Giving Compass' Take:

• Lauren Silverman reports on the results of peer support groups in Texas for mentally ill individuals. A study indicated this is a promising format for mental illness coping and recovery. 

• How can philanthropy support this model of mental health care? How can this model be improved? 

• Find out Smith County, Texas is working to reduce suicide.

Recovery coaches and peer mentors – known in Alcoholics Anonymous as "sponsors" — have for decades helped people who are addicted to alcohol or drugs. Now, peer support for people who have serious mental illness is becoming more common, too. Particularly in places like Texas, where mental health professionals are in short supply, paid peer counselors are filling a gap.

David Woodside, who has been living with bipolar and schizoaffective disorder his whole life, is getting help this way. Not too long ago, he wound up in Dallas County jail for the first time, at the age of 57. Woodside had become upset and kicked his brother. After his brothers, including the one he kicked, bailed him out, Woodside enrolled in an anger management class in Dallas at Metrocare, a nonprofit serving people with mental illness in North Texas.

Metrocare employs five trained peer specialists, including two who are part of the statewide Military Veteran Peer Network. In Texas, more than 900 people have gone through the statewide certification training process provided by the nonprofit organization Via Hope. The peer specialist training takes 43 hours over five days, and covers topics such as ethics, effective listening, the role of peer support in recovery and how to use your own recovery story as a recovery tool for others. The certification is valid for two years, and a person needs to earn continuing education credits during that time period to apply to renew their certification.

Studies show peer support specialists can do as well as traditional case managers — if not better — in keeping patients with severe mental illnesses out of psychiatric hospitals.

"There are many parts of the world where peer specialists are being deployed in the health care system to provide mental health care interventions," says Dr. Vikram Patel, a psychiatrist and professor of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School.

He [Patel] hopes Texas and other states in the U.S. continue to experiment with using peer providers, especially to serve people who are finding it difficult to get access to mental health professionals.

Read the full article about mental illness support groups by Lauren Silverman at NPR.