October 2010
To support and expand Texas’s peer workforce, the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) authorized Via Hope to develop and implement a standardized peer specialist training and certification (PSTC) program in federal fiscal year (FY) 2010. Via Hope contracted with the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA), Appalachian Consulting Group (ACG), and Recovery Innovations (RI) for assistance adapting, implementing and marketing the “Georgia model” for peer specialist training and certification. Several other states have adopted or adapted this model, and it is also used nationally by DBSA. The Annapolis Coalition highlighted this model as a promising innovation in 2007.
DSHS contracted with a team of researchers at the Center for Social Work Research (CSWR) in the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Social Work to evaluate the PSTC program sponsored by Via Hope. The evaluation documented stakeholder feedback on the factors related to the successful development and implementation of the Via Hope-sponsored PSTC program and explored the experience of individual PSTC participants.
Authors:
Michelle Steinley-Bumgarner, M.A.
Laura Kaufman, B.S.
Stacey Stevens-Manser, Ph.D.
Michele Murphy-Smith, Ph.D., R.N., R.D.