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

SUMH, the state behavioral health agency, certifies all of Utah's peer credentials itself: the CPSS under R523-5, the FPSS under R523-6, and the CPSS-YYA for peers ages 18 to 30 serving individuals 14 to 26.

A PSS Forensic Enhancement application was posted for 2026.

The rule also lets a PSS add a Youth-In-Transition endorsement by completing at least 8 hours of Youth-In-Transition training (R523-5-10).

There is no supervisor credential — the Utah Peer Support Supervisor Guide listed on the SUMH page (2020) is not one, and it was not among the documents read.

Because one agency issues everything, match the credential a job posting names to the rule you read.

R523-5-8 requires the applicant to be in sustained recovery and gives two routes: participation in substance use disorder or mental health treatment services, or recovery through means other than treatment services.

A treatment history is therefore not required — what the rule requires is sustained recovery, however achieved.

The family track is different: R523-6-6 qualifies a parent of a child who has received services, or an adult with an ongoing and personal relationship with a family member who is a child receiving or who has received services, rather than the person's own recovery.

The CPSS-YYA application defines lived experience as experience with the behavioral healthcare system or other youth-serving systems, attested by the applicant.

The training-program rule requires at least 40 hours of instruction for original certification; the same sentence sets 20 hours for re-certifications, which is a curriculum rule, not the continuing-education requirement covered below.

The FPSS rule mirrors it at 40 hours (R523-6-5).

On the SUMH page, five CPSS trainers run 40-hour in-person courses — Davis Behavioral Health, Optum, Southwest Behavioral Health Center, USARA and Wasatch Behavioral Health — while Latino Behavioral Health Services' 40-hour CPSS training is in Spanish with no format stated.

UAPSS lists a five-day in-person course with no hour figure, and USU's format is a 4-hour virtual broadcast, 20 hours online and 16 hours in person.

The FPSS core and CPSS-YYA trainings are five days each, stated in days rather than hours, so the page does not put an hour total on every route; the one short route it does size is the dual track — an expedited 8-hour training that lets a CPSS add the FPSS.

Nothing in R523-5-8 counts hours: the qualification list is lived experience in sustained recovery, age 18 or older, a completed application, the qualification exam and a certificate from an approved training program.

There is no supervised-work period to complete after training, so certification does not depend on having a job first.

Employment itself carries its own requirements, though: Medicaid-covered peer work means an employer with a qualified supervisor, as the supervision section below describes.

Certification requires passing the Division's qualification exam with a score of 70% or above.

The retake rule is concrete: fail twice within a 30-day period and you must wait 30 days before testing again, so build retake time into any employment start date.

The FPSS exam is scored differently, at 80% or above.

The CPSS-YYA application confirms the exam applies on that track too — applicants initial an acknowledgment that they must take the certification exam to complete certification as a PSS-YYA.

The sources read contain no criminal-background bar, look-back period or waiver route for peer certification — the research records the background check as not located.

What the rule polices is conduct after certification: each certified PSS must abide by the Provider Code of Conduct (R495-876), and certification terminates immediately for personal financial gain through deception or a business transaction with a client, physical or emotional harm to a person caused by the PSS, or a financial loss to a client, the State or another employee caused by the PSS.

A PSS with a revoked certification may request an informal hearing within 10 business days and may not reapply for recertification for twelve months.

Because the sources read contain no screening rule, a criminal record is a question to put to SUMH and to any employer's own hiring process.

Peer support services are covered under §2-12 of the July 2024 Rehabilitative Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Services manual, delivered individually or in groups capped at a 1:8 ratio, and prescribed by a licensed mental health therapist.

Billing runs on H0038 per 15 minutes, with an HQ modifier for group services.

The manual's own statement of who can become a certified peer support specialist covers three routes in one list — own recovery from a behavioral health disorder, parent of a child with a behavioral health disorder, or another adult who has or has had an ongoing and personal relationship with an individual with a behavioral health disorder — where the administrative rules split them across the CPSS and FPSS credentials.

The federal funding vehicle (state plan amendment type or waiver) was not confirmed from a primary document and is not named here.

The manual was archived November 2024 and its successor returned an access error, so currency is not confirmed.

The manual names who supervises certified peers for Medicaid billing: a licensed mental health therapist identified in paragraph A.1 or A.2.b. of Chapter 1-5, or a licensed ASUDC or a licensed SUDC when services go to patients with a substance use disorder.

Supervision is not nominal — supervisors must provide ongoing weekly individual and/or group supervision.

For an applicant choosing between employers, the questions to ask are who the clinical supervisor is and whether weekly supervision, individual or group, is actually scheduled.

The research records reciprocity for Utah as not located: the sources read name no route that converts another state's peer certification into Utah's.

Nothing in the sources read describes an equivalency or endorsement route either.

An out-of-state peer should plan on Utah's own sequence — an approved training program, the application and the qualification exam — and put the transfer question to SUMH before registering for training.

The two Utah sources disagree on how renewal CEUs split, and both are stated here rather than reconciled.

The rule, last amended effective January 29, 2019, requires 20 hours of continuing education every two years: two ethics, six on peer support services, one suicide prevention and eleven general mental health and/or substance use disorder.

SUMH's July 2026 recertification form instead requires 20 hours during the 24 months before renewal: at least 5 in Peer Support Services, 3 in Ethics, 2 in Suicide Prevention and up to 10 in General Health, Mental Health or Substance Use Disorder topics.

The form is newer, but the rule was not seen amended, so confirm the current split with SUMH before counting hours.

The FPSS runs on a different clock: 20 hours of approved continuing education per year, including two ethics and six on Family Resource Facilitation.

The rule also lets a certificate expire when CEUs are incomplete, bars renewal until they are completed and submitted, and requires the PSS to retain proof for three years after the end of the renewal cycle.

The agency formerly named DSAMH now operates as the Office of Substance Use and Mental Health (SUMH) under the Department of Health and Human Services; the rule text on Cornell LII still names the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health and was last amended effective January 29, 2019.

Newer paperwork is active: a CPSS-YYA training application dated September 2025, a PSS Forensic Enhancement application posted for 2026, and the July 2026 recertification form whose CE split differs from the rule.

The Medicaid manual itself moved — the July 2024 rehabilitative-services manual was archived in November 2024 and its successor returned an access error when the research was pulled, which is why this page cites the archived manual.