law enforcement, schools, and community organizations, as directed by the Crisis Counselor.
  • Participate in follow-up outreach, engagement, and re-engagement efforts to support continuity of care and reduce future crisis utilization.
• Productivity and Direct Service
  • Maintain assigned direct service expectations and productivity standards established by the organization.
  • Participate in all assigned shifts, crisis response deployments, and follow-up activities as scheduled.
• Documentation and Compliance
  • Complete all required documentation within established timelines and in accordance with agency, grant, regulatory, and accreditation requirements.
  • Adhere to all IDHS, HFS, CESSA, CARF, CCBHC, DBHR, organizational, and program-specific requirements.
  • Participate in multidisciplinary staffing, supervision, and quality improvement activities.
  • CRSS certification is preferred; must obtain CRSS certification within organizational expectations.

Trilogy Behavioral Healthcare operates within a CARF-accredited environment and maintains Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) standards. All employees are expected to support compliance with:

• CARF standards
• CCBHC standards
• DBHR requirements
• HFS requirements
• CESSA requirements
• Organizational policies and procedures
• Applicable state and federal regulations

All employees are responsible for:

• Completing documentation in accordance with agency, grant, regulatory, and accreditation requirements.
• Completing required documentation by the end of the assigned shift whenever possible.
• Completing all documentation within 24 hours of service delivery unless otherwise approved by leadership.
• Maintaining accurate, timely, and professional clinical documentation.

All employees are expected to:

• Follow established intake procedures.
• Follow crisis response workflows.
• Follow documentation workflows.
• Follow communication protocols.
• Follow deployment and dispatch procedures.
• Follow organizational policies and operational procedures.

All employees are expected to:

• Complete required orientation activities.
• Complete required agency training.
• Complete crisis-specific training requirements.
• Complete grant-required training activities.
• Maintain required certifications and credentials.
• Participate in ongoing professional development.

As a field-based position, this role is expected to:

• Maintain agency vehicles, equipment, and supplies in accordance with organizational standards.
• Report maintenance, safety, or equipment concerns promptly.
• Ensure readiness for field response activities.

All employees are expected to:

• Contribute to a culture of professionalism, accountability, collaboration, and respect.
• Engage in constructive problem-solving.
• Address conflict professionally and through appropriate channels.
• Support a psychologically safe work environment.
• Demonstrate teamwork and shared responsibility for program success.

All employees are expected to represent the Crisis Program and Trilogy Behavioral Healthcare professionally during community events, outreach activities, meetings, trainings, and all interactions with community partners.

All employees contribute to continuous quality improvement through participation in program development, data collection, performance improvement initiatives, audits, documentation standards, and service excellence activities appropriate to their role.

Strategic contribution indicators of success include:

• Access: The individual remains present and participates long enough for assessment and routing to occur. Engagement efforts reduce refusal, early departure, or inability to complete the encounter so the person can enter the appropriate level of care.
• Engagement: The individual accepts recommended services without coercion whenever clinically appropriate. The Peer Support Specialist reduces fear, mistrust, and confusion so that entry into care occurs through cooperation rather than enforcement.
• Stabilization: The individual's emotional state is sufficiently regulated by the end of the encounter to participate in assessment and follow-up planning. The Peer Support Specialist's presence meaningfully reduces crisis intensity on scene.
• Linkage: The individual leaves the encounter with a confirmed next step such as transport, a scheduled appointment, or a direct introduction to a provider. The handoff is understood and acknowledged by the individual rather than provided only as information.
• Continuity of Care: If the individual returns to crisis services, the reason reflects a change in condition rather than confusion about where to go, how to access care, or mistrust of services. Follow-up and re-engagement efforts support appropriate use of ongoing services.

Minimum qualifications include:

• Lived experience with mental health challenges, substance use, or involvement with behavioral health or crisis systems required.
• CRSS certification preferred; must obtain CRSS certification within organizational expectations.
• High school diploma or GED required; associate or bachelor's degree in a human services field preferred.
• Experience in peer support, community-based services, or behavioral health preferred.
• Knowledge of recovery principles, trauma-informed care, and harm reduction approaches.
• Ability to work a flexible schedule including evenings and weekends consistent with program operational needs.