The role of peer support specialists (PSS) has burgeoned in the mental health field. Peer support specialists are individuals with a psychiatric condition who are in recovery and who are employed to provide various kinds of tangible and other supports to individuals with psychiatric conditions, generally in public mental health programs. Partially because of the newness of this role, PSS experience confusion about their role and tasks as well as conflict with other mental health providers who are uncertain about how to utilize PSS effectively in services.
This project was designed to bring a coaching service to PSS to assist them to address challenges in their job. There are three phases of this study:
1. The investigators will test components of the intervention with volunteers who are peer specialists. The investigators will collect no data from these individuals and will use the information gathered to refine the intervention.
2. Next, the investigators will recruit and randomly assign 140 PSS to participate in this newly developed coaching intervention (Coaching and Advancement for Peer Providers, or CAPP) and to assess their level of role confusion, overload, burnout, and intention to leave their job or their profession.
3. Finally, the investigators will conduct a qualitative study of experimental study participants to learn about the experience of CAPP.
Individuals will be randomly assigned to receive CAPP or an informational control group. A total of 16 CAPP sessions will be conducted with coaches that the investigators train and supervise. This will be a telehealth intervention and study. That is, all consenting and coaching sessions will be conducted using platforms such as Zoom (HIPAA compliant version) and assessments will be collected using online platforms (REDCap). Individuals will be assessed at baseline, 4, 6, and 9 months after baseline. The investigators will record selected coaching sessions to insure that the intervention is being delivered with fidelity. Our hypotheses are that individuals participating in the CAPP intervention will experience a reduction in burnout, role confusion, and intention to leave their job or the field. Participants in CAPP will also experience an increase in job satisfaction, role clarity and organizational commitment.
