Speaking from experience: Peer support specialists share personal recovery stories

When members of the Bert Nash Peer Support Services team tell a client they can relate to what they are going through, they aren’t just being empathetic.

They are speaking from experience.

“Each of the peer support specialists brings their own expertise,” said team leader Chris Ford. “To be a peer support specialist, you have to have been a consumer of mental health services and identify as someone who is in recovery.”

The power of their own individual recovery makes the peer support specialists uniquely qualified to do their job.

“Because of that, peer support can do things other staff can’t,” Ford said. “They are able to do that because they had similar experiences, and clients will confide in them when they won’t confide in other staff members. People will share things with the peer support specialists that they haven’t shared with anyone in their life before.

All of the peer support specialists have dealt with their own mental illness, so they know from personal experience what kinds of challenges clients are facing.

“I am a recovering addict and I’ve been a client at Bert Nash for eight and a half years. A lot of the people I visit with deal with the same things,” said peer support specialist Cindy Foster.

Because the peer support specialists are viewed as “one of them,” clients may be more likely to share their own struggles.

“When they confide in me that they are struggling with their addiction, I totally get that. When they’re struggling with medications or their psych drugs, I understand that. When they are having trouble in IOP (Intensive Outpatient Program), I’ve been there. I understand this part of it,” Foster said, pointing to her heart. “Because I have walked that road.”

So has Deb Chapin.

“I’ve been in mental health assistance since I was 19 years old and struggled with alcoholism as well,” Chapin said. “Recovery from addiction has been a big part of my story, too.”

A key part of Chapin’s recovery was mental health services, but it also included Alcoholics Anonymous, her faith and a passion for art.

Each of the peer support specialists is glad to share his or her story of recovery.

“The focus is really on the stories and sharing those with other people,” team leader Ford said. “One of the philosophical reasons I am drawn to the program is we are empowering the very people we are serving.”

The peer support program was started in 2007. Each one of the specialists has been trained and is certified by the state. They work in conjunction with case managers and treatment teams at Bert Nash.

Susan Murphy was diagnosed with a mental illness in 1974. She was a teacher at the time, but ended up losing her job because of her condition.

“Teachers could not have a mental illness back then,” Murphy said of the social stigma long associated with mental illness. “So I was kind of pushed out of a career and a job. I had a lot of losses and I can relate to other people’s losses, because I’ve experienced it.

Murphy, who is referred to as the mother of the group, has been a peer support specialist for about five years, longer than anyone else on the team. But all of the specialists have their unique story, and they are eager to share it in the hopes it will help someone else.

“The peer support specialists are in a very unique position to be able to identifywith and serveas role modelsfor other people,” Ford said. “And I think that is really powerful.”