AOT Forensic Peer Specialist-Assisted Outpatient Therapy

Job Description

Job Description

1. ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

Position Title: Forensic Peer Specialist

Position Number: Date: 9/1/26

Employee:

Work Unit: Multiple County: Dougherty, Terrell, Lee

Immediate Supervisor's Title:

List positions supervised through immediate contact:

Number: Title:

1. QUALIFICATIONS (including physical requirements)

High school diploma or GED required.

Must meet applicable requirements for peer support certification and maintain required certification throughout employment. Certified Peer Specialist (CPS) credential preferred or required as applicable to program, payer, DBHDD, and grant requirements. Forensic peer support training, certification, or demonstrated experience navigating behavioral health and justice-related systems strongly preferred.

The Forensic Peer Specialist must have lived experience relevant to recovery from mental illness, behavioral health challenges, and/or behavioral health system involvement and must demonstrate the ability to use that lived experience appropriately and intentionally to support the recovery of others.

Lived experience with justice-system involvement may be preferred when consistent with applicable certification, program, and employment requirements.

Must demonstrate knowledge of recovery principles, peer support values, self-advocacy, person-centered planning, trauma-informed approaches, community resources, behavioral health systems, and the challenges experienced by individuals with serious mental illness.

Must demonstrate the ability to maintain appropriate professional and peer boundaries and understand that the peer specialist role is distinct from clinical treatment, case management, legal representation, court monitoring, and compliance enforcement.

Must possess effective communication, engagement, documentation, advocacy, relationship-building, and organizational skills.

1. EQUIPMENT THAT REQUIRES SAFE AND EFFECTIVE USE:

NONE

1. BLOODBORNE PATHOGEN CATEGORY (check one)

____ Employee routinely performs tasks that involve exposure to blood or other potentially infectious material as part of their assigned duties (Category I).

____ Employee performs assigned tasks which does not involve exposure to blood or other potentially infectious material, BUT employment may require performing unplanned category I tasks (Category II).

__x__ Employee performs assigned tasks which involve no exposure to blood or other potentially infectious material AND performance of category I tasks are not a condition of employment (Category III).

1. MANDATORY TRAINING CATEGORY (Check One)

__x__ Administrative __x__ Direct Care ____ Medical

1. PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

Aspire Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability's goal is to continually improve the delivery of service by improvement of individual outcomes and satisfaction. All employees have a role in performance improvement and are expected to interact collaboratively with co-workers and other contacts to provide consistent, high-quality, individually focused services.

G. SPECIAL NEEDS OF POPULATION SERVED

(Age Related, Cultural and Linguistic Competence)

he AOT Forensic Peer Specialist must demonstrate knowledge of and sensitivity to adults with serious mental illness who may have experienced repeated psychiatric hospitalization, crisis utilization, homelessness, substance use, trauma, social isolation, treatment disengagement, and involvement with behavioral health, civil court, and/or justice systems.

The Forensic Peer Specialist must recognize that participants may enter AOT with fear, mistrust, ambivalence, frustration, or negative previous experiences with treatment or systems of care. The Peer Specialist uses lived experience and intentional peer relationships to foster hope, trust, engagement, self-advocacy, and belief in the possibility of recovery.

Services must respect cultural differences, individual values, personal recovery goals, participant autonomy, and the dignity and rights of each individual served.

Staff should be able to:

a. Provide recovery-oriented peer support services to individuals participating in Aspire BHDD's Assisted Outpatient Treatment Program.

b. Use personal lived experience appropriately and intentionally to establish authentic peer relationships, promote hope, reduce stigma, model recovery, and demonstrate that meaningful community life and recovery are possible.

c. Engage participants who may be reluctant, fearful, distrustful, or ambivalent about behavioral health treatment and assist them in developing meaningful connections with the AOT team and community-based providers.

d. Help participants understand and navigate behavioral health, community, civil court, and other systems from a peer perspective without providing legal advice, clinical treatment, or acting as an agent of court enforcement.

e. Provide emotional and practical peer support before and after significant treatment or court-related events when appropriate and help participants process their experiences in a recovery-focused manner.

f. Support participants in identifying personal strengths, values, interests, recovery goals, natural supports, and meaningful life roles beyond their diagnosis or involvement with systems of care.

g. Assist participants in developing Wellness Recovery Action Plans, recovery plans, crisis-prevention strategies, self-advocacy skills, coping strategies, and other peer-directed recovery tools as appropriate.

h. Promote participant voice, choice, self-determination, and meaningful participation in treatment and recovery planning.

i. Help participants prepare questions, identify concerns, and communicate their preferences to behavioral health providers and members of the multidisciplinary AOT team.

j. Advocate for the participant's recovery voice within the multidisciplinary team while maintaining appropriate confidentiality and professional boundaries.

k. Provide education and peer mentoring related to recovery, wellness, self-advocacy, community integration, development of natural supports, coping skills, and effective navigation of behavioral health services.

