BMS Mental Health Peers Workforce Initiative

Practical tools and guidance for organizations recruiting, training and retaining peer support professionals.

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needed peer support professionals are currently available

The National Council for Mental Wellbeing, with support from Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), is leading a multiphase initiative to strengthen the mental health peer workforce pipeline in community behavioral health organizations.

The initiative will:

  • Convene an expert panel to assess current workforce challenges
  • Develop an employer toolkit with hiring guidelines, supervision resources and specialized training modules on trauma-informed supervision and peer workforce management
  • Recruit pilot organizations for training and technical assistance on peer recruitment and workforce development
  • Deliver training and technical assistance, including a community of practice, to support peer workforce integration
  • Evaluate outcomes, including workforce retention and service capacity expansion
  • Share findings and recommendations to support broader adoption and scaling

The goal of this initiative is to leverage lived and living experience and systems-level expertise to identify and address barriers to peer recovery work, and to collaborate with a multidisciplinary committee to surface diverse perspectives and build a scalable, adaptable framework for expanding peer roles across community mental health and recovery settings. In practice, that means providing organizations the resources and best practices they need to recruit, train and retain peer support professionals.

This initiative is made possible through a grant sponsored by Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS).

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