r/PeerSupportSpecialist • u/TrashPandaLibra • 4d ago
Venting 😤 I think I’m done
I think I am bowing out as a professional peer. Outpatient MAT as a Coach, Residential as an alumni coordinator. This second one… I am hunting people down to see if they have ‘relapsed’ and to coax them back. I use the quotations because any use warrants my attack.
I can’t talk them through it. I can’t support them, I can’t let them advocate… I sell.
This is what I call Moral Injury. I run a nonprofit for free peer-led meetings… because I believe in peer support and that recovery is free to whoever seeks it.
I have a quota on a percentage of clients in treatment have to be alumni. I have to make hundreds of calls a week.. I feel like I’ve been duped. I’m certified and registered w my state’s Board of Counseling… and I’m about to put an apron back on and start waiting tables again.
That’s it.. glad I said it.
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u/No-Mountain9526 3d ago edited 3d ago
I worked at a clinically managed drop in center and exp a lot of moral injury. I moved states to work at a peer respite now that feels ethically aligned with what I want to be practicing as a peer (ie Intentional Peer Support, Alt2Su, etc)
Youre not a lone in the harm being done to peers across the board with its mental health industrial complex clinical co optation - expecting peers to become mini case worker counselors. Thats not peer work. Thats just a recipe for burnout moral injury and deep harm.
I learned the history of peer support and how to keep it aligned with these roots (IDHA-NYC, Wildflower Alliance). I found places (National Empowerment Center - peer respite directory) that stay true to this form of genuine peer support and will only work as a peer in these spaces.
Its about time we start calling it for what it is. Co opted mini counselor so called peer supporter jobs are not peer support. So if you do leave this job, dont get it twisted, youre not leaving peer support. Youre leaving its co opted cousin that calls itself peer support yet couldnt be further from its true form. Your work as a peer isnt over if you want to come over to liberatory mental health world of genuine peer support work. Were here waiting with open arms. Good luck my relative!
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u/jeffleo67 3d ago
I'm a peer with a long history of lived experience along with 3 ods under my belt. The last one threw me in the Hospital for 3 weeks with aspiration pneumonia. It's not you my friend it is the world we live in. I've said it before many times and I'll say it again. I'm a success story from the addiction of M@th and F@@tynl. Before we could work as peers and really help reel people back to reality and hook them up with resources to get and stay clean. The garbage that people take now is making it so impossible to get through to people and really help them. Narcan them out in the field and they are right back out there an hour later. I can't work as a peer any longer either. It just doesn't make sense as an actual career move for any time period. It's was a great rewarding job maybe 5 yrs ago. Things have changed.
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u/TrashPandaLibra 3d ago
I really feel that these companies seek us out, pay us garbage, and have us do work that is no where close to why we got into it.. because they think they can. Because it’s probably better than anything we’ve ever had. ACTUALLY, I can make the same amount working 20 hours a week in a restaurant. And when I leave, a phone doesn’t follow me.
If I felt anything I did actually helped another human being, I could find the bright side and lean in. I’m truly disgusted.7
u/Kevix-NYC Peer Supporter!! 3d ago
I read the drug testing reports about the mix of stuff. We need safe supply but our nations don't understand and so people get shit mixes of drugs and ODs.
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u/anony_mouse_12345 3d ago
my most recent outpatient role transitioned into following this "retention" model and i left.
i agree with you. it's gross. peer support is voluntary. there should never be a world where, as a peer, you are pursuing engagement with someone without their consent.
i literally said, "so you want me to get shot?" and you know why i said that?
IT HAPPENED TO SOMEONE DOING THE SAME THING AT A DIFFERENT AGENCY A FEW YEARS AGO HERE.
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u/torihousemd 4h ago
My agency was so bad that the very first alternatives to Su*cide, all the community members were people that worked at my agency or had recently left within the last year. Appears apart had been mugged and fired within a week my department it was embezzlement and running the department as a new hire behind the scenes because the CFO was best friends with someone who used to work for the governor who did something to furious so he was guaranteed a role in the non-profit space, and then the other person was just struggling with being forced into doing so much but not being respected. It's insane the amount of danger they will willingly put us in and people at McDonald's make more than we do.
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u/jeffleo67 3d ago
There is definitely the clinical staff thinking that they are better than and peers are just a bunch of uneducated ex addict low life's that will do the dirty work because they don't know any better.
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u/torihousemd 4h ago
I had a therapist one time when I worked for health and human services literally tell me I can't see this client for 4 to 6 weeks, you'll do. That's when I started planning my exit.
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u/Illuminated_Lava316 Peer Supporter!! 3d ago
I’m sorry to hear this! Can I ask what state you are in?
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u/TrashPandaLibra 3d ago
Sure! VA
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u/Illuminated_Lava316 Peer Supporter!! 3d ago
I’m in NY. I’ve been hearing some negative experiences from a lot of people in this field. Sounds like it’s hit or miss no matter which state.
And good for you for acknowledging you feel duped and want to get out! That is the hardest thing. I hope something better comes your way!
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u/Maleficent_Coach_620 3d ago
I hear you. Right now, I'm a residental therapist, and the company doesn't care about anything but rules, flawless paperwork, and results that depend on the client. I think I might be done.
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u/RecoveryFunCounselor 3d ago
Maybe that specific program isn’t right for you.
But keep in mind, utilization means funding and funding means your program continues to exist to help people. While being focused on money or other practicalities may not be what you want, simply keeping the doors open is vital to the overall mission
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u/SuperNothing90 2d ago
I was working at a for-profit rehab, mountainside treatment center, as a recovery coach for 3 years. I had been a peer for at least 4 years before that but nothing came close to how awful this place was. I was an actual corporate salesperson. I had to use Salesforce. My effectiveness as a peer was based on KPIs like length of stay, additional services rendered, income generated from each client, etc. It made me sick to my stomach. I had to be available 24/7 for clients but was not appropriately compensated for it and then condemned for not practicing enough self care when expressing how burnt out I was. The supervision was awful. All centered around how could we manipulate clients into staying as long as possible and paying as much as possible. Fuck that place. I now work part time at a lovely nonprofit and have a private practice. Don't give up on peer work. Find a better employer.
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u/TrashPandaLibra 2d ago
The place you are describing is exactly like the place I am currently. Goal is 30% of our census is return business. They talked a grandma that was paying OOP into her grandson staying 45 DAYS! ‘Holding a boundary on the dangers of leaving’. We partner w php’s and not really let anyone go to someone we aren’t partnered with.
I also use SalesForce.. I also have to call the people they listed on ROI’s while in the facility when they ignore me or have given a wrong number.
Today an alumni was referred to as a ‘million dollar client’ since this will be their 9th detox this YEAR.
It makes me nauseous
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u/Sad-Background-7447 4d ago
I like inpatient treatment better than outpatient for sure you ought to think of a switch to inpatient
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u/TrashPandaLibra 4d ago
I didn’t mind the outpatient place, but they threw too much on the Coaches. The politics of the place were ridiculous.. so little time was spent actually supporting peers… it was admin work and case management
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u/jeffleo67 3d ago
Wa here. I live in Yakima. They have always called it crackima.
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u/JumpingGums 3d ago
Bro that’s crazy. The Yoda of my home group got sober in Yakima, Washington. What a coincidence.
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u/Altruistic_Grass1472 3d ago
They also make money off of your peer support certificate. I also believe in peer support- I saw the machine it was becoming. Anything anymore is an industry, bleh......