Peer Support Worker, Mental Health

Salary

Summary

Providence Health Care's Mental Health Program is now hiring peers to join multiple teams across the organization. If you have a passion for a harm reduction-focussed approach to supporting patients with mental health and substance use disorders, this is a fantastic opportunity to join a tight-knit and supportive interdisciplinary team that fosters a working environment with a sense of community amongst practitioners dedicated to patient care. Being a Peer in the Mental Health Program provides incredible opportunities for interdisciplinary learning, mentorship, and professional development.

Areas of opportunity include: 

• Inpatient Psychiatric Units at St. Paul’s Hospital, which provide assessment, treatment and stabilization of adults with acute mental health concerns. Peers on inpatient units support with treatment planning, activities, and the transition out of hospital.
• Complex Intervention Response Team (CIRT) is an interdisciplinary rapid response team that specializes in mental health and substance use care, providing timely support, advice, and/or education as needed to clinicians across various units so they can best support their patients who have complex mental health and/or substance use care needs in addition to their medical reason for being in the hospital, working to improve crisis intervention, de-escalation, and stabilization while ensuring culturally responsive care.

What you will be doing: 

Reporting to the Peer Support Leader, the Peer Support Worker is a person who self-identifies as a Peer, meaning a person with lived/living experience relevant to the client group served, such as structural inequity, interpersonal trauma, racism, trauma, substance use, poverty, sex work, and/or physical or mental health challenges. This role works as an embedded team member in the Complex Intervention Response Team and works alongside other Peers and Indigenous Wellness Liaisons to provide individual Peer support from lived experience to patients and families accessing services at Providence Health Care. This position acts as a resource for both patients and healthcare providers by providing emotional support and patient advocacy, and promoting health provider relationships that are trauma-informed, free of anti-Indigenous racism, and person-centred. They will participate in meaningful engagement as Peers for ongoing work in strategic planning, harm reduction, and redevelopment, and support research centres within Providence Health Care Research Institute.

• Provide Peer-Based Emotional Support & Advocacy: Offer compassionate, non-judgmental support to patients and families based on lived/living experience, helping to navigate mental health, substance use, and systemic barriers across acute and primary care settings.

• Facilitate Access to Services & Cultural Supports: Support connections to Indigenous Wellness Liaisons, harm reduction resources, spiritual care spaces, and other community or cultural programs that align with patients’ needs and identities.

• Promote Culturally Safe, Trauma-Informed Care: Act as a bridge between patients and health care providers to encourage care that centers harm reduction, cultural humility, and person- and family-centered approaches.

• Support Peer and System-Wide Initiatives: Contribute to team meetings, strategic planning, and program improvement efforts; assist with tracking service data and helping shape peer-informed care across the organization.

What You Bring

Education, Training and Experience

• A level of education, training and experience equivalent to a recognized Certificate in Social Services or as an Addiction Service Worker plus one (1) year recent, related experience.
• Lived or living experience relevant to the client group served, such as structural inequity, interpersonal trauma, racism, trauma, substance use, poverty, sex work, and/or physical or mental health challenges.
• Completion of a recognized Peer Support Training program.

Skills and Abilities

• Knowledge of principles of peer support practice and ability to apply principles of recovery in mental illness/substance.
• Knowledge of harm reduction principles and practices.
• Knowledge of the principles of cultural safety and humility.
• Ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing.
• Ability to deal with others effectively.
• Ability to organize work.
• Ability to operate related equipment.
• Physical ability to perform the duties of the position.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary: $29.83 CAD per hour 
• Comprehensive benefits: Eligible employees receive a robust medical and dental benefits package, including unlimited physiotherapy and massage, as well as paid vacation
• Unionized Stability: Enjoy the consistency and security offered by a unionized role.   
• Pension plan: Eligible employees can work towards a comfortable retirement through employer-matched contributions to one of Canada's strongest pension plans! 
• Meaningful impact: Your dedication and expertise will directly impact the lives of patients, including many from marginalized communities.  
• Growth opportunities: We welcome individuals at all stages of their career, offering opportunities for professional development and growth.
• State-of-the-art facilities:  The new St. Paul’s Hospital and health campus will be the most innovative approach to the delivery of integrated care in B.C. and Canada, designed to appropriately address the future health needs of patients, families and our communities. From hospital care to primary and community health solutions, the new St. Paul’s Hospital and health campus will continue to lead innovations in care, research, and teaching. The new St. Paul’s Hospital is expected to open in 2027.
• Inclusive culture: We respect the diversity, dignity and interdependence of all persons. We value the cultural richness that our diverse workforce brings to the care of our equally diverse population of patients and residents. 

Who we are: 

Providence is a non-profit healthcare provider with over fifteen sites, including a large tertiary hospital in the heart of Vancouver’s beautiful and vibrant Downtown, a smaller community hospital in the idyllic Mount Pleasant neighborhood, one of the largest referral centres for rehabilitation in British Columbia, and five long-term care facilities, as well as other clinics. 

As a leading teaching and research organization, and the provincial referral center for Cardiac, HIV/AIDS, and Renal Care, we provide services ranging from acute and long-term care to leading substance use and addiction treatment supporting some of BC’s most marginalized communities. Guided by the motto “how you want to be treated”, delivering exceptional patient and family-centered care is our mission.

Curious about working at PHC and the culture of our teams? Check out the video and articles below to learn more and meet some of the members of the team you'd be joining:

A Heart for Healing in Geriatric Psychiatry

Supporting the whole patient: Complex Intervention Response Team (CIRT)

Reproductive Health: Supporting New Parents Through Compassion and Education

Eating Disorders: Food, freedom, and healing in eating disorder recovery

Foundry: Helping young people thrive through connection and creativity

Your Day to Day: 

• Provides day to day Peer support and advocacy from knowledge and lived/living experience to patients and families across acute and primary care services, and will liaise with existing Peers and/or Volunteers already working across PHC sites (e.g., acute care, residential services, mental health) and outpatient clinics (i.e., John Ruedy Clinic and the Rapid Access Addiction Clinic) at Providence Health Care.
• Working as an embedded team member in the Complex Intervention Response Team to support patient referrals to the Indigenous Wellness Liaisons, as well as helps facilitate patient and family access to harm reduction services, the St Paul’s Overdose Prevention Site, traditional cultural practices, All Nations Sacred Space, and as required, access to other community health programs, cultural supports, and harm reduction services.
• Acts as a resource for both patients and health care providers by providing emotional support and advocacy and supporting referrals to the Complex Intervention Response Team to ensure health provider relationships are trauma informed, person and family centered, and embedding principles of harm reduction, cultural safety and humility in the delivery of care services.
• Supports Peer initiatives at PHC by participating in working groups and meetings related to strategic planning, harm reduction, redevelopment and other organizational initiatives.
• Tracks referral and program access data utilizing word processing, email, and spreadsheets, or is willing to learn or develop these skills.
• Attends regularly scheduled meetings and provides informal updates on the Peer Support Program.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

We acknowledge that Providence Health Care and the new St. Paul’s Hospital site is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.