Peer Support Specialists are great at providing hope and encouragement to the people they serve-to experience recovery.  Recovery, the basis of peer support, also requires taking initiative, risks and pursuing their dreams.  A few months ago, Lavinia Holder, Certified Peer Support Specialist Supervisor at Spartanburg CMHC sent me a copy of the Peer Support Satisfaction Survey.

She believed that the wording and organization of the survey caused the survey to reflect a perception of peer support specialists that was not accurate, even negative. She suggested that this survey could be revised to demonstrate a more accurate depiction of how patients determined their satisfaction of our Certified Peer Support Specialists.

Lavinia formed a workgroup with Christie Ewing of Tri-County and Riley Lanier of Spartanburg. They developed several versions and came to agreement on a form suggested to be used.  It was reviewed by Spartanburg CMHC and the Director of Transition Programs, Tracy Richardson.

During this process, we were contacted by Form Management and they conducted a process to make the survey an official BHDD Office of Mental Health document.  Due to the initiative of Lavinia Holder, this survey will go into operation soon.  We are optimistic about the effect of this survey.