ACT Certified Peer Specialist

ElevaCare • Worthington, MN

4d

About The Position

The Peer Specialist provides support services and serves as a consumer advocate for adult clients experiencing severe and persistent mental illness. The role acts as a liaison with community resources and carries out rehabilitation and support functions. Under clinical supervision, the Peer Specialist provides education, support, consultation, and crisis intervention to clients.

The position draws on peer experience to support clients’ recovery, promote hope and empowerment, help protect client rights, and strengthen clients’ participation in treatment and consumer advocacy. It also supports team members in understanding clients’ perspectives and addressing stigma. The role includes documenting client progress, transporting clients safely in the community, and traveling to facilities in the service area.

The employee is expected to maintain confidentiality, work effectively with the team, comply with applicable safety requirements, and support ElevaCare’s mission. The work may involve exposure to communicable diseases, occasional wet or humid conditions, and outside weather. The noise level is usually moderate.

Requirements

• Must have a college degree in a human services field, or a high school diploma or degree in another area, or at least two years of paid or volunteer work experience with adults with severe and persistent mental illness.
• Must have good oral and written communication skills.
• Must have self-knowledge to manage their mental illness and be well along in their recovery.
• Must have a strong commitment to the right and ability of people with severe mental illness to live in normal community residences, work in market jobs, and access helpful, adequate, competent, and continuous supports and services.
• Must have the skills and competence to establish supportive, trusting relationships with people with severe and persistent mental illness and respect their rights and personal preferences in treatment.
• Must have a valid driver’s license for the state in which the program operates, or effectively use transportation to travel independently in the program’s service area.
• Must complete Peer Specialist Certification Training provided by the State of Minnesota; training may be completed after hire.
• Must be able to read, write, speak, apply mathematical concepts, and use sound reasoning sufficiently to perform the job duties.
• Must be able to perform basic operations on a computer within the Windows operating system.
• Must have problem-solving and critical-thinking skills and the ability to multitask.
• Must be able to perform the essential functions satisfactorily, with reasonable accommodations where applicable and not causing undue hardship.
• Must be able to work the hours specified for the position; the hours are not stated in the posting.
• Must be able to meet the described physical demands, including occasionally lifting or moving up to 40 pounds.

Responsibilities

• Provide peer counseling and support, using shared experiences to validate clients’ experiences and encourage responsibility and active participation in recovery.
• Serve as a mentor to promote hope and empowerment.
• Help non-mental-health team members understand clients’ subjective experiences and perceptions.
• Provide the team with consultation from a mental health consumer perspective about symptoms, medication effects and side effects, treatment responses and opinions, and recovery experiences.
• Collaborate with the team to ensure clients’ viewpoints, experiences, preferences, self-determination, and decision-making are respected and supported in treatment planning.
• Help clients identify, understand, and address stigma and discrimination related to mental illness, including strategies to reduce self-stigma.
• Document client progress in client records as indicated.
• Help team members understand and address culture-wide stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness.
• Collaborate with the team to protect clients’ rights and improve clients’ knowledge of rights and grievance or complaint procedures.
• Help clients learn about grievance procedures and support them in filing, mediating, and resolving complaints.
• Increase awareness of and support participation in consumer self-help programs and advocacy organizations that promote recovery.
• Serve as a liaison between the team and consumer-run programs, including self-help groups and drop-in centers.
• Safely and effectively transport clients to destinations in the community.
• Respond to management needs such as data collection and program evaluation.
• Recruit and train community workers as necessary or required.
• Travel as required.
• Perform other work-related duties as assigned.
• Maintain confidentiality and work effectively with team members to coordinate workflow.
• Comply with applicable safety principles, laws, regulations, and standards.
• Apply ElevaCare’s mission in daily work.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Education Level: High school or GED