Our Mission

To inspire recovery, resilience, and wellness through professional development in order to equip emerging leaders and strengthen the integrated healthcare workforce from a lived experience perspective.

Vision

The Academy was built from the collaborative efforts of peers and family members who receive behavioral health services, advocate for policies that impact mental health, and/or provide behavioral health services within Arizona’s integrated healthcare system. With a vision to increase access to evidence based, high quality peer support and family support services, the Academy is the only statewide entity invested in workforce development efforts with a primary focus on continuing education of credentialed peer and family support professionals.

Focus

The Academy increases access to evidence-based peer-to-peer and family-to-family programs to help people with mental health and/or substance use related needs achieve whole person wellness goals. This is done through the following:

1) offering professional development and advanced level training to peer and family support professionals;

2) providing support and peer-to-peer networking opportunities for industry professionals; and

3) working with social service delivery systems and healthcare provider organizations to expand the use of peer and family support services into non-traditional settings.