The Future of Peer Support Supervision: Building on Participatory Action Research

Supervision is a pillar of organizational efficiency and a pathway to professional development. Yet it is underutilized and minimized pervasively in human service disciplines such as social work, counseling, and other direct service engagement. Although supervision has historically been deemed a major factor in promoting acquisition of knowledge and skills and shaping workers' abilities to optimize provision of care and service to program participants, research shows that supervisors are often promoted internally as acknowledgment of their tenure or merit. However, they may lack both the interpersonal maturity and the knowledge base required to be a competent supervisor.

This workshop will operationalize the breadth and depth of supervisory practice as illustrated by the Five Critical Functions of Supervision; a model that expands on SAMHSA's three-function model (administrative, educative, and supportive) by exploring advocative and evaluative functions inherent in the supervisor's role. Implications for training and practice will be explored using findings from focus groups regarding importance, frequency, and criticality of supervision competencies. Scenarios, polling, and knowledge checks will be interspersed throughout this workshop to enable hands-on experience applying key competencies to, and assessing results of, a variety of situations that arise in supervision.