How To Set Up a Peer Counseling Program at Your School

Peer counseling programs can help address mental health and addiction problems when treatment programs and staff are lacking. This article explains the role of peer counselors in the school setting and outlines some of the basic steps to take in setting up a peer counseling program in your school.

The Ongoing Challenge of Mental Health Problems 

Mental health and addiction problems have increased significantly in recent years, including among young people. The problem is so serious that in 2021 a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health was declared in the United States by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association. The most recent data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that ADHD, anxiety, behavior problems, and depression are the most common mental disorders in children.

Unfortunately, there are not enough mental health professionals to treat all who need treatment. For many, the cost of mental health treatment may be prohibitive, even for those with insurance, as many plans have high deductibles to meet before insurance will pay.

The Opportunity of Peer Counseling

Peer counseling programs are being used across the globe, in part as a reaction to the lack of available professionals. Peer counseling is when young people help other young people deal with feelings and figure out solutions to problems. Peer counselors receive training in basic counseling skills, such as listening, reflecting, and offering emotional support. Schools are in a unique position to set up peer counseling programs, provide training, and assist as needed when more difficult issues arise.

In addition to this one-on-one helping, peer counselors often give presentations to their classmates on a variety of topics, including bullying, eating disorders, internet safety, decision-making, vaping prevention, promoting peace, preventing violence in relationships, substance use, welcoming new students, and reaching out to people who are struggling. They also share what it is like to be a peer counselor to recruit new volunteers. Being trained as a peer counselor can also help students develop valuable relationship skills that will serve them well, both as teens and as adults.

How and Why to Set Up a Peer Counseling Program

Setting up a peer counseling program can be a great addition to your child’s school experience. You may encounter some resistance at first. Engaging the help of school counselors, social workers, or psychologists may make it more likely that school administrators will be willing to implement a peer counseling program. Help them understand that such programs can save lives and address the stresses of growing up in today’s world. Teens need all the help they can get.

First Steps in Setting Up a Peer Counseling Program

Before setting up a peer counseling program, you’ll first need to talk with your school’s administrators to see if they would support such a program and in what format and to decide whether your program would be offered as a class for credit or an extracurricular activity. School administration would likely need to provide space for the peer counseling program, review methods of getting consent from parents for students to participate, and allocate funding for recruitment, training, and advertising. You can also print out the leader’s guide for I’m Here: A Peer Counseling Guide for Teens at freespirit.com/leader and share it with them.

In some schools, the peer counseling program is set up as an extracurricular school club that meets regularly. Active Minds is a nonprofit organization with over 600 chapters across the country that promotes mental health awareness and education for young adults. Chapters are student-led and are located on college campuses, in high schools, and are beginning to expand into middle schools. The Active Minds website shares useful resources for setting up a chapter in your school, as well as information on other peer counseling programs across the United States. They can be a good option for starting an extracurricular program at your school. Other schools offer academic credit for becoming trained as a peer counselor.

Selecting Peer Counselors

Once you’ve determined the format and guidelines for your program, you can select peer counselors and mediators. This can be done in different ways. Some schools and organizations invite or nominate students to participate based on their observations of traits and skills that make these students good candidates for becoming peer counselors or mediators. This might include perceptions of how well candidates get along with others, how helpful or kind they are, what leadership potential they have, and how they interact with adults. Other programs ask students to nominate their peers based on similar criteria. Students can also volunteer on their own to participate.  

Training Peer Counselors

Training is the next step and is, in many ways, the most important step. The book I’m Here makes a wonderful training guide for students. Some of the students they are helping may come to them with more serious mental health problems and peer counselors need to know how to handle these challenges, as well as when to seek help from adult supervisors. When supervising peer counselors or mediators and coordinating a program, you will need to create an atmosphere that is conducive to sharing problems. This means not being overly critical of helpers as they are learning to implement new skills or improve existing ones. Let them know that they will make mistakes. This is part of the learning process.

In supervising young people, you will need to be more direct than you would be with adults. During supervision sessions, you might start with open-ended questions, such as

• “How’s it been going with you with your helpees?”
• “What troubles or situations have you come up against so far?”
• “Which skills have been easiest for you to use? Which have been harder?”

In these sessions, you will need to ask more specific questions as well, especially regarding safety issues. Students may be hesitant to share, as they may be afraid that they didn’t handle them properly. Asking questions, as well as reassuring them that this is a learning process and that they are not expected to be perfect, can make it easier for them to share. Here are some examples of questions you might ask.

• “Have any of the people you are helping talked about having suicidal thoughts or made any attempts?”
• “Have any of your helpees shared information that made you uncomfortable? How did you respond?”
• “Has drug or alcohol use come up with your helpees? How did you respond to what they told you?”

When supervising peer helpers, group supervision is typically the preferred format. Meeting with all your helpers at once facilitates their learning from each other. It also makes it easier for you since your time is probably limited. Along with group supervision, you should be sure to occasionally check in with helpers individually to make sure there aren’t issues they haven’t felt comfortable sharing in the larger group setting.

Advertising Your Program

After you’ve found and trained your first counselors, advertising your program and sharing ways to volunteer with and access it are the next steps. Some of your options might include

• school newspapers
• flyers sent home with students
• morning announcements
• posters
• in-class demonstrations of role-play sessions
• school social media

Establish a Referral System

You will need to decide how students can access the peer counseling program. Printing business cards with contact information can make it easier for teachers, school counselors, administrators, and even other students to share this information with students they believe might benefit from the program.

Options for making contact include setting up regular drop-in hours, texting, calling, or emailing. Be sure that you have students trained to respond quickly once they get a referral.

There are so many benefits of peer counseling programs that make them worthwhile to try in your school. Peer counseling programs teach teens valuable communication skills that will help them in their relationships with friends, family, and partners. Learning to listen respectfully, repeat back what they hear, offer solutions, help problem solve when situations or dilemmas arise, and even being able to help mediate conflict are all skills that benefit everyone. For some teens, their participation in a peer counseling program may even motivate them to pursue a career in mental health!