USA - Exciting news out of Hawaiʻi 🌺 The Office of Wellness and Resilience just released a landmark framework to formalize and expand peer support services statewide, and it's a meaningful step forward for behavioral health. Developed over 10 months under Act 88 (2024), the framework creates real…
USA - Exciting news out of Hawaiʻi 🌺 The Office of Wellness and Resilience just released a landmark framework to formalize and expand peer support services statewide, and it's a meaningful step forward for behavioral health. Developed over 10 months under Act 88 (2024), the framework creates real workforce pathways for Peer Support Specialists, including: - A three-tiered career advancement structure - 40-60 hour core training and certification standards - Trauma-informed supervision models - Medicaid billing strategies for long-term sustainability - Expanded roles across Health, Education, Corrections, and more What makes this especially powerful is who built it, people with lived experience of mental health challenges, substance use, housing instability, and justice involvement. Their voices shaped every recommendation. Research consistently shows peer support reduces inpatient utilization, increases hope and empowerment, and engages people in their own recovery in ways clinical services alone cannot replicate. Hawaiʻi is showing what it looks like to invest in peer support not as an afterthought, but as a cornerstone of a truly trauma-informed system of care.