The Person-Centered Recovery Planning (PCRP) Consultation Corner is a 6-month learning series featuring a monthly webinar on the “FAQs” of PCRP; offering practical tools and resources to support quality PCRP at the level of both individual service delivery and organizational systems change; and providing follow-up “office hours” through smaller-group technical assistance for webinar participants who wish to take a “deeper dive” on a given topic.
The topic of webinar session 3 was "Peer Specialist Roles in PCRP-Aligning with Peer Ethics & Values."
We know that in person-centered recovery planning (PCRP), the person receiving services makes decisions and takes ownership of their plan for recovery. This can be a new and uncomfortable role for people initially, for a variety of reasons. Peer supporters join with individuals to discover and advocate for what they want and need. This does not mean that the peer provider will always agree with people’s choices — however, it’s ALWAYS their ethical responsibility to support individuals in their unique recovery journey as that individual defines it.
This 90-min webinar highlighted the mutually beneficial relationship between PCRP and peer support, as well as how staff at clinical provider organizations can intentionally enhance this connection. Participants were invited to explore tensions that arise when peer professionals work to maintain their never-directive, non-clinical stance while immersed in an environment that is heavily defined by clinical professionals, processes and services.
At the end of the session, participants were able to:
Presenters: Janis Tondora, Amy Pierce, and Amanda Bowman
Janis Tondora, Psy.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. Her work involves supporting the implementation of person-centered practices that help people with behavioral health concerns and other disabilities to get more control over decisions about their services so they can live a good life as they define it. She has provided training and consultation to over 25 states seeking to implement Person-Centered Recovery Planning and has shared her work with the field in dozens of publications, including her 2014 book, Partnering for Recovery in Mental Health: A Practical Guide to Person-Centered Planning. Janis’ consultation and publications have been widely used by both public and private service systems to advance the implementation of recovery-oriented practices in the U.S. and abroad. She is a life-long resident of Connecticut where she lives with her husband and beloved labradoodles after recently becoming an empty-nester with two children in college.
Amy Pierce (she/her) is an international trainer and consultant has been working in the Peer Movement in the State of Texas for over two decades. She currently serves as Recovery Institute Associate Director at Via Hope by serving as a subject matter expert on the implementation of peer services and other recovery-oriented practices. She has extensive experience in the peer support sector, having started the first peer support program in the state hospitals in Texas, working as a peer support worker in a community mental health agency, and working as the Program Coordinator for a transitional peer residential housing project.
This series is co-sponsored by the New England and South Southwest MHTTCs.
