Objective: Peer coaches are an important element in supported education programs. Peers are students with lived experience in recovery. As coaches, they provide on-campus support to assist students with psychiatric disabilities.
Method: A community-based participatory research (CBPR) team interviewed 44 participants including students with psychiatric disabilities, faculty, and staff about their perceptions of peer coaches. Thematic analysis was used to analyze interview transcripts.
Results: Possible strengths included helping navigate services, addressing sense of being alone, and managing school demands. Challenges included finding suited peers, addressing burnout, providing training and supervision, and matching coaches with students.
Conclusions and implications for practice: A list of ingredients for peer coaches within a supported education program was generated. Future research should determine the modifier of these key ingredients. Our findings informed the development of a peer coaching program which is now going through feasibility, fidelity, and impact evaluation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).