We Have Walked This Path Before
Presenters: Bridget Hassan, Aimee Izawa, Casey Corder
Activity
What is an Employment Peer Mentor?
Employment Peer Mentors offer hope and motivation by drawing
from their lived experience and their own employment
experiences to encourage other individuals to seek and maintain
employment, wellness, and community integration. Employment
Peer Mentors can support any and all individuals enrolled in the
employment program and provide the critical elements of
Supported Employment and ongoing support as needed.
What qualities should you look for in a
peer mentor?
• Confidence
• Empathy
• Social Skills
• Reliability
• Discretion
• NC requires certification as a peer mentor.
• We want our Employment Peer Mentors to take and pass the
CESP exam.
Interviewing for the Employment Peer
Mentor
• Questions that we suggest are:
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Tell us about yourself and the events that have shaped your character.
How does the peer mentor position fit into your personal goals?
How would being a peer benefit you?
Have you ever had a mentor and if so, how did that person impact you?
What do you think are the qualities needed to be a good peer mentor?
Do you think that you have those qualities?
How do you think that you will deal with the stress of being a peer?
Additionally, we ask scenario questions that mirror situations that we have
actually encountered – such as: accessing community resources, juggling
multiple priorities, maintaining documentation, meeting deadlines, etc.
Employment Peer Mentor – Staff Training
• We require:
• Foundations of Supported Employment and Recovery
• Employment Peer Mentoring
• Finding and Accessing Community Resources. (housing, support groups,
child care, food bank, etc.)
• Additional Trainings that are recommended are:
• Advocacy, Self-Determination, Self-Direction
• Assistive Technology and Job Accommodations
• Benefits Counseling, Social Security Work Incentives, SOAR (SSISSDI/Outreach/Access/ Recovery) Stepping Stones to Recovery
Training
• Business and Employer Relations
• Co-Occurring and IDDT (Integrated Dual Disorders Treatment) Training
• Motivational Interviewing
Employment Peer Mentor – Staff Training
Continued
• Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS),
Limited English Proficiency (LEP), blind or visually impaired, and
deaf and hard of hearing accommodations
• Financial Literacy, Budgeting/Money Management, Asset
Development and Financial Wellness
• Housing First, Permanent Supportive Housing, Tenancy Support
Training
• Psychiatric Rehabilitation
• Supervising NC Certified Peer Support Specialists Training
(UNC BRHP)
• Supported Education
• Trauma-Informed care
• Wellness Management and Recovery Interventions (such as
WRAP, IMR/WMR)
Chris is an Employment Peer
Mentor working on our
Employment Team. She has a
knack for locating community
resources to assist the people
she supports.
The Responsibilities of the Employment
Peer Mentor are:
• Promoting self-determination, recovery, self-advocacy, and selfdirection.
• Attend behavioral health integration meetings along with all other
members of the team.
• Attending treatment team meetings with the individual.
• Engaging individuals in other programs and services to encourage
employment;
• Modeling self-advocacy skills.
• Teaching wellness management strategies.
• Linking to support groups in the community.
• Providing education to other team members to increase their
understanding of self-advocacy and peer support roles.
The Responsibilities of the Employment
Peer Mentor cont:
• Sharing his or her own personal story.
• Supporting individuals in making informed decisions.
• Building social skills in the community.
• Assisting the individual in overcoming barriers to employment.
• Exploring career and educational aspirations with the
individual.
• Assisting in teaching skills related to job-seeking.
• Attending recovery support groups.
• Assisting with financial wellness.
Changing the Culture – Team
• Team Service for employment that is inclusive of the Peer, the
Employment Specialist and a Team Leader. Each person
supported receives services from every member of the team.
• All team members must be cognizant of the language used and
ensure that all words are positive and person centered.
• Team expectations must be set up from the beginning and
everyone must understand the roles of each team member.
• Challenging stereotypes as issues occur is important.
