Peer Support Specialist Certification in New Hampshire: Training, Hours and Medicaid Rules

New Hampshire's peer credential is the Certified Recovery Support Worker, defined as an individual certified by the office of professional licensure and certification to provide recovery support to persons with substance use disorders.

The credential is SUD-only; no state mental-health peer certification was located.

Scope covers basic screening and referral, monitoring of health and safety, and recovery support (RSA 330-C:13).

The title and the abbreviation CRSW are protected: only persons certified under the chapter may use them.

Keep the Medicaid rule's peer recovery coach apart — a training-based billing role, not a board credential — and check which one an employer or program actually needs.

Neither the statute's initial-certification list nor the board's eligibility rule imposes a lived-experience condition.

RSA 330-C:19 lists the initial-certification requirements — application and fees, English literacy, a high school diploma or its equivalent, board training, and other board criteria — and Alc 303.01(a) lists the eligibility requirements; neither asks for personal or family recovery.

The Medicaid rule frames the service differently: peer recovery support is delivered by peers who self-identify as having lived experience, and He-W 513.02(k) defines that as direct, personal experience with either your own recovery from a substance use disorder or that of a family member.

The board will not ask for your story; a Medicaid-enrolled employer may ask how you self-identify.

The rule requires at least 46 hours covering the 4 domain areas: 16 hours of education in ethical responsibility, including ethical boundaries and 42 CFR Part 2 and HIPAA confidentiality laws; 10 hours in advocacy, including 6 hours of suicide prevention training; 10 hours in mentoring and education, including 3 hours of mental health and co-occurring training; and 10 hours in recovery and wellness, including 3 hours of HIV and AIDS training.

At least 50% of the education must be provided, sponsored or approved by listed bodies such as the board, NAADAC, the New Hampshire Training Institute on Addictive Disorders or BDAS, and no more than 25% may be online, with exceptions for online college programs and live, simultaneously interactive training.

One college credit equals 15 contact hours.

The statute separately requires a high school diploma or its equivalent.

You need at least 500 hours of paid or volunteer work experience completed within the 10 years immediately preceding the completion of an application.

The hours only count once they are performed after submission of a supervisory agreement the board has approved under Alc 313.09, so file the agreement before you start logging.

The hours involve direct and indirect services to clients, participants or mentees, performed in a detoxification program, a substance use counseling or treatment program, a recovery community organization, or the substance use aspect of a healthcare, social service or other direct service program.

The supervisor's report form must show no not acceptable ratings across the performance domains.

Initial certification requires the IC&RC written Peer Recovery (PR) examination.

Applicants apply to and take the examination with the IC&RC itself, not with the board, and then request that the IC&RC submit proof of a passing score directly to the board.

The exam is international, but the certification decision belongs to New Hampshire: the board issues the CRSW after its own eligibility, work-experience and application requirements are met.

Every initial applicant submits a criminal history record release form and a complete set of fingerprints; the division of state police checks its records and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's, and the applicant bears the cost.

If fingerprints fail twice for insufficient pattern, the office may instead accept police clearances from every city, town or county where the person has lived during the past 5 years.

A felony conviction not waived by the board is disqualifying under RSA 330-C:15, but the rule builds the waiver: the board shall waive a felony conviction if the applicant has corrected the deficiency which led to the act or omission, after considering the applicant's explanation, restitution steps, compliance with probation or parole, payment of fines or restitution, and compliance with any plea or settlement agreement.

Good moral character is judged on the application materials, including misdemeanors involving violence, abuse of a minor or vulnerable person, or substance use related offenses.

Peer recovery support is a covered service when a Medicaid-enrolled peer recovery program provides it — a recovery community organization accredited by CAPRSS or Clubhouse International, or one under contract with the department or its contracted facilitating organization (He-W 513.02(t)).

The person delivering it is a peer recovery coach with 30 contact hours of recovery coach training plus 16 ethics, 6 suicide prevention and 3 co-occurring hours; the program bills, and the supervising practitioner is listed as the rendering provider.

Services help recipients age 12 and above and families.

Separately, recovery support services under He-W 513.05(s) can be delivered by a board-certified CRSW through a Medicaid-enrolled outpatient program, comprehensive SUD treatment program or peer recovery program, and any of those three bills.

The federal vehicle for the benefit was not stated in the rule text read.

For SUD recovery support services, a CRSW must be supervised by an MLADC, an independent-practice LADC who also is a licensed clinical supervisor, a LADC, or a licensed mental health provider — each on the staff of or under contract with a Medicaid-enrolled outpatient SUD program, comprehensive SUD program or peer recovery program — or by a CRSW certified for one year who has taken 6 hours of supervisory training and 6 hours of practical training approved by the board under Alc 409.01.

A peer recovery coach's supervisor must be a practitioner who qualifies under He-W 513.04(c)(2) and is on the staff of or under contract with the peer recovery program, and must have completed the coach training in He-W 513.05(r)(4) plus 6 contact hours of training in the supervision of individuals delivering peer recovery support services.

An MLADC delivering recovery support services requires no supervision.

Alc 303.04 gives two reciprocity routes for initial CRSW certification.

An applicant who is currently a certified recovery support worker in another jurisdiction within the IC&RC is certified by the board upon completing the application requirements in Alc 304.01 - Alc 305.

An applicant certified in a jurisdiction outside the IC&RC is eligible if that jurisdiction's application requirements are equal to or more stringent than those in the New Hampshire chapter, and the applicant complies with Alc 304.01 - 304.04.

If you hold a peer credential elsewhere, confirm with the board whether your jurisdiction is an IC&RC member before you apply.

Certified recovery support workers need 24 hours of approved continuing education in the 24 months subsequent to the date of certification or re-certification, and presenting satisfactory evidence of meeting the chapter's continuing education requirements is a prerequisite to renewal.

The board's website says CE Broker is now mandatory for alcohol and other drug use professionals, so track the hours there.

RSA 330-C:24 addresses continuing education only; the board's renewal rules were not among the sources read.

The board's Alc 300 chapter was amended effective 3/13/2023; the eligibility, work-experience, education and exam rules cited on this page carry that amendment.

RSA 330-C:19 was amended by 2024, 327:9, and RSA 330-C:20 by 2024, 327:10 and by 366:22, effective July 1, 2026; RSA 330-C:24 was amended in 2023 and 2024.

Sections 330-C:6, 330-C:7, 330-C:14-a, 330-C:27 and 330-C:31 through 330-C:33 were repealed by 2025, 161:6, effective Sept.

13, 2025.

2026, 224 rewrites RSA 330-C:14 I to drop the licensed clinical supervisor (LCS) title — the credential He-W 513.04(c)(2)'s independent-practice LADC + LCS supervisor route relies on — and repeals RSA 330-C:18 and RSA 330-C:24 II(b), effective July 1, 2030; the Medicaid rule text read has not been amended to reflect this.

The rules were read on Cornell LII, which may lag new rulemaking.