Certified Peer Specialists (CPS)
are professionals committed to building on their existing base of knowledge and
staying up-to-date on new developments in their field. They want to see that their profession, with
its unique emphasis on shared experience, continues to grow and be used
effectively in communities and organizations across Kansas.
CCSR’s CPS training faculty is providing advanced trainings and a new approach to individual and organizational support for individuals who work at Community Mental Health Centers, State Psychiatric Hospitals, as well as other venues.
CPS advanced trainings enhance the abilities of peer specialists to facilitate the recoveries of other mental health consumers in Kansas. Like the peer specialist basic training, advanced trainings emphasize the use of shared experience and promote self-determination and empowerment.
“[T]he training had immense educational value and was very eye opening to the issues in this field,” said Christopher Leach. “Also I felt that the diversity in the members of the training team complimented one another wonderfully to deliver a very well rounded training experience.”
CCSR offers more than a dozen advanced trainings covering a broad range of CPS-specific topics such as: relationship-building, trauma-informed care, and spirituality.
In addition to the advanced trainings for CPSs, the CCSR Research Team is continuing efforts to expand the number of questions that can be used on the certification test for CPSs. Although the actual length of the test may not change, having such a question bank is a way to ensure validity, reliability and generalizability of the test. It is hoped that through the Research Team’s work, the certification test can become a standard for the field.
Funding for CCSR’s Mental Health Initiative from the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services allows advanced trainings and technical assistance to be provided at no cost to Kansas community mental health centers and state hospitals. Interested organizations outside of the Kansas public mental health system are encouraged to contact CCSR Mental Health Initiative staff about professional development opportunities for their peer support providers.
A list of available Advanced Trainings is available on the Training Teams website, TrainingTeams.org. Custom trainings are available. For more information on trainings, contact Christine Young, CPS, peer educator, at christine.young@wichita.edu or (316) 978-3224. More information is also available here.
For individual or organizational technical assistance, contact Simon Messmer, CPS, Mental Health systems specialist at simon.messmer@wichita.edusimon.messmer@wichita.edu or (316) 712-9500.
