Peer specialist draws on own struggles to stem mental health crisis

The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee County has launched a peer support program for patients discharged from its psychiatric hospital, in the hope of reducing repeat admissions. The Community Linkages and Stabilization Program (CLASP) pairs patients with peer specialists who have been certified through a 40-hour training program and who have personal experience living with mental illness. Each pair meets approximately twice a week for walks, coffee-shop chats, or other activities. “We’re not a substitute for a case manager or a therapist,” said Fraser Hartig, one of the CLASP peer specialists. “We’re a supplement.” The peer specialists are able to speak from experience about tools and behaviors that they have found helpful, and can serve as role models. The program has not been active long enough to produce definitive results, but early observation suggests that it is helping people with mental health challenges to manage without return visits to the hospital.

Spark Extra! Learn more about the importance of peer support in the SAMHSA report Practice Guidelines: Core Elements for Responding to Mental Health Crises.