Power of Peers (POP) behavioral health program links Peers with Natural Supports upon discharge from Crisis Stabilization Units.

The average length of admittance to a Baker Act receiving facility or crisis unit is between three and five days. There are many circumstances that lead to an individual arriving on a unit but little time to address environments or relational issues that contribute to admittance. A five-day stay may be appropriate for prescription management or detoxification, but this length of stay becomes problematic when the individual lacks resources to provide an effective transition from the facility back to the community.

The facility is able to connect the person served with behavioral health specialists, psychiatrists, licensed counselors, and therapists, but many persons served are lacking in fundamental human connection in the community.

Some return to circumstances so difficult to manage that they become overwhelmed and return to a state that calls for duplicated efforts, usually to similar effect. This can quickly become a habit for an individual seeking solutions from acute care environments: first, because there seems to be little else to do, then because that environment becomes what the individual understands as help.

Sometimes, what is necessary for the individual is to find a place where they feel accepted. Making contact with an individual leaving a crisis unit is a powerful way of saying “You are not alone.” The connection begun in a place of assessment and evaluation and has the potential to become a natural support, a place to develop trust and rapport. Power of Peers engages with folks on the unit independent of clinical staff but attend treatment team meetings and communicate with staff, always with the consent of the individual being served.