Working Well Together

The Working Well Together Technical Assistance Center (WWT) was a six-year project focused on improving California county public mental health agencies’ ability to assess their readiness to initiate or expand a client, family member, and parent/caregiver workforce. Originally funded by the California Department of Mental Health from 2008 – 2012, this MHSA Workforce Education and Training project was administered by the Office of Statewide Planning and Development (OSHPD) from 2012 – 2014. Partners with CIBHS included:

• California Association of Mental Health Peer Run Organizations (CAMHPRO)-Peers Envisioning and Engaging Recovery Services (PEERS) http://camhpro.org/
• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) California http://www.namicalifornia.org/
• United Advocates for Children and Families (UACF) http://www.uacf4hope.org/

WWT offered training and technical assistance services to county mental health agencies to support the recruiting, hiring, training and retention of a multicultural consumer, family member, and parent/caregiver workforce. 

Recordings of WWT webinars can be found on the WWT Webinar YouTube Page – click here to view them. (Note: other resources and tools from this project will be posted at a later time.)

As part of the WWT contract, CIBHS convened stakeholders, researched national models and developed several reports on the Peer workforce, including recommendations for implementation of a Peer Specialist certification in California. These reports are available here:

• Certification of Consumer, Youth,  Family, Parent Providers: A Review of the Research (2012)
• Final Report: Recommendations from the Statewide Summit on Certification of Peer Providers (2013)
• Certification of Peer Support Specialists: Engaging of State-Level Agencies (2014)