Resource Library

This webinar explores how people in recovery from addiction can help others by providing peer recovery support services and creating recovery-supportive environments. Many aspects of peer services are touched upon, including how to consider peer and other recovery support services in an era of health reform and change.

Bizzell’s Behavioral Health Advancement Resource Center (BHARC) is pleased to share their publication of the latest Behavioral Health Spotlight article, “Peer Recovery Support Services: A Promising Approach to Combat Substance Use Disorders.” This month's article spotlights how peer recovery support services are being used to extend the capacity of health care workers and to offer ongoing treatment of SUDs. The February 2023 Behavioral Health Spotlight, written by K. Ceres Wright, MA; William Scarbrough, PhD; and Jenny Twesten, MPH, reviews the evidence around delivery of peer recovery support services to improve long-term treatment outcomes of SUDs. The Behavioral Health Spotlight, published by BHARC and funded by Bizzell US, is a thought-leadership series highlighting various behavioral health topics that impact communities across the United States and abroad.

From ACMHA - The College for Behavioral Health Leadership, this Peer Services Tool Kit, is aimed at supporting efforts to advocate and expand the capacity, capability, and scope of peer services while providing valuable background information for federal, state, and local governments and for new payers.

Wisconsin Voices for Recovery, Continuing Studies at Unviersity of Wisconsin-Madison, and Wisconsin Department of Health Services partnered to provide free continuing education opportunities for people in recovery, peer support providers, and other professionals.

Hospital-Based Recovery Coaching is an innovative and effective way to engage with people who have recently survived an opioid or other substance overdose or who may be hospitalized in the Emergency Department or ED setting for other substance use disorder and substance misuse issues. The main goal of this new program are to: increase recovery support services and connection of individuals seeking support; reduce Emergency Department recidivism; and decrease overdose fatalities.

Peer Support Roles Across the Sequential Intercept Model is a two-page tool that provides an overview of how people with lived experience, or peers, can provide support to individuals in contact with the criminal justice system at each intercept of the Sequential Intercept Model.

There is substantial and growing evidence that engaging peers leads to better behavioral health and criminal justice outcomes. Peers are commonly found working in the community or with service providers, and stakeholders should consider how peers can be best effective within the criminal justice system. This two-page resource was designed to identify a host of roles that peers can play, both as staff and volunteers, across the Sequential Intercept Model. In addition to the broad outline, local examples are provided to highlight peers who are working with law enforcement, courts and attorneys, jails and prisons, reentry services, and community corrections across the United States.

This advisory from SAMHSA discusses the role of peer support workers and models of peer support services that are available to assist individuals who are experiencing a crisis. Peer support services are a vital component of crisis care.

This article examines how the history and philosophy of peer support services has shaped current mental health and substance use service delivery systems. The growth of peer-run and recovery community organizations in the changing health care environment are discussed, including issues related to workforce development, funding, relevant policies, and opportunities for expansion. These initiatives are designed to increase access to recovery-promoting services.

This toolkit from Philadelphia's Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, is designed to support behavioral health treatment agencies with the process of integrating peer providers into their service settings. The Peer Support Toolkit incorporates many of the promising practices and resources that have emerged during the last decade of Philadelphia’s recovery-focused system transformation effort. Tools in this kit are designed to help agencies to recruit, retain, and effectively deploy people in recovery in a variety of peer support roles. The resources and information provided is relevant for executive leadership along with supervisors and peer staff.

SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) helps states and communities promote wellness and recovery through increased access to Social Security disability benefits for eligible adults who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness and have a serious mental illness, medical impairment, and/or a cooccurring substance use disorder. Funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the SAMHSA SOAR Technical Assistance (TA) Center develops and provides systems planning, training, and technical assistance to support the implementation of SOAR nationwide. This guide serves to help implement SOAR into peer-run organizations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that from 1999 to 2015, the amount of prescription opioids dispensed in the U.S. nearly quadrupled, and the number of drug overdose deaths has never been higher. The majority of these deaths – more than 60% in 2016 – have involved opioids. The current opioid epidemic has awakened communities and stakeholders, calling for innovative approaches to address substance use, misuse, and addiction. Despite the need for prevention, treatment, and recovery services, nearly 80% of individuals with an opioid use disorder do not receive treatment of any type, and only 41.2% of addiction treatment providers offer some type of FDA-approved medication to treat opioid use disorder (OUD). Further, prevention and recovery services are often hard to access or nonexistent. Emergency departments (EDs) have presented an opportunity to increase the provision of addiction-related services, particularly for individuals who have received overdose reversal treatment through the administration of naloxone. Hospitals and EDs are an ideal location to intervene with an individual who has just been revived from an opioid overdose, and immediately connect them with appropriate services and support, including medication-assisted treatment (MAT). Despite this, many EDs do not have the necessary workforce, expertise, or experience to effectively engage with the overdose survivor. Consequently, many individuals are released from care with little or no intervention or leave against medical advice. These instances present numerous missed opportunities, often resulting in a “revolving door,” in which the same individual returns to the ED for repeated overdose reversal treatments. This creates a cycle in which the individual leaves the hospital, returns to use, eventually overdoses, and often dies. Click the link below to continue reading.

The ability of the Peer Support Worker to actively engage with other marginalised or excluded individuals based on their unique insight into their own experience supports a therapeutic model of care based on appropriately sharing their story. These findings have key implications for maximising the effectiveness of Peer Support Workers and in contributing their perspective to the development of a therapeutic model of care.

From South Southwest MHTTC: Systemic racism. Police reform. A global pandemic. These have been challenging times. In this keynote address, Pat Deegan will reflect on the resilience of the peer support community during these tough times. She will explore how the peer support community can avoid drift and assimilation into clinical culture, and share some great, peer-centric tools that you can use in your work each day.