For early emerging adults with serious mental health conditions, vocational services with peer mentors are a promising adaptation of adult system evidence-based practices. Peer mentors were added to the Individual Placement and Support model of supported employment for 17- to 20-year-olds receiving residential and psychiatric care. To explore the feasibility of vocational peer mentors, open-ended satisfaction surveys and the Working Alliance Inventory were administered to mentees at 12 months. Thematic analysis of surveys reveals the importance of peer mentor authenticity, flexibility, and being a graduate of the mental health program where vocational services were based. Valued relational processes include the act of talking in the community, feeling understood, and forming a bond with peer mentors. Mentees with positive peer mentoring experiences reported stronger working alliances. This study sheds light onto near-age mentoring relational processes for this population, which can inform future research of mentoring processes and intervention design.

We are grateful to the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) for its continued support of the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s (UMMS) DMH Research Center of Excellence, the Systems and Psychosocial Advances Research Center (SPARC). We continue to leverage the DMH investment to support innovative, recovery-oriented, state-of-the-art psychosocial and systems research. Highlights of Fiscal Year 2015 include another increase in research dollars awarded through new grants and contracts, and the end of our three-year Strategic Plan to guide our growth and trajectory over the coming years. The Systems and Psychosocial Advances Research Center conducts research to enhance services, improve the quality of life, and promote recovery for people with behavioral health conditions. Our research informs and advises individuals with lived experience and their families, providers, administrators and policy-makers navigating the behavioral health landscape in the Commonwealth and beyond. SPARC was created in 1993 when it was designated a Center of Excellence for Psychosocial and Systems Research by the Massachusetts DMH. Our mission mirrors the DMH commitment to collaborating with other state agencies, consumers, families, advocates, providers, and communities. DMH and SPARC are aligned in their vision of promoting mental health through early intervention, treatment, education, policy, and regulation to provide opportunities for citizens of the Commonwealth to live full and productive lives.