EMOTIONAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION

SHARE! Peer Specialist Training has trained more than 300 Peer Specialists to provide Peer Services in the public mental health system. Almost all of the students in this program have found jobs using their learning from SHARE!’s program. SHARE! trains on evidence-based practices in Peer Services, including Self-help Support Groups, the Helper Therapy Principle, Peer Listening and Disclosing, Recovery Planning, Critical Time Intervention, and Peer Bridging. SHARE! also imparts its learning from 26 years of providing Peer Services in its Self-Help Centers to the trainees in the form of the SHARE! Peer Toolkit—28 tools for peer workers to use to inspire personal change, resolve conflict and support people in their recoveries. Mental Health America awarded SHARE! Advanced Peer Specialist Training National Certified Peer Specialist (NCPS) Certification.

How we measure success:
The strength of SHARE!’s training is confirmed by its high placement and retention rates (86% placed in public mental health system; 96% with jobs or in school) and positive evaluations. In-class evaluations found that students gave the training an average evaluation of 97%. Employers frequently hire SHARE! interns and contact SHARE! when they have peer openings as they have noticed that SHARE! graduates are superlative. Here is a representative comment, "Taking the Peer Specialist class has been a life changer for me. I enjoyed my time learning and becoming aware and educated. As a Peer Specialist it will better help my future and the future of my community and peers. Positive changes and so much information gathered."

The SHARE! Recovery Retreat has been operating since 2013 in Monterey Park and provides mental health consumers up to two weeks of intensive recovery activities, including self-help support groups, independent living skills, conflict resolution and paths to achieving goals. Living together as a family, participants take responsibility for everyday living, including a culture of support and recovery, meals, chores, budget and resolving issues as they arise. The SHARE! Recovery Retreat gives people the skills to maintain housing in the community and move ahead with employment and other life goals.

How we measure success:
In 2016 UC San Diego and Harder and company evaluated the SHARE! Recovery Retreat and found that it was effective in giving residents a positive trajectory in their lives. SHARE! also tracks demographics, Plans for Success, self-help support group participation and where each guest goes after the Retreat.

Countywide referrals to 12,000 self-help meetings representing 750 different life-issues. Our information is updated often as self-help groups tend to move around or be moved around and come and go. We give meetings technical assistance including best practices. We help with meeting formation, content format, publicity, problems and have leads on meeting space throughout the County.

How we measure success:
For each call we track demographic and socioeconomic data, what issues the caller was interested in and which self-help support groups we referred them to. We call a sample of people receiving self-help support group referrals two weeks after the referral is made to see whether they have attended a group and get a subjective evaluation of the group if they have.

SHARE! Culver City and SHARE! Downtown LA are centers where a large community of self-help groups meet each week, addressing all kinds of issues, e.g. anger management, health, depression, self-esteem, relationships, childhood abuse, substance abuse, reaching goals hosting more than 100 weekly meetings with monthly attendance of 5,000 people. The centers are peer-run and open to everyone without intake. Operating since 1993, SHARE! has never asked a single person to leave the premises. Instead SHARE! uses the SHARE! Peer Toolkit to build trust, encourage personal change, maintain order, resolve conflict and include everyone in the community. Each center has a Volunteer-to Job program that gives anyone a meaningful job at SHARE!—no matter how limited their skills or debilitating their symptoms. SHARE! trains and encourages our Volunteer-to-Jobs participants until they develop the skills and confidence to obtain an unsubsidized job either at SHARE! or in the community.

How we measure success:
We track the number of self-help support group meetings, the number of attendees at each meeting, the donations that meeting attendees make, number of people who get housed or employment, number of volunteer hours provided. We do an anonymous survey twice a year for feedback and suggestions. We have Community Meetings quarterly where anyone can attend to discuss issues and improve the centers. We also have a suggestion box at each center to hear positive and negative comments about the center and its programs.