Peer-run organizations and coordination with behavioral health providers

Peer-run organizations are formal entities that promote empowerment and recovery by offering opportunities for self-advocacy and mutual support between people with lived experience in the psychiatric system. These organizations are a majority-controlled by people-in-recovery from mental disorders, and provide a wide range of mental health and community-based supports, educational, and advocacy activities. They vary in their capacity and resources, and provide a critical resource to people receiving services within local and state behavioral health systems.

The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is increasing access to behavioral and physical health services. With this in mind, it becomes important to understand the value of supports offered by peer-run organizations and explore their role in linking people-in-recovery with non-peer providers.

This presentation will discuss results from the 2012 National Survey of Peer-Run Organizations—the first national study of its kind in over a decade. Relationships with other behavioral and physical health services will be described through frequency of referrals to ten types of services outside the organizations: psychotherapy, medication management/psychiatry, inpatient, emergency room, assertive community treatment/case management, disability benefits, physical health care, employment assistance, housing assistance, and legal assistance. Organizations’ perceptions of local providers on recovery-orientation and quality of relationships will be discussed in the context of coordination of care and linking members to wraparound and behavioral/physical health services. Potential for integration of peer-run organizations in efforts to organize health homes in the context of the ACA will also be discussed.