Reports from influential groups like the President's New Freedom Commission, the Institute of Medicine, the Surgeon General, the Annapolis Coalition, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have called for the implementation of consumers as providers.
- Peer specialists must be prepared to serve as active team members in a mental health care setting. They must have basic skills like communication and written skills so that they can appropriately keep record of their work, but they must also have the skills and know-how that comes from the lived experience of mental illness.
- Peer specialists are working all over the country, and over 20 states are employing peers professionally. This is a major part of the movement to transform the mental health care system to be oriented toward helping everyone with a mental health challenge experience recovery.