For the fifth consecutive year, VTDigger is excited to work with Vermont Care Partners to promote the much-needed services of its sixteen respective member agencies which, includes NCSS. They also understand how important it is for our elected officials to know how to support the needs of Vermonters.  

This thirteen-week series is a collaboration produced by members of the Vermont Care Partners statewide network of sixteen non-profit, community-based agencies providing mental health, substance use and intellectual and developmental disability support.

Below is the seventh installment of the series from Lamoille County Mental Health Service (LCMHS) highlighting their robust peer support program.

The many benefits of a peer support program in community mental health

With growing evidence for peer support and the power of sharing stories of lived experience, LCMHS’ Cadre Program is thriving.

Lamoille County Mental Health Services (LCMHS) has been providing peer support for many years now. This is groundbreaking work in the emerging climate of the mental health landscape. Peer support is first and foremost about the two R’s: Relationship and Recovery. As such, peer support is about two individuals, both with lived experience, coming together to find new ways of thinking about a problem or issue. 

Peer support is not a clinical model of care.  It is not about assigning roles to the relationship (like professional vs. patient), based on traditional psychiatric models, nor about disability or “labels.”  Peer support is a system of giving and receiving help founded on the following principles: Respect, shared responsibility, and mutual agreement of what is helpful.  Peer support is a fundamental principle of trauma-informed care.

There is broad support for the creation of more peer services for individuals receiving mental health care.  It is an effective model with positive outcomes that empowers folx and promotes self-efficacy and hope.  It also just happens to be more cost effective and sustainable than traditional forms of mental health support and reduces the need for costly and often traumatic interventions like hospitalization.

Vermont is currently working to establish a Certified Peer Support credential for individuals in recovery who have a desire to support those who may be facing similar experiences.  There will be a specific training curriculum and process that folx can undergo to use their experiences to support others as a Certified Peer Support Specialist.  While this program should be coming to fruition in VT in the next year or two, peer support is not new – it has been around for many years in other states and has been a key part of our culture here at LCMHS for some time.

Currently, there are nine peers in the Cadre program at LCMHS, all of whom have some type of lived mental health experience.  Read more by clicking Sponsor Spotlight link.

The many benefits of a peer support program in community mental health