U.S. Air Force Veteran named Salisbury VA’s Peer Specialist of the Year for 2024
As the son of a former U.S. Airman, one could say that service is in U.S. Air Force Veteran Martin Harper’s DNA. The North Carolina Certified Peer Support Specialist has always been community-minded.
Last month, Harper was recognized as the Salisbury VA Health Care System’s Peer Specialist of the Year for 2024.
“For the first time, I feel like I am walking in my purpose, not as a side hustle or as a volunteer, but as my actual vocation. I no longer must quit helping people to stop and get ready for work,” said Harper.
Not one to slow down, Harper also serves as a community activist, volunteer, and mentor.
Despite his busy community involvement, Harper has made it one of his passions to assist Veterans who deal with the same struggles that he once faced.
Harper has been a Peer Support Specialist for over three years and just finished his first year at the Salisbury VA’s Kernersville Health Care Center (HCC) as a split-modality peer specialist in the Primary Care Mental Health Integrated (PCMHI) and Substance Use Disorders (SUD) services.
“In order to become a certified peer support specialist, you must be suffering from some type of mental illness or substance use disorder or you cannot get certified. And I just thought it was amazing; something that I spent a great deal of my life hiding from employers was now not only a plus, but it was also a requirement. And so that was another amazing reason to get into peer support,” explained Harper.
Outside of the VA, Harper and his wife Angel, an educator, together conduct marriage, parenting, family, and youth-centered workshops as a team and as individuals at specialized events such as conferences. The Harper’s have raised seven children together as a blended family and enjoy spending time with their grandchildren.
Harper is also an ordained Christian minister and has received some formal training in the areas of addiction and grief counseling, mental health, and family and youth ministry.
In 2014, he and his organization were selected as the Volunteer of the Year for Communities in Schools of High Point. Additionally, Harper was recently selected to a statewide committee to reorganize, re-write, and standardize the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services curriculum for training and certifying peer support specialists.
At the Salisbury VA, Harper shines representing the VA Peer Force at outreach events such as stand-downs, mental health awareness observations, and community health fairs. He also enjoys group facilitation for both SUD and PCMHI as well as co-facilitating groups about Race-Based Stress Trauma and Empowerment.
“I feel like I meet the same three people every single day of my life. I meet who I was. I meet who I could have been because many [Veterans] are worse off. Then I meet who I still am. That's the part of me I'm still working on,” added Harper.
Harper has been a helping hand to many Veterans by being transparent about his own recovery story and personal struggles with addiction and mental health.
He continues to advocate for addicted populations, homeless communities, and at-risk youth.
“Martin Harper is serving as Salisbury VA’s first peer specialist serving in Primary Care/Mental Health Integration with the goal of inviting Veterans to attend Substance Use Treatment. He created a recovery-based curriculum to address substance use recovery from a peer perspective,” said Dr. Shanyn Aysta, Peer Support Program Manager at the Salisbury VA. “Martin brings joy and passion to his role, inspiring those he serves to make positive changes in their lives.”
Harper credits a wonderful first year at the Salisbury VA to those he works alongside every day: Dr. Aysta; Lead Peer Specialist Anthony Thompson; Social Workers Karissa Brone, Angela Sepulveda, and Quiana McDowell; and both the PMCHI and SUD staffs.
Congratulations, Martin Harper!
VA peer specialists are VA employees and Veterans. They have experienced recovery from a mental health condition. Peer specialists are trained and certified mental health care professionals. They are part of an interdisciplinary treatment team that helps to manage Veteran's needs.
For more information on this story, email the Office of Strategic Communications & Public Affairs at salisburyvapublicaffairs@va.gov.
About the Salisbury VA Health Care System
At the Salisbury VA Health Care System, our mission is to fulfill President Lincoln’s promise to care for those who have served in our nation’s military and for their families, caregivers, and survivors.
Learn more at www.va.gov/salisbury-health-care.