Connecting to Family Peer Specialists
As partners, we connect families with meaningful resources including Family Peer Specialists, who offer instrumental support to family members (Donnelly, Baker, & Gargan, n.d.).
On Family Peer Support
Family Peer Support is an instrumental resource for family members across the lifespan. Family Peer Specialists are parents, family members, or caregivers who have or had responsibility parenting a child or as a primary caregiver for another family member experiencing mental health and/or substance use challenges.
Family Peer Specialists can speak about and use their lived experience to support other families to advocate for their child’s or family member’s well-being, supporting them in navigating systems, and offering other necessary resources. Family Peer Specialists:
- Connect families: reducing isolation
- “Before I met the Family Peer Specialist, I thought I was alone.”
- Normalize lived experiences: reducing shame and blame
- “Family Peers know what you’re going through is not your fault.”
- Encourage families: to hold hope for recovery and access to support
- “It gives me hope to know diagnoses do not predict outcomes, and recovery is possible.”
National Family Peer Support Certification
Being a Family Peer Specialist is also a valued role that may be meaningful for the families with whom you work. The National Federation of Families oversees the National Family Peer Specialist Certification.
This brief video offers an overview of the role of the Family Peer Specialist.
Practice Pause: On Family Peer Specialists
Gather some note-taking materials (e.g., paper/pen, file on your computer). Then, take a few moments to reflect on a family with whom you’re currently working.
- Does this family know about Family Peer Specialists as supports?
- What are some ways you might introduce Family Peer Specialists?
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