The Appalachian Consulting Group (ACG) and its training of a peer specialist workforce nationwide evolved from Georgia’s Division of Mental Health pioneering Medicaid-billable peer support services in 1999 in partnership with the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network (GMHCN).
Both the Georgia and ACG core recovery curriculum were designed by Ike Powell, ACG Director of Training. (Click here to see curriculum overview) Mr. Powell has more than 45 years training and curriculum development experience. (Click here for Powell bio)
Larry Fricks – ACG Director – served 13 years as Georgia’s Director of Consumer Relations and Recovery in the Georgia Division of Mental Health and partners with Powell and other ACG contractors to provide technical assistance to states and programs to support sustainable peer support services and a trained workforce of Certified Peer Specialists (CPS). (Click here for Fricks bio)
In 2007 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent guidelines to states interested in providing peer support services under the Medicaid program based largely on the Georgia CPS Project.(Click here for CMS guidelines)
ACG coordinated with the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) and other partners to host a Pillars of Peer Support Services Summit at the Carter Center in Atlanta, November 17-18, 2009. (Click here for Peer Support Services Summit report) Twenty-three states currently billing Medicaid for peer support services attended the Carter Center Summit that brought together state managers and leaders to promote strengthening peer support services and transforming those services to include recovery of the whole person known as “Peer Support Whole Health.” (Click here for National Council Magazine article on Georgia TTI grant on Peer Support Whole Health)
ACG also partners with the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance to promote the training and certification of peer specialists nationwide and in the Veterans Administration.
Contact Ike Powell at ikpwll@aol.com or call 229-378- 4951 for training and Larry Fricks at email@larryfricks.org or call 404-375-1813 for technical assistance.
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