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Global Peer Support Day
About the author: This month’s Mental Health Memo is a joint effort from the Division of Behavioral Health’s Support Services Team.
October 17, 2024, is the 10th Annual Celebration of Global Peer Support Day, recognizing those who facilitate and lead peer support programs and the work they do in helping their peers with mental health, substance use, and/or trauma-related challenges as they move through their recovery journey.
Peer support requires specialized training that prepares individuals to appropriately share one’s recovery story and to facilitate supportive conversations with their peers. Peer supporters are individuals who have their own lived experience with either a mental health diagnosis or a substance use disorder and have been successful in both achieving and maintaining their recovery. Peer supporters walk alongside individuals who are working to achieve recovery through a shared understanding, mutual respect, and a relationship. Maintaining caregiver-client ethics and upholding professional boundaries are hallmarks of successful peer supporters as this helps ensure individuals participating in the program have their needs, wants, and goals met while avoiding harm.
Recovery is a journey that looks different for everyone and often requires a great deal of patience and support. Peer supporters offer unique, individualized support to assist in identifying steps and resources that may be helpful in achieving recovery. A key feature of successful peer support is that it does not require one specific program or type of recovery; rather, peer support assists in breaking down barriers that may come up as an individual is engaging in treatment or other recovery-oriented programs or activities.
Benjamin Lynch, a Peer Support Specialist at Lewis and Clark Behavioral Health Services in Yankton, shared the following about the importance of peer support “Peer Support gives clients further engagement in the community outside of their home environment. It fosters relationships and works on helping with socialization. It creates good opportunities for leisure activities that can further themselves in their recovery journey.”
In South Dakota, peer support is available in various ways through a partnership with the Division of Behavioral Health. Currently, a group of Community Mental Health Centers and Substance Use Treatment Providers are participating in a pilot program to explore the integration of peer support into their existing service delivery. Face It TOGETHER provides peer support, as a stand-alone service, to individuals who want support with their substance misuse both virtually and in-person. Bethany Christian Services has offices in Sioux Falls and Rapid City to offer peer support to recovering mothers with newborns as part of their ReNew program.
To learn more, visit:
https://www.wefaceittogether.org/south-dakota
https://bethany.org/service/substance-use-disorder-services
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The mission of the Human Services Center is to provide individuals with a mental health or substance use disorder or both with effective, individualized professional treatment enabling them to achieve their highest level of personal independence in the most therapeutic environment.
The mission of the Division of Behavioral Health is to support quality clinical treatment, recovery supports, prevention and crisis services with integrity to obtain positive outcomes for individuals with behavioral health needs.
To read previous editions of the Mental Health Memo visit https://dss.sd.gov/keyresources/news.aspx#mhmemo