PeerSupport
This article is a Stub.
"Peer Support Specialist" is an actual credentialed person in the United States, there are trainings available, usually for free, throughout the US. Some folk who have gone through these trainings work for agencies and are paid through agencies to provide peer support.
Peer support (uncredentialed or credentialed) is available around the world. People with lived experience in the mental health system may get formal or informal training, or have sufficient lived experience helping others, and offer to support individuals 1:1 with their self-help or recovery needs.
Some plurals or multiples offer peer support services as a business model, and some peer support specialists working in the non-profit sector may be plural.
If you go to a peer support non-profit agency, you may get free peer support, though there is no guarantee they will be familiar with DID or plurality, and there's no guarantee that there won't be singular bias present. Treat generic peer specialists like therapists and make sure to gauge whether they have biases or prejudices that will prevent them from being a good match.
In the United States, you are likely to find agencies offering free peer support by searching for "independent living center" (use the quotes) in Google along with your name of your city, town, or county/region. This is a specific grant by the US Government that provides for advocacy and peer support at no cost to you. Also Medicaid has started to allow billing for peer support services. You may want to find a peer-run agency to get peer support from to ensure that there's no coercion or pressure from medical entities to refer you for unneeded or unwanted services within the agency.
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