Code of Ethics & Professional Conduct

Peer Support is a helping relationship between mental health clients and Certified Peer Support Specialists. The primary responsibility of Certified Peer Support Specialists is to help those they serve achieve self-directed recovery. They believe that every individual has strengths and the ability to learn and grow. As such, Certified Peer Support Specialists are committed to providing and advocating for effective recovery-based services for the people they serve in order for these individuals to meet their own needs, desires, and goals.

A certified peer support specialist must:

1. Seek to role-model recovery;
2. Respect the rights and dignity of those they serve;
3. Respect the privacy and confidentiality of those they serve;
4. Openly share their personal recovery stories with colleagues and those they serve;
5. Maintain high standards of personal conduct and conduct themselves in a manner that fosters their own recovery;
6. Never intimidate, threaten, or harass those they serve; never use undue influence, physical force, or verbal abuse with those they serve; and never make unwarranted promises of benefits to those they serve;
7. Not practice, condone, facilitate, or collaborate with any form of discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, national origin, marital status, political belief, or mental or physical disability;
8. Never engage in sexual/intimate activities with colleagues or those they serve;
9. Not accept gifts of significant value from those they serve;
10. Not enter into dual relationships or commitments that conflict with the interests of those they serve;
11. Not abuse substances under any circumstances while they are employed as a Certified Peer Support Specialist;
12. Work to equalize the power differentials that may occur in the peer support/client relationship;
13. Ensure that all information and documentation provided is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge;
14. Keep current with emerging knowledge relevant to recovery, and openly share this knowledge with their colleagues and those they serve;
15. Remain aware of their skills and limitations, and do not provide services or represent themselves as expert in areas for which they do not have sufficient knowledge or expertise; and
16. Not hold a clinical role and do not offer primary treatment for mental health issues, prescribe medicine, act as a legal representative or provide legal advice, participate in the determination of competence, or provide counseling, therapy, social work, drug testing, or diagnosis of symptoms and disorders.

Ethics Training. A certified peer support specialist must complete ethics training[1] at least once per year and maintain personal documentation of completed ethics training.

Comply with Code of Ethics. A certified peer support specialist must understand and comply with these rules and Idaho’s Certified Peer Support Specialists Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.  

Revised 03/17/2022

[1] This translates to 1 approved CEU (continuing education unit) in ethics per year.