Occupational Licensing and Regulation
Ohio peer supporters would need supervisors with approved credentials
The bill sets who can oversee peer supporters and what credentials can count. It also lets some licensed counselors supervise after state training.
Ohio lawmakers want peer support supervision to follow clearer state standards. The bill creates a peer support supervisor endorsement and spells out which addiction and peer-support credentials can qualify.
- Creates a new peer support supervisor endorsement
- Lists which licenses and certificates can qualify
- Lets some trained professionals supervise without the endorsement
- Makes peer support oversight more formal in Ohio
- Ohio lawmakers would turn peer support supervision into a more formal part of the state’s behavioral-health system
Ohio lawmakers would turn peer support supervision into a more formal part of the state’s behavioral-health system. Instead of leaving oversight to local custom or loose workplace practice, the bill would create a peer support supervisor endorsement and spell out who can supervise peer supporters at all.
That matters because peer supporters are often the people clients reach first. They bring lived experience to recovery work, but the bill says the people guiding that work should meet a defined standard too.
Who gets to supervise
Under the proposal, anyone seeking the supervisor endorsement would need an active independent chemical dependency counselor license, a chemical dependency counselor III or chemical dependency counselor II license, or a peer recovery supporter, youth peer supporter or family peer supporter certificate issued under the chapter.
The bill also leaves room for some people to supervise without holding the new endorsement. It says certain counselors and other licensed professionals can do that if they have completed the training requirements written into board rules.
A clearer line around peer support
The change puts the Chemical Dependency Professionals Board closer to the center of a job that has grown more visible in addiction and mental-health care. By separating ordinary employment from formal supervision, the bill would give the state a cleaner way to decide who is qualified to oversee peer-support work and who is not.
For workers, that could mean a steadier career path. For agencies, it would mean less ambiguity about who can sign off on supervision and what training has to be in place before a peer-support team can operate.