Assessing Peer Specialist Integration in Texas

Peer specialists are individuals in the workforce who are in recovery from mental health issues and use their experiences to support people receiving services (Davidson, Chinman, Sells, & Rowe, 2006; Gates & Akabas, 2007). Recent research suggests that peer specialists improve outcomes for people with mental health issues by increasing engagement and activation in services (Craig, Doherty, Jamieson-Craig, Boocock, & Attafua, 2011; Druss et al., 2010), reducing hospitalizations (Clarke et al., 2000) and increasing socialization (Craig et al., 2011; Rivera, Sullivan, & Valenti, 2007). In a recent Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC, 2016) survey of providers and people receiving services in the Texas state behavioral health system, respondents ranked the availability of peer services as one of the top strengths of the current behavioral health system; however, the survey also identified limited access to peer services as a service gap.

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