How Peer Support Builds Connection at RMHS
October 8, 2026
Through shared experience and consistent support, peer support specialists help people build trust and work toward their goals in Homes for All Veterans and Community Transitions.
Major life transitions can involve many changes at once, from adjusting to new routines to navigating unfamiliar systems and resources. Rocky Mountain Human Services (RMHS) offers support through significant life transitions including discharging from a hospital after a long-term stay, returning to the community after incarceration, and adjusting to life after military service.
Navigating these transitions often means managing multiple systems at once, including health care, housing, benefits, relationships, and new expectations. Support during these moments requires more than appointments and paperwork. Trust, consistency, and connection can all play an important role.
That’s where peer support comes in.
What is Peer Support?
Peer support is provided by people who draw on their own lived experience to help others navigate similar challenges, transitions, or recovery journeys.
At RMHS, peer support specialists are members of the care teams in Homes for All Veterans (HAV) and Community Transitions. The programs serve different populations but share a focus on helping people navigate significant life changes:
- Community Transitions supports individuals leaving behavioral health settings, incarceration, or other institutional settings and returning to community living.
- HAV supports veterans experiencing housing instability, including those also navigating mental health challenges or social isolation.
“Peer support specialists are a big part of what makes Community Transitions work,” says Carrie Sharpe, senior program manager for Community Transitions. “They bring lived experience and a real-life perspective that helps balance out the clinical side of the work.”
Their role complements clinical care, housing services, and case management by building relationships grounded in each person’s experiences and goals.
How Peer Support Strengthens Care
1. Building Trust Through Lived Experience
Shared experience can offer a starting point for trust. People may feel more comfortable opening up to someone who understands their challenges firsthand. That connection can help care teams better understand each person’s priorities and coordinate support around their goals.
As one HAV peer support specialist shared, simply saying, “I’ve been where you are,” can help someone feel less alone and more willing to take the next step.
2. Helping People Navigate Complex Systems
Housing, benefits, behavioral health care, and re-entry systems are often difficult to navigate, especially during periods of stress. Peer support specialists help individuals understand options, prepare for appointments, and break big tasks into manageable steps without taking control away from the person.
Community Transitions’ Peer Support Specialist, Erika Nelson, shared how her lived experience shapes her approach: “When people leave institutional settings, there are so many needs to address—housing, health care, mental health, food insecurity, reconnecting to relationships and more. Just one of those tasks can be overwhelming and stressful. And recovery itself is a lot of work! I am there for the people I support throughout each step.”
3. Supporting Person-Centered Care and Planning
Peer support specialists help people identify their strengths, priorities, and sources of support. In Community Transitions, tools such as Wellness Recovery Action Plans (WRAPs) can support these conversations and help people recognize early warning signs and plan for difficult moments.
“A WRAP helps identify the supports they already have in their life: the people they can call, the resources they can rely on, and the strengths they may not always recognize in themselves. It also helps shine a light on the areas where support is still needed,” says Rachel Ebele, a peer support specialist in Community Transitions.
These conversations follow the individual’s readiness and priorities, helping them build plans that feel realistic and meaningful.
4. Providing Consistent Support
Peer support specialists offer a steady connection during transitions, whether through a weekly meeting, a check-in text, or time spent listening as someone sorts through what comes next.
That consistent presence can help people stay connected to support as they navigate changes,
As Ebele explains, “Coming out of institutional settings or hospitals can be overwhelming, even frightening. People are stepping back into a world that may feel unfamiliar, unstructured, or full of expectations they’re not sure they can meet. By showing up with lived experience, steady presence, and genuine belief in the person’s ability to move forward, we’re saying, ‘You’re not doing this alone.’”
Peer Support in Action in Homes for All Veterans (HAV)
In Homes for All Veterans (HAV), Peer Support Specialists work alongside the care team to support veterans experiencing housing instability. For veterans also navigating mental health challenges or social isolation, connecting with someone who shares similar experiences can create space to talk openly and work toward personal goals.
“Through continued conversation, I build rapport and create a safe space for each veteran,” says Peer Support Specialist Ashley Thigpen. “This creates trust that makes them feel comfortable to share needs they have that otherwise may have been kept to themselves.”
A Connection Built Over Time
For one veteran working with Peer Support Specialist Supervisor Daniel Wells, that trust took months to develop. Initially, they rarely responded to calls or texts and declined to meet in person. Their contact was limited to an occasional text.
During that time, the veteran experienced a mental health crisis and admitted themselves to a facility. Wells continued to reach out, letting them know he was there to listen.
Gradually, the veteran began to open up. Drawing on his own experience as a veteran, Wells listened and validated what they shared. They began meeting weekly to talk about goals, wellness, and recovery. By the time the veteran completed the program, they felt confident and hopeful—and sad to say goodbye to someone they had come to trust.
Their experience offers a personal perspective on HAV’s broader results. Among veterans actively working with a Peer Support Specialist in HAV in 2025 who reported mental health challenges when entering the program, 72% reported decreased mental health symptoms by the end of the year.
Peer Support in Action in the Community Transitions Program
In Community Transitions, Peer Support Specialists work with people returning to the community after treatment in behavioral health settings or incarceration. Managing housing, appointments, relationships, and recovery can involve many adjustments. Peer support gives people someone to talk with as they navigate those changes and work toward their goals.
“If Peer Support had a motto, it would be: ‘Let’s figure it out together!’” says Peer Support Specialist Rachel Ebele. “That phrase captures the spirit of what I do every day. Peer support means walking alongside someone, not directing the path for them.”
For Ebele, that means building trust, supporting people in speaking up for themselves, and reminding them that setbacks don’t erase progress. As she explains, “I want the individuals I support to feel capable of accomplishing things, getting through difficult moments, and knowing that asking for help is a strength, not a setback.”
Peer Support Specialists also work closely with Clinical Care Managers, who provide intensive care coordination. Together, they bring different perspectives to supporting each person’s recovery, independence, and goals.
“Together, we promote the whole person, not just their needs, but their strengths, their goals, and their sense of agency,” Ebele says.
Peer Support at RMHS
Peer support at RMHS reflects a broader commitment to team-based, person-centered care. Meeting people where they are, especially during major transitions, is essential to helping people define and work toward their own goals. Peer support helps make that approach real, one relationship at a time.
Learn more about Homes for All Veterans and Community Transitions and the support available through each program.
