Effectively Employing Young Adult Peer Providers A Toolkit*
http://wraparoundohio.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/6fe9923c17e09132efb3326959697356.pdf
This toolkit was developed over a two-year period in consultation with an advisory board composed of young adults diagnosed with SMHC and experts in transition-age youth mental health. It was led and written by two individuals with personal experience in supervising and supporting young adult peers as well as conducting research examining the young adult peer provider role. Using a mixed-methods approach, the authors conducted interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders (e.g., young adult peer providers and supervisors; non-peer and peer administrators; peer provider advocates and experts; and provider human resource departments) and an extensive literature review of peer-reviewed, white, and grey literature pertaining to young adults in the peer provider role. Provider and program leadership must support peers, co-workers and supervisors to work collaboratively through enhanced trainings, team building strategies, personnel policies, and sharing their enthusiasm for the potential of the YA peer role. This toolkit provides employers with direct guidance on how to enhance their capacity to sustain and grow a young adult peer workforce. | Learn More and View Toolkit |
Achieve My Plan (AMP) | A Randomized Field-Test of Youth Engagement in Mental Health Treatment Planning
https://www.pathwaysrtc.pdx.edu/p3c-achieve-my-plan
For young people aged 11.5-18 with serious mental health conditions, a comprehensive, team-based approach is increasingly seen as the preferred mechanism for creating and monitoring treatment plans. Unfortunately, the young people themselves rarely participate meaningfully in these kinds of interdisciplinary planning teams. As a result, they can become disengaged from the planning process and unmotivated to participate in the planned treatment. The Achieve My Plan! (AMP) study tested a promising intervention that was developed by researchers at Portland State University, in collaboration with young people who have mental health conditions, service providers and caregivers. The study systematically evaluated the impact of the AMP intervention on youth participation and engagement in treatment planning, youth empowerment, and youth mental health and recovery outcomes.
Transition to Independence Process (TIP) and the
National Network on Youth Transition (NNYT) for Behavioral Health
http://www.tipstars.org/
The National Network is the only technical assistance resource that is exclusively focused on improving practices, systems, and outcomes for transition-age youth and young adults and their families. Stars Training Academy, a division of Stars Behavioral Health Group, (SBHG) collaborates with community agencies across North America to provide enriched training and customized consultation to achieve high fidelity and sustainable implementation of evidence-supported and evidence-based practices. The Stars Training Academy serves as the purveyor of the Transition to Independence Process (TIP) Model. The National Network on Youth Transition (NNYT) is a semi-autonomous entity that is under the SBHG umbrella. NNYT is responsible for defining and applying fidelity and certification standards for the implementation and sustainability of the TIP Model.
Paving the Way
http://www.wraparoundohio.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Paving-the-Way.pdf
This position paper was written to help build consensus around the issues and solutions for transition-age 
youth served by the mental health system in Ohio. This consensus building process will generate an action plan to support seamless treatment and support services and improved outcomes for transition-age youth. The information provided in this paper is not conclusive, but rather is to be used as a tool for further discussion, research, and planning. Transition-age youth are adolescents and young adults who have a diagnosable mental illness that has led to impaired functioning in one or more life domains. Examples of life domains include housing, education and employment, functioning and life skills, quality of life, and others. Developmentally, transition-age youth are interdependent, seeking their own identity and independence while still partially dependent on the support of family members, caregivers, and service providers.
Factors Supporting the Employment of Young Adult Peer Providers Perspectives of Peers and Supervisors*
http://wraparoundohio.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/29bdca8344717a700e2d450d0682e3c1.pdf
Peer providers are a promising practice for transition-age youth community mental health treatment engagement and support, yet little is known about the experience of being a young adult peer provider or what helps to make an individual in this role successful. Utilizing a capital theory lens, this study uses data from focus groups (two with young adult peer providers and two with their supervisors) to examine facilitators of young adult peer provider success in community mental health treatment settings. Eight factors were identiied as critical to young adult peer provider on-the-job success: persistence, job conidence, resilience, job training, skilled communications with colleagues, regular and individualized supervision, support from colleagues, and family support. Findings suggest that young adult peer providers may beneit immensely from an agency level focus on fostering social organizational capital as well as more individualized eforts to increase cultural, social, and psychological capital through training and supervision.
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