Peer-to-Peer: NAMI's Recovery Curriculum
What is NAMI’s Peer-to-Peer Program?

Peer-to-Peer is a unique, experiential learning program for people with any serious mental illness who are interested in establishing and maintaining their wellness and recovery.

• The course was written by Kathryn Cohan McNulty, a person with a psychiatric disability who is also a former provider and manager in the mental health field and a longtime mutual support group member and facilitator.
• An advisory board comprised of NAMI consumer members, in consultation with Joyce Burland, Ph.D., author of the successful NAMI Family-to-Family Education program, helped guide the curriculum’s development.
• Since 2005, NAMI’s Peer-to-Peer Recovery Program has been supported by AstraZeneca.

What does the course include?

• Peer-to-Peer consists of nine two-hour units and is taught by a team of three trained “Mentors” who are personally experienced at living well with mental illness.
• Mentors are trained in weekend-long training sessions, supplied with teaching manuals, and are paid a stipend for each course they teach.
• Participants come away from the course with a binder of hand-out materials, as well as many other tangible resources: an advance directive; a “relapse prevention plan” to help identify tell-tale feelings, thoughts, behavior, or events that may warn of impending relapse and to organize for intervention; mindfulness exercises to help focus and calm thinking; and survival skills for working with providers and the general public.

Peer-to-Peer Class Topic List click on tab to view information

Each class contains a combination of lecture and interactive exercise material and closes with Mindfulness Practice (techniques offered to develop and expand awareness). Each class builds on the one before: attendance each week, therefore, is required.

Week One

Introductions
Stigma, Discrimination, Trauma
Begin Relapse Prevention Planning
Mindfulness

Week Two

Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Borderline Personality Disorder
Thoughts, Feelings, Sleep
Continue Relapse Prevention Planning,
Mindfulness

Week Three

Panic Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Senses, Behavior
Continue Relapse Prevention Planning,
Mindfulness

Week Four

Story Telling

Week Five

Language, Emotions, Personal Mayhem,
Continue Relapse Prevention Planning
Mindfulness

Week Six

Addictions, Spirituality, Why Medicate? Physical Health,
Complete Relapse Prevention Plans,
Mindfulness

Week Seven

"Real World" Coping Strategies, 
Staying Safe, Begin Advance Directive, Cultural Questions,
Mindfulness

Week Eight

Family Guest Speaker,
Relationships, Allies, "Hot Buttons"
Keeping Safe, Continue Advance Directive,
Mindfulness

Week Nine

Empowerment, Advocacy,
"Complete" Advance Directive
Evaluation,
Closing Mindfulness