Resource Library

In January 2021, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing hosted a technical expert panel (TEP) to explore ways to best demonstrate the value of recovery housing in the United States. The TEP reviewed the current landscape, identified areas for improvement and discussed potential options for improving the system. In partnership with the Opioid Response Network and the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, the National Council convened subject matter experts, including recovery housing leaders, researchers, treatment providers, national associations, federal agencies, Single State Agency directors and payers. The findings are included in this report.

The Dimensions: Peer Support Program Toolkit was developed by the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, School of Medicine, Behavioral Health and Wellness Program.

This toolkit contains evidence-based information about the effectiveness of peer support programs, the important role peers can play in an organization, as well as step-by-step instructions to create a successful and sustainable peer support program. It is designed for use by a broad spectrum of organizations, including hospitals, healthcare clinics, and community agencies, Organizations that serve populations that would benefit from a peer support program, such as behavioral health, chronic medical conditions, justice-involved, military, and homeless are encouraged to utilize this toolkit. The materials are intended for administrators, healthcare providers, support staff, and, of course, peer specialists.

This brief outlines the legal framework on the right to adequate care and treatment for medical, mental health, and substance-related conditions in jails. The brief also highlights the findings of original research on litigation related to deaths in jail custody and provides recommendations for reform.

The Ecosystem of Recovery reflects the approach we are using in the Appalachian region of New York State to create broader access to and community-wide support for evidence-based and emerging best practices in opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment. This approach may be a helpful framework for other rural communities on this journey. It begins by establishing partnerships across the community to provide patients with access to treatment in their homes, emergency departments (EDs), and treatment centers. It ends with community-wide support for patients in recovery and care management integrated into primary care practices. The system is designed to increase screening, provide timely access to treatment, sustain long-term recovery, and engage primary care providers in a system of care.

This toolkit from the UMass Medical School Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research, outlines and provides materials for the following:

• Background
• Young Adults in the Peer Provider Role
• Conceptualizing & Structuring the Young Adult Peer Role
• Establishing an Organizational Culture
• Recruiting, Hiring, and Training
• Effective Supervision
• Addressing Significant Job Difficulties
• Preparing and Engaging Non-peer Staff
• Infrastructure and Framework

Motivation for change is a key component in addressing substance misuse. This Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) reflects a fundamental rethinking of the concept of motivation as a dynamic process, not a static client trait. Motivation relates to the probability that a person will enter into, continue, and adhere to a specific change strategy.

The toolkit is designed to be brief and guide community providers and state hospital administrators to integrate peer providers into their recovery-oriented services or to expand them. A wealth of material has been written on recruiting and hiring, but very little on supervision and retention. This toolkit will emphasize these two areas. The toolkit includes a list of resources.

Through the Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale Technical Assistance Center Strategy (BRSS TACS) project, SAMHSA convened an Expert Panel on March 21 – 22, 2012, to learn more about the needs of behavioral health systems and authorities as they strive to promote and support peer services, and to strategize innovative responses to those needs. Specifically, the Expert Panel members worked to:

Understand current practices, implementation strategies, and contexts for peer specialists/peer recovery coaches
Identify innovative workforce development activities and summarize workforce development needs to implement peer specialist/peer recovery coaching services
Develop specific recommendations for behavioral health systems and authorities as they seek to support and implement peer specialists/peer recovery coaches across a diverse range of settings

“Recovery Community Support Programs” were originally funded by the federal government and offered peer-to-peer support in order to assist those in recovery find a place to be assessed and referred to supportive services critical to the sustainment of log-term recovery. Programs became a meeting place were the main goal was to support those in recovery in all their needs to secure continued sobriety. As these programs grew, they began to become indispensable particularly for those coming out of the criminal justice system. Like many new efforts in program methodologies the peer-to-peer efforts failed to gravitate to the Latino/Hispanic addiction treatment efforts. There are many cultural and historical reasons for this, but, despite the barriers, there have been a few communities that have broadened their addiction treatment program offerings to include recovery peer-to-peer efforts. This VLC session will explore the developmental conditions that make these programs possible, the service components of the programs and the linguistic and policy considerations that make, or, will make these programs culturally appropriate.

This article is part of Perspectives on Peer-based Recovery Support Services, the third in a series of monographs on recovery management published by the Great Lakes Addiction Technology Transfer Center.

There are two intended audiences for these discussions: individuals who are in positions of  responsibility for the planning, implementation, and supervision of peer-based recovery support  services and individuals who are working in either paid or volunteer roles as recovery coaches.  This paper is designed to be adapted for use in the training of recovery coaches and their  supervisors. The paper will remain in the public domain and may be adapted as a training aid  or used without request by other recovery support organizations as a reading resource. We  encourage the use of the decision-making model and the ethical case studies in the paper in the  orientation and training of recovery coaches.

Peer support is an evidence-based practice for individuals with mental health conditions or challenges. Both quantitative and qualitative evidence indicate that peer support lowers the overall cost of mental health services by reducing re-hospitalization rates and days spent in inpatient services, increasing the use of outpatient services. Peer support improves quality of life, increases and improves engagement with services, and increases whole health and self-management. This document identifies key outcomes of per support services over a range of studies differentiated by program, geographic location, and year. Though many of the studies and programs listed below have some major programmatic differences, one thing is the same – they all demonstrate the value of peer support.

Despite decades of research on effective interventions, behavioral health disparities continue to negatively affect black, indigenous, and other communities of color. The behavioral health fields can do more to address these inequities by creating and providing high quality and culturally appropriate services to specific racial and ethnic groups while also demonstrating effectiveness in improving targeted outcomes. To learn more, review the findings in this overview.