• Communication between all team members is critical to
success.
Changing the Culture – Clinical Staff
• We found that we had to convince our clinical staff that a peer
would have positive impact on service provision.
• We started with explanation of each team member’s
responsibility.
• We made sure that each member of the team was provided with
equal opportunity to share information with clinical staff.
• The insight that was provided to the clinical staff by the peer
and the information that the peer mentor was getting from the
people supported was valuable for the clinician.
Changing the Culture – Employment
Staff
• We found that it was hard for employment staff to recognize that
someone that they would/could be supporting as a team
member with valuable skills.
• Don’t pigeon hole your Peer! Growth is important.
• Contribution from each team member is valuable and leads to
success – you may have to encourage participation from
everyone.
• Speak the truth – no matter how difficult or uncomfortable it may
be. It gets easier over time.
Break Out Groups
• As a group discuss the case study and the question that you
have been assigned.
• Discuss your response to the question.
• Is there additional information that you need to answer the
question?
• Answer the question and record the answer.
• Select a spokesperson for your group to report your answer.
Case Study
Leia Skywalker is a single, 43 year old female. She has a daughter who is
10 years old. Leia is currently homeless and she and her daughter will sleep
in her car when they cannot get a room at the shelter. Leia has a diagnosis
of bipolar and hypotension. She tries to take her medications as often as
possible when she has them. She has also been told in the past that she is
at risk of developing diabetes. She is currently not under the care of a
regular doctor or psychiatrist. Leia has a history of alcohol abuse and also
reports that she used to smoke marijuana on a pretty regular basis. She has
not had a drink or smoked in the past 9 months but admits that she has been
thinking about drinking since she is now homeless.
Leia really wants to work. She has a diploma from HS but admits that she
cannot read or write as well as she thinks she should. She has always
enjoyed being around animals and actually grew up on a farm and used to
help take care of all the different animals they had. Her dream would be to
work as a Veterinarian or in an animal hospital. She worked as a cashier at
a pet store when she graduated from High School and has also worked as a
groomer over the years. She was wondering if she could possibly go to
school or find a job working with animals again.
Implementation
• Ensure that the Employment Peer Mentor and the Employment
Specialist understand the similarities and the differences in their
job responsibilities.
• Teach the job seeker how to utilize the employment peer
mentor versus the employment specialist.
• Engage the Employment Peer Mentor with in weekly team
meetings.
• Assist the Employment Peer Mentor with scheduling
appointments and meetings during initial employment and/or
ongoing as needed.
Janet has been a certified peer mentor for
many years. She started working with the
employment team over a year ago. She is a
well rounded employee who completes person
centered plans, assessments, training, etc. She
is passionate about training other peers.
People that she supports tell us that she has a
gentle approach to helping people make
decisions.
Supporting a Peer
• Accommodations may be needed for the peers themselves.
• Sometimes discussion while supporting someone could be a
trigger for the peer.
• Developing a mechanism to ensure that the peer’s needs are
being met.
• Regularly schedule one on one meetings may be needed to
address any issues.
• Supervisor must develop a strong supportive relationship with
each peer.
• Peers need to be held accountable - this can be challenging.
Issues and Problems that we encountered
• Maintaining Therapeutic Boundaries
• Disclosure of Information to other team members
• Attention of Peer away from an Employment Focus
• Discussion of issues that need to be addressed may be
received better when coming from the peer
• Identify a good employment peer mentor match with the job seeker.
• Making accommodations
Employment Peer Mentor Services
– How do we Pay for It?
Our funding sources are:
• B-3 Medicaid Waiver Services
• State Funded Dollars
• VR does not pay for “Peer Services” but they pay for outcomes.
Questions
Contact Us:
Bridget Hassan – Bridget.Hassan@eastersealsucp.com
Aimee Izawa – Aimee.Izawa@eastersealsucp.com
Casey Corder – Casey.Corder@eastersealsucp.com