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Peer Professional Employer Toolkit

Teaming Integration

This is a worksheet from the Peer Professional Employer Toolkit. Print this worksheet and use it to facilitate your discussion.

Instructions: Research consistently shows that thoughtful integration of the new peer professional into existing teaming is an important ingredient of successful implementation (Bell et al., 2005; Cooper et al., 2024; Mancini, 2018; Reeves, Loughhead et al., 2024; SAMHSA, 2023). Successful integration rests upon a foundation of task completion in exploration and preparation phases. If the team has not done so already, two important activities should be completed prior to this task: background staff learning for non-peer staff and initial planning for integration. Once completed, the team will be ready for the structured discussion outlined below. This discussion could occur during group supervision and may involve one or more meetings with the following roles:

  • Facilitator: supervisor facilitates meeting and ensures inclusive sharing of all perspectives
  • Notetaker: document discussions for future reference
  • Peer professional: provide role-specific expertise and perspectives
  • Other staff: provide role-specific expertise and perspectives

Discussion

  1. What are the specific roles and responsibilities of [name of the new peer professional] in the delivery of peer recovery support services?



     
  2. What tasks might be assigned to the new peer professional? How do these tasks fall within the scope of practice?



     
  3. What tasks could unintentionally fall outside the scope of practice? How can we proactively ensure such tasks are not assigned?



     
  4. How will we ensure the new peer professional’s role does not cross into clinical service or case management roles?



     
  5. Are there any documentation expectations or team workflows that may conflict with the recovery-oriented principles of peer recovery support services?



     
  6. How will we ensure the new peer professional has input into this team’s processes and operations?



     
  7. How will we keep this conversation going about roles, responsibilities, and task assignments? Does it make sense to incorporate a standing agenda item in our regular meetings?



     

  8. Bottom line: How will we know peer recovery support services are being delivered within scope of practice with integrity?



     

Follow-up

Consider sharing a summary of this discussion with your organization’s leadership team. This team is responsible for guiding the initial implementation of peer recovery support services and will want to know about the issues, questions, or concerns that may have emerged during these discussions.

Glossary