Scope of Practice.
This page explains, in detail, what support we provide, what we do not provide, and how safety is managed if you choose to engage with Your Recovery.
Our services are delivered by trained Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) Peer Support Workers (mentors) operating within Australian peer work frameworks.
Please read this page carefully.
Clear scope boundaries protect you, Your Recovery, and the integrity of peer support.
If you decide to engage with us
When you engage with Your Recovery, you are not entering counselling, psychotherapy, or clinical treatment. You are engaging in non-clinical, recovery-oriented peer support delivered by trained peer workers and informed by evidence-based practice. This support is designed to work alongside clinical care, not replace it.
Our role is to support stability, insight, and practical recovery planning in everyday life. Many people experience recovery challenges between appointments, after discharge, or while waiting to access services. Peer support fills this gap by helping you make sense of recovery in real-world conditions, while recognising when other services are required and supporting connection to them.
What peer support means at Your Recovery
Peer support at Your Recovery is relational, collaborative, and practical. It is not clinical or diagnostic. We do not assess, diagnose, or treat. Instead, we walk alongside you to support clarity, consistency, and forward movement in your recovery.
Our work is guided by your goals, your readiness for change, and your lived context. The relationship is boundaried and purposeful, with clear expectations and an agreed focus, rather than open-ended or indefinite support.
What we are trained and qualified to support
AOD recovery support (non-clinical)
Within a peer scope, we support people experiencing substance use challenges by helping them make sense of patterns, risks, and next steps in recovery.
This includes support with:
Understanding substance use patterns and cycles
Identifying triggers, warning signs, and high-risk situations
Developing craving management strategies
Building relapse prevention plans (non-clinical)
Harm-minimisation education
Transitioning from detox, rehab, custody, or hospital
Re-establishing structure after periods of instability
Early recovery stabilisation
Accountability structures chosen by the client
This work focuses on practical application, not treatment. We help translate insight into action and support consistency between appointments, programs, or services.
We do not:
Manage withdrawal
Prescribe or advise on medication
Provide medical or clinical treatment
How we use lived experience
Lived experience is used intentionally and ethically, within professional boundaries. Peer workers may draw on lived experience when it directly benefits your recovery, such as reducing isolation, increasing hope, or normalising struggle without normalising harm.
The focus remains on you. Lived experience is never used to centre the peer worker or compare recovery paths.
How we use the Eight Dimensions of Wellness
We use the Eight Dimensions of Wellness as a practical recovery framework, not as a clinical assessment or diagnostic tool.
This framework helps:
Identify life areas that are impacting recovery
Break complex change into manageable parts
Reduce overwhelm
Support balanced, sustainable progress
The eight dimensions are used to:
Structure conversations
Guide goal setting
Support reflection
Identify pressure points that increase relapse risk
They help create a clearer picture of how life circumstances and recovery interact.
Evidence-based practices within peer scope
Our peer workers apply principles from evidence-based approaches in ways that align with peer scope and ethics.
Motivational Interviewing principles are used to explore ambivalence, strengthen autonomy, and support readiness for change, without pressure or persuasion.
CBT-informed strategies are used to increase awareness of thinking and behaviour patterns and support alternative responses, without delivering therapy or treating mental illness.
Mindfulness and grounding practices are used to support emotional regulation, present-moment awareness, and distress tolerance. All services are delivered using trauma-informed principles, including safety, choice, collaboration, transparency, and respect for autonomy. We do not provide trauma therapy.
Safety, confidentiality, and boundaries
Your information is treated as confidential within professional and legal limits. Confidentiality may be limited where there is imminent risk of harm, risk to another person, or a legal obligation to disclose. These limits exist to protect safety and are clearly explained.
Peer support is not crisis intervention. Our peer workers are trained to recognise when needs move outside peer scope. If there is active suicidal intent, acute psychosis, severe intoxication or withdrawal, or risk of harm to self or others, peer support is paused and safety is prioritised. We escalate to appropriate emergency or clinical services and may contact nominated supports.
Within scope, we can support collaborative safety planning, identification of warning signs, strengthening protective factors, and clear escalation pathways. We do not conduct clinical risk assessments, and do not replace crisis services.
What is outside our scope
We do not provide:
Counselling or psychotherapy
Mental health diagnosis
Treatment for mental illness
Medication advice or management
Withdrawal management
Clinical case management
Emergency mental health intervention
We will support referral and coordination where appropriate.
Working alongside other services
We actively support:
Collaboration with clinicians
Respect for treatment plans
Clear role separation
Continuity of care
We do not contradict medical or psychological advice.
Why scope matters
Clear scope boundaries:
Protect client safety
Strengthen recovery outcomes
Reduce harm
Support ethical practice
Preserve trust
Respect the role of clinical services
Peer support works best when it knows its limits.
What you can expect
If you engage with Your Recovery, you can expect clear boundaries, practical and non-judgemental support, respect for your autonomy, evidence-informed peer practice, strong safety processes, and collaboration with other services when needed.
You will not be diagnosed, not treated, and not fixed.
You will be supported to stabilise, reflect, plan, and move forward safely, with someone walking alongside you who understands recovery and works within clear, professional limits.