Part Time Peer Support Specialist

The Part Time Peer Support Specialist (IOP-PHP) walks alongside young adults navigating one of the most pivotal and vulnerable transitions of their lives while drawing on firsthand lived experience. Ages 18 to 26 bring new independence, new responsibilities, and often new or intensified mental health challenges without the safety net of adolescence. Navigating housing, employment, relationships, and independence all at once can make these challenges feel especially overwhelming and isolating. The Peer Support Specialist in Casa de Amparo's combined IOP/PHP program utilizes lived experience and training to help clients build the confidence and skills needed to navigate this transition successfully. The position provides peer support and recovery-oriented services to enrolled clients while working under the direction of a Behavioral Health Professional and collaborating with program team members and community partners to support engagement, skill building, self-advocacy, and successful transitions to lower levels of care.

• Provide peer support and recovery-oriented services using lived experience, formal peer support training, and approved practice guidelines.

• Support client engagement, retention, participation, and connection to the therapeutic milieu of the IOP/PHP Program.

• Assist clients in identifying strengths, recovery goals, wellness strategies, coping skills, self-management skills, and natural/community supports.

• Support clients during community/milieu meetings, skill building groups, recovery groups, and other structured program activities, within scope of role.

• Provide peer feedback and encouragement that supports symptom reduction, adaptive behaviors, self-advocacy, and transition to lower levels of care.

• Assist clients with linkage to community resources, benefits, outpatient services, support groups, transportation resources, housing-related resources, and other recovery supports as appropriate.

• Collaborate with Clinicians, Nurse, Program Manager, and other team members to support client care, safety planning, discharge planning, and warm handoffs.

• Maintain appropriate professional boundaries and provide services that are respectful of differing cultures and the norms that exist within various cultures.

• Complete required documentation, data entry, and service logs in accordance with program, Medi-Cal, County, and agency requirements.

• Participate in Treatment Team meetings, staff meetings, supervision, case consultation, and required in-service trainings.

• Notify clinical staff promptly of any safety concerns, crisis indicators, changes in client presentation, or client requests requiring clinical follow up.

• Perform other tasks as assigned.

Qualifications

• Must be able to be associated with Casa de Amparo through Community Care Licensing (CCL), if applicable to the program/site, which typically includes clearance by FBI, DOJ and CACI.

• Must be a Certified Peer Support Specialist or be working toward peer certification, with certification obtained within ninety (90) days of hire unless otherwise approved by the County Contracting Officer Representative (COR).

• Must self-identify as having behavioral health lived experience and be able to use lived experience appropriately and professionally to assist clients in recovery from mental illness and/or co-occurring needs.

• Must complete a one-time harm reduction training, minimum four (4) hours, within sixty (60) days of hire.

• Knowledge of recovery principles, trauma-informed care, culturally responsive care, self-advocacy, community resources, peer support ethics, and appropriate professional boundaries.

• Experience working with adults with behavioral health needs, serious mental illness, co-occurring needs, homelessness/housing instability, justice involvement, or transition from higher levels of care preferred.

• Ability to work under the direction of a Behavioral Health Professional and within the scope of peer support services, including billing only peer-specific codes upon certification when applicable.

• Must possess strong interpersonal, time-management, organizational, written/verbal communication skills, and intermediate computer literacy. English proficient/Bilingual Spanish preferred.

• Must have ambulatory, auditory, and visual skills to observe clients and staff.

• Must have the physical ability to participate in activities and perform related physical skills, including, but not limited to, crouching, lifting 50 pounds, crawling on hands and knees, and walking up and down stairs.

• Ability to comply with all employment requirements including, but not limited to CPR/First Aid, physical, TB and drug screen clearance, clear DMV record and approval from insurance carrier to drive agency vehicles. Must provide proof of immunization against influenza, pertussis, and measles.

• Must be at least 21 years of age.