Job Description:  This position requires team member to provide peer counseling and support, drawing on common experiences as a peer, to validate clients’ experiences and to provide guidance and encouragement to clients to take responsibility and actively participate in their own recovery.  The Peer Support Specialist serves as a mentor to clients to promote hope and empowerment

Job Summary:  This member of the ACT multidisciplinary team has experience as a recipient of mental health services for severe and persistent mental illness and is willing to use and share his or her personal, practical experience, knowledge, and first-hand insight to benefit the team and its clients. The consumer specialist functions as a fully integrated team member to provide expertise about the recovery process, symptom management, and the persistence required by clients to have a satisfying life
  
JOB DUTIES:  From a Peer Support Perspective 

• Provide service coordination (case management) for an assigned group of clients.             
• Counsel clients in individual and group sessions in the office and in community settings to assist them in dealing with substance abuse, mental and physical illness using your experience dealing with each issue 
• Assist in the provision of ongoing assessment of clients’ mental illness symptoms and clients’ response to treatment 
• Provide symptom education to enable clients to identify their mental illness symptoms. 
• Coordinate with outside inpatient services to detoxify clients and establish linkage to self-help programs 
• Provide ongoing assessment, problem solving, side-by-side services, skill training, and supervision to assist clients with activities of daily living 
• Document client progress to maintain a permanent record of client activity 
• Provide on-call crisis intervention covering nighttime hours and serve as a backup to  evening and weekend staff

Requirements:  This position requires that an individual have a high school diploma or the equivalent.  The individual must possess good communication and interpersonal skills, and have a working knowledge of community resources. The individual must possess a Louisiana driver’s license and have access to an insured automobile.  The individual must have received mental health services and/or has been involved with a family member who receives mental health services.