Resource Library

This guide, put together by SAMHSA, outlines the role of peer services, expected outcomes, and certain requirements.

Families affect and are influenced by the recovery experiences of children, youth, and adults with mental or substance use disorders. As caregivers, navigators, and allies, family members play diverse roles and may require a variety of supports.

Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale Technical Assistance Center Strategy (BRSS TACS) partners with the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health (NFFCMH), the National Family Dialogue on Substance Use Disorders, and others to support families of children, youth, and adults with behavioral health needs.

Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale Technical Assistance Center Strategy (BRSS TACS) is enriched by the lived experiences of people in recovery, who play key roles in BRSS TACS project leadership, development, and implementation. Learn about the role of peer workers and access recovery-related resources about peer supports and services.

Find resources that support youth and young adult leadership in recovery programs. Youth and young adults are powerful agents of change in behavioral health care. Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale Technical Assistance Center Strategy (BRSS TACS) works with Youth M.O.V.E. National, Young People in Recovery, and others to support recovery and advance youth and young adult leadership.

This paper provides a perspective on the recent concept of recovery-oriented systems of care with respect to its origins in the past and its status in the present, prior to considering directions in which such systems might move in the future. Although influential in practice, this concept has yet to be evaluated empirically and has not been the object of a review. Recovery-oriented systems of care emerged from the efforts of persons with mental health and/or substance use disorders who advocated for services to go beyond the reduction of symptoms and substance use to promote a life in the community. Subsequent efforts were made to delineate the nature and principles of such services and those required of a system of such care. Coincident with the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration dropping reference to behavioral health in its revised definition of recovery, confusions and limitations began to emerge. Recovery appeared to refer more to a process of self-actualization for which an individual is responsible than to a process of healing from the effects of a behavioral health condition and associated stigma. In response, some systems are aiming to address social determinants of behavioral health conditions that transcend the scope of the individual and to develop a citizenship-oriented approach to promote community inclusion.

There is an enormous need for peer-led programs that serve individuals with mental health conditions who have criminal justice system involvement. The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, but it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners. And more than half of them have a mental health problem, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. People who live with mental health challenges are less likely to be released on bail, and have longer jail and prison terms. Even when they are released, they are more likely to incur technical probation violations. And this doesn’t even take into account how difficult it is for people coming out of jails and prisons to get jobs and housing, which are essential to finding their way back to normal lives.

One of the biggest challenges faced by community-based mental health and vocational programs providing services to individuals with histories of incarceration is harmonizing the conditions of community supervision, such as parole and probation, with the core values of recovery, choice, and self-determination. Service recipients are needlessly caught up in the real or perceived tensions between the expectations of each system and frequently find themselves dancing to the beat of two different drummers. This duality results in conflicts and power struggles that divest most service recipients of the ability to view reentry and recovery as being part of the same process: acquiring the wide range of skills and personal supports needed to transform their lives and be hopeful about their futures. Long-term strategies for reentry and recovery must be integrated so that those impacted meet all of the conditions of community supervision while also exercising, whenever possible, choice over their services and the setting of recovery-oriented goals.

Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of. It is a medical problem, just like heart disease or diabetes. Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in emotion, thinking or behavior (or a combination of these). Mental illnesses are associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities - and they are often accompanied by substance use. It's critical that we talk about these challenges and that we do so in the right way. The terms we use to describe mental illness matter. We have all heard derogatory terms used to describe someone who has a mental illness. Here are a few to jog your memory: Cuckoo; Mad as a hatter; Screwy – having a screw loose; Bananas; Loopy; Crackers; Wacko (whacko); Loony; Nuts; Freak; Crazy; Weirdo. Can you imagine mocking someone with an illness such as cancer or heart disease? Here's how we can do better.

This webinar is from the Northeast & Caribbean ATTC. There has been much written about relapse prevention for persons recovering from alcohol and other drugs. However, counselors and peer advocates face unique challenges, which usually are not discussed. This webinar will focus on developing skills for counselors/peer advocates on the job and in their personal lives to maintain recovery.

Privacy, security, and confidentiality issues are essential to peer support services, not just treatment services. Peer Support Specialists or Recovery Coaches that work for substance use disorder treatment providers should seek guidance from the treatment provider regarding privacy and security issues (HIPAA) and adherence to 42 CFR Part 2 (Federal Confidentiality Rules and Regulations) regarding the use of technology to provide peer support services. Peer Support Specialists/Recovery Coaches that work for a Recovery Community Organization (RCOs) or other community organizations should seek guidance regarding the organization’s policies/practices regarding providing services remotely using technology.

This paper explains how to start self-run, self-supported recovery houses in your state. It is a simple concept, based on the Oxford House experience, and provides a cost-effective way to help thousands of individuals recovering from alcoholism and drug addiction to avoid a return to addiction by living a comfortable life without the use of alcohol and drugs. Recovering individuals living together in the disciplined environment of an Oxford House in a good neighborhood are almost always able to help each other stay clean and sober without relapse.

Attention to polysubstance use is urgently needed as we respond to the evolving overdose crisis. The aim of this resource page is to provide communities—including health and human services providers, individuals with substance use disorder, their families and friends, and local leaders—with convenient, evidence-based tools to use and share in addressing these risks.