ecovery support services are non-clinical services that are used with treatment to support individuals in their recovery goals. These services are often provided by peers or others who are already in recovery. Recovery support can include:
- Transportation to and from treatment and recovery-oriented activities
- Employment or educational supports
- Specialized living situations
- Peer-to-peer services, mentoring, coaching
- Spiritual and faith-based support
- Parenting education
- Self-help and support groups
- Outreach and engagement
- Staffing drop-in centers, clubhouses, respite/crisis services, or warmlines (peer-run listening staffed by people in recovery themselves)
- Education about strategies to promote wellness and recovery
*Source: SAMHSA
Peer Recovery:
One person in recovery helping another. Using our past to help others find a future and purpose.
What is Peer Recovery?
A Peer Recovery Support Specialist aids in the process of giving and receiving encouragement, while assisting in the overall goal of achieving long-term recovery and building community relationships.
How can Peer Recovery help a person in early recovery find new social networks?
People, Places, and Things — “A person in early recovery is often faced with the need to abandon friends and/or social networks that promote and help sustain a substance use disorder, but has no alternatives to put in their place that support recovery.” [U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services]
A Peer Recovery Support Specialist demonstrates and coaches the person in recovery how to fill that unhealthy void of old relationships that often lead to self-destructive behavior. In turn, a Peer Recovery Support Specialist provides the person in recovery with guidance on building new community relationships, supportive friendships, new places, and healthy activities that promote long-term wellness and recovery. The Peer Recovery Support Specialist guides a person in recovery toward boosting their moral, promoting positive self-esteem and provides them with the tools to maintain employment.
How does Peer Recovery help a community?
Reflections of change in people involved in a Peer Recovery program includes reduced recidivism lower crime rates in a community and provides the workforce with rehabilitated men and women who might be limited due to a criminal background.