About the Role: Peer Liaison – Family Support
This position requires lived experience as a family member or primary caregiver of someone with a spinal cord injury, brain injury, or similar life-altering medical condition. Applications that do not meet this essential requirement will not be considered.

The Peer Liaison – Family Support provides support, guidance, and connection to families navigating catastrophic injury or illness by drawing from firsthand personal experience. Through one-on-one interactions and group engagements, the Peer Liaison offers emotional relatability, hope, and practical insight during a family's rehabilitation journey.

The Peer Liaison works alongside an interdisciplinary care team, modeling successful adjustment, community reintegration, and active engagement in recovery. This is a non-clinical role rooted in peer-based support and empathy.

With five decades of experience, Shepherd Center provides world-class clinical care, research, and family support for people experiencing the most complex conditions — including spinal cord and brain injuries, multi-trauma, traumatic amputations, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and pain. Ranked by U.S. News as one of the top rehabilitation hospitals in the U.S., Shepherd Center is recognized as both a Spinal Cord Injury and Traumatic Brain Injury Model System.

Shepherd is the only rehabilitation facility in the nation with an intensive care unit on-site, allowing care to begin earlier for the most complex patients. We treat thousands of patients annually with unmatched expertise and unwavering compassion to help them begin again.

Shepherd Center’s culture is one of hope, humor, and hard work. You’ll find career growth, genuine support from leadership, and an environment that keeps more than 12% of staff members with us for over 20 years.

Responsibilities

• Provides direct peer support to families and caregivers based on shared lived experience.
• Participates in patient education, therapy demonstrations, and interdisciplinary planning.
• Helps identify potential peer volunteers from the patient/family population.
• Documents family interactions and progress in accordance with Shepherd standards.
• Supports onboarding of new peer volunteers.
• Encourages families’ participation in classes, therapy, and community integration efforts.
• Collaborates on social media and public-facing education efforts.
• Participates in community outings and presentations as needed.
• Practices excellent confidentiality, professionalism, and compassionate communication.
• Promotes the value of therapy strategies through relatable peer interaction.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum 1 year of lived experience as a family member or primary caregiver of a person with spinal cord injury, brain injury, or other catastrophic medical condition.
• Excellent emotional intelligence, communication, and listening skills.
• Self-motivated, reliable, organized, and able to manage sensitive conversations.
• Understanding of the value of peer support in healthcare settings.
• Physical ability to travel across hospital campus and attend outings.

Preferred Qualifications

• High school diploma or equivalent.
• Experience with Microsoft Office and/or electronic records systems.
• Prior experience in peer support, caregiving, advocacy, or education.

Working Conditions

• Indoor hospital setting with occasional community travel.
• Regular in-person interactions with patients, families, and care teams.

May involve boarding hospital transport vehicles and light physical activity.

REQUIRED MINIMUM EDUCATION

• None.

REQUIRED MINIMUM CERTIFICATION

• No professional certifications required.

REQUIRED MINIMUM EXPERIENCE

• A minimum of at least 1 year of life experience with their disability.

REQUIRED MINIMUM SKILLS

• Excellent judgment, communication skills and empathy. 

• Self-motivated, dependable, able to meet deadlines, excellent time management skills. 

• Ability to appropriately handle sensitive and confidential information and communications. 

• Knowledge of medical terminology, applicable to role.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Intermediate to Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite software products.

• High school diploma or equivalent preferred.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• Moving about the hospital from floor to floor, in and out of patient rooms, gyms, activity areas.

• Will be required to board and ride on Shepherd transportation vehicles for the purposes of community outings.

• May be asked to perform personal ADLs.

WORKING CONDITIONS

• Role will be mostly indoors on campus.

• Some potential for exposure to blood and body fluids.

• Some local travel for presentations.

• May be exposed to outdoor elements, including heat and cold.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by people assigned to this classification.  They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all job duties performed by the personnel so classified.