Measuring the Financial Contribution of Peer Providers

Introduction
Peer support providers are individuals who have been trained to use their lived experiences with mental illness and substance use disorders to help others in recovery. Organizations that provide behavioral health treatment increasingly employ peer support providers as a vital piece of their efforts to support recovery. Prior studies have focused on evaluating the effectiveness of peer providers in terms of client outcomes and stakeholder perceptions of the peer provider model’s value. This study aims to add to existing research by providing a limited analysis of peer provider staffing data and the financial implications for organizations that use a peer services model to provide care. This study was conducted jointly by the UCSF Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care (UCSF HWRC) and the Behavioral Health Workforce Research Center (BHWRC) at the University of Michigan.