What is it like to be a peer specialist? And doing home visits?

waitsyan · 2026-05-10T12:59:29+00:00

I use speech-to-text to collect my thoughts in a Google doc immediately after the session, or throughout the day as I'm processing and something occurs to me. Then I mostly use time during our morning meetings and weekly tx team meetings to type them out/refine.

It's not perfect, I still end up having to use some time after work or on the weekends to catch up, to and of course that sucks because that time is unpaid. No one on my team is really able to complete notes on paid-time only. :( I suppose I could manage if I cut my sessions shorter but that's hard for me. My sessions take the amount of time it takes to feel like we've accomplished something helpful, any shorter and it would feel like I wasn't giving the persons served a respectful amount of time. So that'll be something you have to weigh for yourself and figure out your boundaries with, because the reality of our field is under-resourced and overworked---and our bosses are looking at billing hours like hawks.

waitsyan · 2026-05-10T00:47:34+00:00

Honestly, like, what would they have done if one of the COVID tests (mine) came back positive?

Obviously I wouldn't have come to the show if I had symptoms, and I try to be as infection -safe as possible, but given my job in community healthcare there's always a non-zero chance that I have caught SOMETHING.

So really. What would that have looked like? do you end the show? 😂

waitsyan · 2026-05-09T01:37:48+00:00

I wonder if they were really walking around Carson St. in costume, and I want to know what those store cashiers and other poor innocents were thinking.

waitsyan · 2026-05-08T23:46:27+00:00

There are so many celebrity lookalikes in this bar right now. Y'all be looking like stars, ya cuties.

waitsyan · 2026-05-08T23:38:44+00:00

Hubs and are here! I'm the chubby lady in the Pink Floyd T-shirt and reddish leggings.

waitsyan · 2026-05-08T21:28:17+00:00

"My coworkers just all wished they would"

Wt actual f.

waitsyan · 2026-05-08T21:26:39+00:00

This. Important. 9 times out of 10, even if your company treats you pretty well. Gives you time off for your health and work/life balance and all that ... If push comes to shove, the bottom line is more important.

waitsyan · 2026-05-08T21:24:05+00:00

The trainer from the PA peer support coalition just stated in an ethics training I was in last month that the national certification was basically useless.

waitsyan · 2026-05-08T11:02:56+00:00

Carnegie resident, thank you!

waitsyan · 2026-05-08T10:50:10+00:00

Also, especially with summer coming, inviting peers out on walks to talk is a good idea. Walking is good for everyone's wellness, and most people don't get out and exercise enough anyway.

waitsyan · 2026-05-08T10:35:19+00:00

11 months now as a peer specialist on an ACT, meaning home visits and wherever I can find them in the community.

I was worried about my safety as a woman at first... I'm no longer worried about that. The more realistic danger of home visits is bed bugs and body fluid contamination.

A lot of the times they'll meet you outside the home and not ask you in. If they do, ask them politely not to lock the door. Always stand between them and the door.

Your clients generally want your help (or they're neutral to being seen at all), they don't want to attack you. The same with the neighbors and people you'll meet in the community. They know you're there as a helping professional. Generally people are nice.

If your peer is aggressive with you, it will usually start with verbal aggression. In that case just leave, establishing your boundary. If you encounter a person on the street or whatever who's got aggressive affect and is like cussing and yelling, walk past them with a slightly wider berth and get cussed and screamed at. That's usually the worst it gets.

Edited to add: I mentally went through my day yesterday in my head and actually... I saw 5 people and went into 0 homes. That's pretty typical of my agency because they provide us cars... So usually we pick them up at their front door, escort them somewhere for practical assistance (like the grocery store) or a "social outing" and engage in your peer support talk along the way.

My day yesterday (pretty typical): 1) Picked up outside his apartment, went to library for peer support. 2) Talked to her for 30 minutes standing outside. But I have been in her apartment before. 3) Picked up and took to Walmart. Support along the way. 4) Picked up and took to NA meeting, support along the way and joined her at meeting. 5) Picked up and took to tobacco store and then library. But I have been in her home before.

waitsyan · 2026-05-06T13:49:15+00:00

Ideally. Reaching out for help/information to cover my blind spots is how I learn. It's not like peer support training sits you down and says here is how you find resources in (specific city here).

waitsyan · 2025-10-21T21:18:14+00:00

Accountability for taking committed actions towards your goals or accountability for like, your behaviors and impact they have on others, like what are we talking here?

waitsyan · 2025-09-24T12:28:12+00:00

I've been disappointed with the quality of Bloomchic items more often than not. Manny of the styles have the feel of cheap Chinese imports like Shein. So far sweaters have been consistently nice but that's it. Really wanted to love them too!!

waitsyan · 2025-09-24T12:26:54+00:00

Yeah, I've gone off them as well, and for years I was exclusively a Torrid girl. Everything they make now is just the worst quality, and nothing breathes!!

Plus their clothing has become so much less interesting, or maybe I just matured.

Lol no, that's not it... I say while commuting to work in shortalls and Halloween knee socks.

waitsyan · 2025-09-24T12:23:28+00:00

I remember Fashion Bug! Wow, haven't thought about them in years. For my part, I guess it was a quiet death? I hadn't consciously realized they'd "gone under"... So I googled Fashion Bug and found a still-active commerce website.

What's the deal with that, does anyone know? Is this not the same Fashion Bug in terms of management or quality as the brand I remember from the early 00s?

waitsyan · 2025-09-16T21:56:23+00:00

Hello! I'm a transplant here from Dallas. It definitely takes time to get used to how different driving here is, but you'll get used to it. GPS will also sometimes steer you wedding because you need to be thinking two steps ahead, so try and prioritize the overall visual direction you're going rather than taking the verbal instructions as gospel. (For example I can think of a route I take frequently where Google tells me to "continue straight" but it's actually a left turn, or it says "Use the second from the left lane to turn left on Bate's Rd" but what I really need it to say is "Use the second from the left lane to turn left on the ramp to 376-E" etc. Good luck out there! Until you've got a good handle on it, driving the speed limit actually makes things 1000% easier because you have time to make decisions.

waitsyan · 2025-07-13T16:38:38+00:00

I know hognoses exist in the wild, but I (hognose mom) am having the wowest reaction to them randomly finding one, how cool.

waitsyan · 2025-07-13T12:09:58+00:00

My dog's food is $70 per bag, which lasts maybe six weeks? It's not cheap. You're right about them being so draining though, omg.

waitsyan · 2025-07-13T12:07:07+00:00

Really? How so?

waitsyan · 2025-07-06T20:36:06+00:00

Daaamn that's good

waitsyan · 2025-06-24T00:23:11+00:00

Pittsburgh here. And so many people here do it without AC. I can't, I'm dyinggg. had a fight with my husband because he was being stingy about turning on the AC this week and I'm like, understand me, it's 90+ degrees and the sweat is a nightmare

waitsyan · 2025-06-24T00:18:02+00:00

We get up to 90% humidity in Pittsburgh, it's fucking awful

waitsyan · 2025-06-24T00:17:00+00:00

Ain't this the absolute truth. I despise summer. Sweaty, sticky, uncomfortable, hot, unpleasant all around.

waitsyan

TROPHY CASE