Mental health peers and me

Also: New breast cancer screening guidelines [Donate ❤️]( [View in Browser](  April 30, 2024 Hi CommonHealth reader, I’m going to start today on a personal note. This past week, as I worked on a story about certified peer specialists, a type of peer support worker for mental health, I found myself wondering: Could meeting with one 30 years ago have helped me? I lost a big chunk of my 20s to depression. I failed classes at college, drifted from one part-time job to another, racked up debts and spent many hours in bed — staring at the walls. I could usually get myself to appointments with a psychiatrist and social worker, and eventually, something helped or shifted. At age 30, I found my way to my first full-time job, at a TV station where I ran cameras, mixed audio and rolled the teleprompter for local news shows. Certified peer specialists are people like me, today. They’ve struggled with anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or some other mental health illness, and are now stable enough to reflect on that experience and share it with others. That might mean commiserating about the despair, talking about the shame of not being able to complete simple tasks, the side effects of medications or anything else a traditional therapist hasn’t lived through or doesn’t feel comfortable discussing. The power dynamic is supposed to be different with peer specialists as well. During my deep depression, I went to therapy so someone could tell me what was wrong and fix it. The clinician was the expert. My job was to follow their plan, if I could. Peer specialists recognize patients as experts themselves who can figure out what they need and how to get it. “We don’t empower people, people empower themselves,” said Vesper Moore, chief operating officer at the Kiva Centers in Worcester, the state’s designated peer specialist training program. Going to a peer specialist is different from talking to a close friend — even someone going through similar struggles. A peer specialist shows what life might look like after a dark period. “We bring hope to the table,” said Tera Carter, a CPS at Skyland Trail, a residential mental health treatment center in Atlanta. “We sit in front of people with a mental health condition as someone who’s working and in recovery, living with a diagnosis.” In [Georgia]( the state’s Medicaid program has been paying for certified peer specialists for at least 25 years. Massachusetts is ramping up [integration of peer specialists]( in community behavioral health centers using a new payment structure that launched in early 2023. The state’s commissioner for mental health, Brooke Doyle, calls peer specialists, for teens and young adults in particular, "game changers." And though they aren’t generally covered by private health insurance in Massachusetts, the state has been discussing ways to change that. If you have a story about a mental health peer support experience and want to share it, my email is marthab@wbur.org. And keep an eye out for my full story on peer specialists coming up later this week. Thanks for reading. Martha Bebinger Reporter, Health Support the news  This Week's Must Reads [Mammograms should start at age 40, new guidelines recommend]( A rise in breast cancer among younger women prompted the U.S. Preventive Services Taskforce to issue new screening guidelines. They recommend mammograms every other year, starting at age 40. [Read more.]( [Mammograms should start at age 40, new guidelines recommend]( A rise in breast cancer among younger women prompted the U.S. Preventive Services Taskforce to issue new screening guidelines. They recommend mammograms every other year, starting at age 40. [Read more.]( [Workers describe unpaid bills, delayed care and anxiety at Mass. 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