Job Description

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. The peer supporter will connect with and establish trusting relationships with peers in healthcare through a dedicated Disaster Distress Helpline Facebook community:

• Monitoring Facebook posts and notifications and responding to community members seeking information or support.
• Following up, when appropriate, to previous postings to check in with members who need ongoing peer support.
• Responding to members who may be suicidal, or threatening harm to self or others by assisting in connecting the member to a crisis counselor in real time (only if a Crisis Counselor is temporarily unavailable).
• Engaging in conversation starters with members, choosing relevant topics related to healthcare workers impacted by COVID-19 and helping peers organize group discussions.
• Identifying trusted resources and helping members navigate those resources.
• Complete a brief activity summary for each shift for monthly and quarterly reports.

REQUIRED SKILLS:  

2. The peer supporter will be able to demonstrate:

• Active listening and validate a peer’s concerns and needs.
• Encouragement to help peers find their own solutions.
• Selective use of self-disclosure to inspire and support peers.
• Healthy boundaries in 1:1 interaction and in group virtual discussion and scheduled meetings.
• Confidentiality and privacy and the ability to convey member rights and exceptions to those rights (e.g. when disclosure of confidential information may prevent imminent, serious, and foreseeable harm to the clients themselves or third parties).
• Identifying peer strengths and help facilitate personal progress and accountability.

KNOWLEDGE OF PEER SUPPORT PRINCIPLES:

3. The peer supporter will have a basic knowledge of, and understand:

• The necessity of offering hope and encouragement to peers and demonstrate (through a strengths-based perspective) that recovery is attainable.
• The wellbeing continuum and the emotions associated with movement toward recovery.
• The severity of a crisis and consequently the importance of connecting community members with a DDH crisis center counselor per established protocols when needed, providing a follow-up contact, & offering support and encouragement when appropriate.
• How to apply peer support principles in diverse environments.
• The range of relevant supports and services available nationally, and in disaster-impacted regions or communities.
• The potential barriers to accessing community resources in order to mitigate systemic roadblocks in resource provision

4. The peer supporter will complete all mandatory trainings with in the first 90 days and continue to seek independent, additional training opportunities to enhance skills and abilities associated with peer support.

Qualifications

• The DDH Peer Supporter must be a healthcare worker (whether currently or previously employed in the field or serving a healthcare organization in a volunteer capacity), broadly defined as any worker in the medical community (E.G. HOSPITAL PERSONNEL, HEALTHCARE EMERGENCY RESPONSE WORKERS, NURSING PROFESSIONALS, PHYSICIANS, BEHAVIORAL, PUBLIC, AND MEDICAL HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS ETC.).
• Prospective Peer Supporters should also have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic in some way, and value the peer support principles of mutual sharing through lived experience as playing a vital role in reducing the short and long-term negative emotional consequences of a disaster, crisis, or other potentially traumatic event.
• Candidates will be expected to have the necessary educational degrees, certifications, and/or competencies to practice in their respective fields.
• Experience in social media moderation and/or disaster emotional care a plus.

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Additional Information

VIBRANT EMOTIONAL HEALTH IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER. APPLICANTS ARE CONSIDERED FOR POSITIONS WITHOUT REGARD TO VETERAN STATUS, UNIFORMED SERVICE MEMBER STATUS, RACE, CREED, COLOR, RELIGION, GENDER, GENDER IDENTITY, SEX, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, CITIZENSHIP STATUS, NATIONAL ORIGIN, MARITAL STATUS, AGE, PHYSICAL OR MENTAL DISABILITY, GENETIC INFORMATION, CAREGIVER STATUS OR ANY OTHER CATEGORY PROTECTED BY APPLICABLE FEDERAL, STATE OR LOCAL LAWS. ALL YOUR INFORMATION WILL BE KEPT CONFIDENTIAL ACCORDING TO EEO GUIDELINES.