AUGUSTA — Supervisors of state recovery centers say they’re worried about the timing and direction of Maine’s plan to establish peer-run recovery centers statewide.

The idea is for people who have faced challenges like substance abuse or mental illness to receive training to provide peer support for others. Peer-run centers, seen as a cost-efficient part of a successful mental health system, have grown out of social clubs that began decades ago as a refuge for people discharged from state mental institutions.

Maine already has at least 11 peer-led centers, but each is operated differently. The Maine Department of Health and Human Services wants to increase the quality of the state’s centers by holding them to consistent standards that are backed by research.

But an operator of two low-cost centers in Maine says he and others are concerned that the plan appears to be delayed, and he hopes the state will provide enough funding for the stricter standards it’s looking for.

John Painter, who supervises two peer-support centers in Waterville and Augusta, said advocates of the state’s chronically underfunded peer-run centers originally asked for more money, and the state instead decided to change how the centers operate.

That’s not a bad thing, he said. “But how things were pushed, from trying to catch up centers facing a lack of funding to a pretty substantial systems change — that’s what left a really sour taste in people’s mouths,” Painter said.

A spokeswoman for Maine DHHS didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.

The state’s new plan will only allow individuals who say they have severe mental illness or substance abuse disorders to participate in free services at centers, according to the state’s request for proposals from agencies to run the centers. The centers must be open at least 40 hours per week from Monday through Friday.

On a recent day, about 50 people walked into Linc Wellness Center in Augusta, which offers daily meals, arts classes, literacy programs and evidence-based recovery and wellness classes.

Senior peer coordinator Troy Henderson says the center has helped him as he recovers from childhood trauma and addiction.

“I’ve watched people get jobs, return to their passion,” Henderson said. People who visit the center deal with issues like homelessness, food insecurity and unemployment, while others come looking for others to listen to and validate their feelings.

Painter noted that one of Maine’s peer-run centers in Lewiston recently closed because of lack of funding. “That was a big loss,” he said. “It was a substantial, large center.”

The state recently pushed back a deadline for proposals to December. Painter said the state has informed advocates that current contracts for existing peer-run clubs and centers expire in June. It’s unclear from the state’s request for proposals how many agencies will be awarded contracts to run the revamped centers.

In the 1990s, Maine resolved a class-action lawsuit about its mental health system by agreeing to work under a consent decree that said it will offer community-based services. The peer-support centers, Painter said, help Maine comply with that decree.

“There’s a lot of people that really have some history with these centers and found a lot of hope and purpose in life by checking in and hearing and learning from other people who’ve walked in their shoes,” Painter said.