l. Assist participants in identifying and strengthening natural supports, community connections, meaningful activities, faith or spiritual supports when desired by the participant, educational opportunities, employment interests, and other resources that contribute to recovery and quality of life.

m. Accompany participants to appointments, community resources, treatment services, or other recovery-related activities when appropriate and consistent with program expectations.

n. Provide outreach and peer engagement in community settings, including participant homes, hospitals, shelters, treatment facilities, community organizations, and other locations as appropriate.

o. Support participants transitioning from hospitals, crisis services, residential settings, homelessness, or other unstable circumstances into community-based treatment and recovery supports.

p. Assist participants in overcoming stigma, shame, hopelessness, and fear associated with mental illness, treatment, hospitalization, or system involvement through appropriate peer support and recovery-focused interventions.

q. Recognize and reinforce participant accomplishments, strengths, progress, and recovery milestones.

r. Help participants develop increased confidence in communicating needs, making informed choices, solving problems, and advocating for themselves within treatment and community systems.

s. Work collaboratively with AOT clinicians, Case Managers, the Court Coordinator, AOT Project Director, medical providers, and other members of the multidisciplinary team while preserving the unique role and values of peer support.

t. Maintain clear boundaries between peer support and clinical, case management, legal, and court-monitoring functions. The Forensic Peer Specialist does not diagnose, provide psychotherapy, make clinical determinations, provide legal advice, or serve as the primary monitor or enforcer of a participant's AOT court order.

u. Communicate participant-identified needs, barriers, strengths, and recovery goals to appropriate team members with participant involvement and authorization as appropriate.

v. Encourage participants to remain connected to behavioral health treatment and recovery supports while using motivational and relationship-based peer approaches rather than coercive interventions.

w. Provide peer perspective during multidisciplinary case staffing, program development, Continuous Quality Improvement activities, and other AOT initiatives to help ensure that services remain recovery-oriented and responsive to the experiences of persons served.

x. Participate in outreach and community education activities intended to reduce stigma surrounding serious mental illness, AOT, behavioral health treatment, and recovery.

y. Maintain accurate, timely, and complete documentation of peer contacts, recovery activities, participant goals, referrals, and other services in accordance with program and agency requirements.

z. Assist with collection of required program and participant information consistent with the scope and responsibilities of the peer role.

aa. Participate in multidisciplinary case staffing, AOT program meetings, AOT Management Team activities when requested, peer supervision, community partner meetings, required training, SAMHSA-related activities as applicable, and Continuous Quality Improvement initiatives.

bb. Maintain required peer certification and participate in ongoing training, supervision, and professional development related to peer support, serious mental illness, trauma-informed care, cultural responsiveness, ethics, boundaries, AOT, and forensic behavioral health.

cc. Maintain confidentiality, ethical peer support standards, appropriate boundaries, and compliance with HIPAA, Aspire BHDD policies and procedures, DBHDD requirements, SAMHSA requirements when applicable, applicable Georgia statutes, grant requirements, and other applicable state and federal regulations.

dd. Perform other duties as assigned.

H. ASSIGNED DUTIES

DESCRIPTION OF WORK DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
(Type in or attach current description of duties. Employees are expected to perform their work in a competent and efficient manner. Include % of time.)

Duties Include:

The AOT Forensic Peer Specialist provides individualized, recovery-oriented peer support to individuals participating in Aspire Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities' Assisted Outpatient Treatment Program.

Using lived experience intentionally and appropriately, the Forensic Peer Specialist builds relationships with participants who may have experienced serious mental illness, repeated hospitalization, crisis utilization, homelessness, trauma, substance use, treatment disengagement, and involvement with behavioral health, civil court, and/or justice systems.

The position promotes hope, engagement, self-determination, self-advocacy, recovery, wellness, community integration, and development of natural supports. The Forensic Peer Specialist helps participants navigate complex systems, communicate their needs and preferences, develop recovery goals, identify strengths, access community resources, and establish meaningful lives beyond their diagnosis or system involvement.

A central function of the position is to provide a peer voice within the multidisciplinary AOT team . The Forensic Peer Specialist works collaboratively with clinicians, Case Managers, the Court Coordinator, Project Director, medical providers, and community partners while maintaining the unique values and boundaries of peer support.

The Forensic Peer Specialist is not responsible for enforcing an AOT court order and does not provide clinical treatment or legal advice. Instead, the position helps bridge the relationship between the participant and the treatment system through trust, shared experience, recovery-focused engagement, and advocacy.

Employees are expected to perform all assigned duties in a competent, ethical, efficient, trauma-informed, culturally responsive, recovery-oriented, strengths-based, and person-centered manner while adhering to peer support ethical standards, Aspire BHDD policies and procedures, DBHDD requirements, SAMHSA requirements when applicable, HIPAA, applicable Georgia statutes, grant requirements, and other regulations.