Peer Support
The Tacoma-Pierce County Peer Support Program was developed for the purpose of providing 24/7 guidance and support at no-cost to organizations within Tacoma-Pierce County to strengthen its resiliency by protecting the mental health and wellbeing of all first and support responders—public, private, paid, and volunteer—when personal or professional issues negatively affect their work performance, family unit, or self.
The Peer Support Program is designed to:
- Provide emotional support during and after times of personal or professional crisis to other employees who express a need for assistance.
- Develop Peer Supporters who can identify personal conflicts and provide guidance or referral to professional/alternate resources as required.
- Maintain an effective Peer Supporter training and response program.
- Support those who have had family tragedies.
- Check on status of illnesses and provide support where desired and needed.
The Peer Support Plan was designed and is coordinated through the Pierce County Fire Chiefs and Pierce County Police Chiefs Associations, South Sound 911, and the Tacoma-Pierce County Chaplaincy. Currently, participation in this effort constitutes multiple Fire and Police agencies, Chaplaincy, and Public Service Answering Points within Pierce County, and the Pierce County Medical Reserve Corps – Trauma Resilience Team. The unique feature of the Plan is that it allows for the rapid access to a large numbers of peer support resources with minimum effort of the requesting agency.