"Peer recovery support services provide a vehicle to prevent relapse or to prevent lapses from progressing into full relapses. " -H. Westley Clark, MD, JD, MPH, CAS, FASAM Director, CSAT
Peer recovery support services are typically provided by paid staff or volunteers familiar with how their communities can support people seeking to live free of alcohol and drugs and are often peers of those seeking recovery. Some of these services may require reimbursement while others may be available in the community free of charge.
Definition of Services
The following is a brief description of peer recovery support services. Services are to be delivered face-to-face, individually or in a group setting.
Employment Coaching
One-on-one or group sessions (though one-on-one sessions are HIGHLY encouraged) that provide clients with skills related to overcoming barriers to achieving employment and prepare clients for the employment climate they will encounter. Employment Coaching can include career and goal setting, searching for available jobs, resume writing, mock interviewing, addressing gaps in previous employment, expungement, and employer expectations.
Peer Coaching
A peer is an individual who shares the direct experience of addiction and recovery. Peer Coaching sessions should be designed, delivered, and facilitated by peers to assist others in or seeking recovery to initiate and/or sustain recovery from alcohol and drug use disorders and closely related consequences. Peer Coaching sessions can take place in one-on-one or group sessions where clients can discuss topics such as relapse prevention, coping skills, anger management, domestic violence, decision making, lifestyle choices, pursuing interests, and participating in drug-free recreation in an effort to share and learn from the experiences and journeys of others in recovery.
Recovery Coaching
Recovery Coaching should be provided in one-on-one sessions that engage and retain the client in a process designated to strengthen his or her resilience and personal efficacy of his or her sustained recovery, and should be tailored to assisting clients with individualized recovery needs. Topics may include relapse prevention, coping skills, anger management, domestic violence, decision-making, lifestyle choices, pursuing interests, and participating in drug-free recreation.
Recovery Home
Alcohol and drug free housing authorized by an intervention license issued by the Department, whose rules, peer-led groups, staff activities and/or other structured operations are directed toward maintenance of sobriety for persons in early recovery from substance abuse or who recently have completed substance abuse treatment services or who may still be receiving such treatment services at another licensed facility.
Recovery Skills
Recovery Skills sessions should be designed to assist clients in or seeking recovery to initiate and/or sustain recovery from alcohol and drug use disorders and closely related consequences. Recovery Skills should be group-oriented sessions and allow clients from different backgrounds and experiences to discuss recovery-related topics such as relapse prevention, coping skills, anger management, domestic violence, decision making, lifestyle choices, pursuing interests, and participating in drug-free recreation in an effort to share and learn from the experiences and journeys of others in recovery.
Spiritual Support
Spiritual support involves the degree to which spiritual resources and psychological understanding, including the way a person experiences a connection to a higher power, can be used for healing and growth. Session activities can include discussing recovery as a spiritual journey, encouraging involvement with a spiritual path, or engaging in religious and spiritual practices consistent with a client's beliefs (such as prayer, meditation, silence, singing, reading spiritual books, acts of worship, ritual, forgiveness, and service). Sessions should be group-oriented with the goal of assisting clients to find spiritually based solutions to issues and problems, with a sense of spiritual purpose and meaning, along with hope and faith in something transcendent.
Transportation
Vouchers may be used to pay for transportation costs associated with commuting to and from individual's treatment and/or recovery support program and job search. Transportation costs must be preauthorized on an individual basis.
Employment Training
One-on-one or group sessions that teach a client a specific work skill or trade that will result in gainful employment opportunities, such as construction, masonry, commercial cleaning, sewing, barbering, cooking, or computer repair. All Employment Training programs must include a plan for utilizing Employment Coaching in conjunction with Employment Training classes or have a linkage agreement with an agency that does. All programs must also submit a curriculum for their program and be able to demonstrate criteria for determining whether clients meet prerequisites for course enrollment (e.g. if you are teaching construction, a client's math level may be a prerequisite for entering the course).
