Peer Support Specialist

Join the Vital Core Team in Delaware!

We’re people who are fueled by passion, not by profit.

Vital Core Health Strategies (VCHS), an industry leader in correctional healthcare, has an opening for a Peer Support Specialist at Howard R. Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington, DE.
Full‑Time
.

Looking for a rewarding career with competitive wages, annual incentive bonus, and excellent benefits package?

• Holiday Pay:
  New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day
• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• Health Savings Account
• Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account
• Life Insurance
• Short Term/Long Term Disability
• Identity Theft Protection
• Pet Insurance
• Employee Assistance Program and Discount Center
• 401K & Plan Matching
• PTO

The Peer Support Specialist (PSS) is an active member of the Behavioral Health Acute and Residential Program and provides peer support services to clients with serious behavioral illnesses. The PSS serves as a role model, exhibits competency in personal recovery and coping skills, and acts as a consumer advocate, offering information and peer support for clients in outpatient and inpatient settings.

The PSS performs a wide range of tasks to assist individuals in regaining independence within the general population and mastering their own recovery process. Resources such as booklets, tapes, pamphlets, and other written materials may be used by the PSS in service delivery.

• Assist clients in articulating personal goals for recovery through one‑to‑one and group sessions.
• Support clients in identifying and creating goals and developing recovery plans with the skills, strengths, support, and resources needed to achieve those goals.
• Help clients work with their Qualified Behavioral Health Professional and treatment team to determine the steps required for goal achievement and self‑directed recovery.
• Utilize tools such as the Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) to assist clients in creating individual wellness and recovery plans.
• With assistance from the treatment team, teach problem‑solving techniques to individuals and groups; facilitate discussions where clients share common problems and coping methods.
• Assist clients in developing empowerment skills and combating stigma through self‑advocacy.
• Use role‑playing/modeling techniques to provide opportunities for others to demonstrate problem‑handling strategies.

• Knowledge of the recovery process and ability to facilitate recovery using established behavioral health processes.
• Knowledge and skill to teach and engage in basic problem‑solving strategies supporting self‑directed recovery.
• Knowledge of signs and symptoms of behavioral illness and the ability to assist clients in addressing symptoms using strategies such as positive self‑talk.
• Knowledge and skills to use community resources necessary for independent living and to teach these skills to others with severe behavioral illness.
• Knowledge of how to establish and sustain self‑help (mutual support) and educational groups by soliciting input from behavioral health consumers.
• Peer Support Certification required (CPRS)

Vital Core Health Strategies is an equal‑opportunity employer and is committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive workplace in which all employees have an opportunity to participate and contribute to the success of the business and are valued for their skills, experience, and unique perspectives.