Vocational Peer Support: An Employment Strategy for Quality Employment

Quality employment is so much more than a paycheck. A quality job provides not only good pay and benefits, but flexibility, autonomy, stability, and advancement opportunities, according to JFF's Quality Jobs Framework. It meets a person’s complex financial, psychological, emotional, and social needs.

Vocational peer support (VPS), provided in tandem with other employment strategies, is an effective way of delivering person-centered, individualized support to meet the complex support needs of people with mental health disabilities seeking quality employment. It provides support throughout the vocational recovery process, defined by the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University as “an individualized journey of claiming or reclaiming one’s right and capacity to pursue, attain, and achieve meaningful vocational paths.”

VPS evolved from the Individualized Placement and Support (IPS) approach to supporting people with psychiatric disabilities to achieve employment. However, while IPS focuses on finding immediate competitive employment for people with psychiatric disabilities, VPS provides ongoing peer support throughout the vocational recovery journey.

Both approaches play essential roles in helping individuals with mental health conditions achieve meaningful employment and improve overall well-being (McDowell et al., 2021).

Is a Vocational Peer Specialist Different than an Employment Specialist?

A vocational peer specialist is different than an employment specialist. Employment specialists focus specifically on guiding job seekers to achieve employment.

Vocational peer specialists do not guide, direct, or try to motivate people to gain employment. Instead, they work side-by-side with people in a spirit of mutual support. Their role is to provide the necessary support for a person to gather the skills and resources they need to explore possibilities, make choices, and progress toward their education and career goals.

Core Compentencies of Vocational Peer Support Specialists

Core competencies are clusters of knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for a person to perform a role or job successfully. Vocational peer support builds on core competencies of certified peer specialists’ work to support people with mental health conditions on their vocational recovery journey.

Peer specialists “offer emotional support, share knowledge, teach skills, provide practical assistance, and connect people with resources, opportunities, communities of support, and other people” (Mead, 2003; Solomon, 2004).  They share their lived experiences to support others with similar life experiences.

Core competencies of peer support specialists include:

• Engages peers in collaborative and caring relationships
• Provides support
• Shares lived experiences of recovery
• Personalizes peer support
• Supports recovery planning
• Links to resources, services, and supports
• Provides information about skills related to health, wellness, and recovery
• Helps peers to manage crises
• Values communication
• Supports collaboration and teamwork
• Promotes leadership and advocacy
• Promotes growth and development

Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

Practices and Attributes of Vocational Peer Specialists

Basic practices of vocational peer specialists include listening and providing information, experiences, and resources related to work throughout the vocational recovery journey: before, during, and after a job is secured, according to the RRTC on Improving Employment Outcomes for People with Psychiatric Disabilities.

The important attributes of peer workers include lived experience of:

• A mental health condition
• Life disruption
• Using behavioral health services
• Success in employment

They should also receive appropriate training to become a certified peer specialist in their state and adhere to their training Code of Ethics (SAMHSA).