The Professionalization Of Peer Support: Have We Gone Too Far?

Peer support is growing. As more mental health organizations create formal peer specialist positions, more states support Medicaid reimbursement, and the scientific literature on peer specialists expands, the discipline is gaining unprecedented respect from professionals, but at what cost? In many places, peer support is becoming more professionalized with more focus on providing case management services and less on developing transformative relationships. Some peer support advocates are concerned that peer specialists are deviating from the field’s origins and becoming less “peer-like.” Is it feasible for institutions like the VA to adopt models based on mutuality such as Intentional Peer Support?