Peer Academy
NYC Health + Hospitals’ Peer Academy helps recruit and train community members with lived experience of mental health or substance use challenges to become State-certified peer counselors, who can support behavioral health patients in hospitals and other healthcare settings.
Peer Academy Training Program
Peer Academy is a free 12-week program that includes classroom and on-the-job training at NYC Health + Hospitals sites.
Trainees are shown how to engage people in crisis, connect them to care and navigate within the community. They are also taught how to use their lived experience appropriately for the benefit of patients while still maintaining healthy boundaries. Trainees participate in work readiness and professional development workshops led by experienced training staff who are themselves peer practitioners.
Applicants selected to participate in the Peer Academy program undergo in-person classroom and online training in mental health and addiction services, and internship rotations throughout the behavioral health system. NYC Health + Hospitals uses a variety of existing curricula to inform its Peer Academy’s training, including Peer Support for the 21st Century, which has been used successfully in Arizona and California, as well as substance use recovery training approved by the New York Certification Board, and more. Rotations include, but are not limited to, inpatient and ambulatory psychiatry, addiction services programs, medical emergency departments, and Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Programs.
In addition to the classroom hours required for State certification, the program includes a six-week, full-time hospital-based internship with rotations in the inpatient mental health unit, emergency department, and street outreach teams.
The Peer Academy includes the hours needed for the State certifications to become a Certified Peer Specialist for mental health and a Certified Recovery Peer Advocate for substance use. It includes over 20 hours of online workshops, 161 hours of classroom training, and 168 hours at a hospital-based internship.
NYC Health + Hospitals offers stipends to peers who successfully complete the program, recognizing the significant time investment of a three-month training program. Graduates of the training program often become full-time employees in the health system, building patient-centered capacity to care for the patient’s behavioral, emotional and social needs.
Develop Your Career as a Peer Counselor
Peers are uniquely positioned to serve patients with complex and co-morbid mental health and substance use disorder needs, and they can connect to traditionally hard-to-reach patients by sharing their lived experience to support recovery.
NYC Health + Hospitals currently employs over 100 peers across our system and is one of the largest employers of peers in New York City. Nearly 40% of the peer counselors who are employed at NYC Health + Hospitals are graduates from the Peer Academy.
Peer Academy staff work with interns who successfully completed the program to help them find employment for up to six months after graduation.
Apply to the Peer Academy
Eligible New Yorkers who would like to apply to the Peer Academy must be at least 18 years of age, have a high school diploma, or GED/TASC, and have lived experience of a mental health or substance use challenge.
To apply for the NYC Health + Hospitals Peer Academy program, contact OBHPeerAcademy@nychhc.org. Program managers are available to assist with the application process.
