Peer Recovery Support Specialist: Enhancing recovery one life at a time
There are a group of people who are really making a silent impact in your community. Well maybe not completely silent. While it may not something loudly announced, Peer Recovery Support Specialists (PRS) are making a positive impact in the addiction recovery field. This supportive resource is adding a special element in many areas, programs, and other communities across the United States. Even here, in Winchester Virginia.
Can anyone become a peer recovery specialist ?
Peer Recovery Specialists are individuals, whom, through their own personal experiences with addiction or mental health, have walked through similar experiences as individuals currently among the challenges. These are credentialed individuals wishing to positively impact people of similar struggles. "Peer support services can effectively extend the reach of treatment beyond the clinical setting into the everyday environment of those seeking a successful, sustained recovery process...It is the shared experience of recovery that the foundation on which the peer recovery support relationship is built in the behavioral health arena”. -SAMHSA Likewise, peer recovery specialists are helping individual individually connect and grow relationships; and are helping individuals to build mental, emotional health.
The relationship of a Peer Support Specialist is critical to the counseling dynamic. A Peer Recovery Specialist (PSR) can effectively interact with clients at a level that a clinician cannot. The empathy that can flow from these individuals is rooted in real-life experiences. They know firsthand the pain, the struggles, the growth, and the reward of the hard work. They can cultivate a rapid and deep level rapport by utilizing their “experience, strength, and hope” and meet the client exactly where he or she is struggling the most. Functionally, a Peer Recovery Support Specialist operates between client and clinical staff. Often times when a client is upset with the clinical team, a PRS is exempt from that ire and can effectively navigate that in-between. Clients will have conversations in front of a PRS that they would not have in front of a clinician. This provides an extra dimension of information that can effectively integrated with the interventions used by the treatment team. Therefore, the PRS provides a critical link between client and staff.
"I have witnessed, upon multiple occasions, the effectiveness of this kind of relationship. There have been a number of clients who were escalated and virtually walking out the door to leave treatment Against Clinical Advice (ACA). All it took was a look and a few words from a Peer recovery Specialist and these clients stayed. It was remarkable." -Assistance Clinical Director
Bridging the Gaps is looking for a peer recovery specialist to enhance the overall effectiveness of the treatment team. We believe our integrative approach for the disease of addiction works. We also believe that this additional resources would further expand what we offer in programming.
We, at Bridging the Gaps, take a vested interest in our clients and their needs. We are looking to expand our services by bringing a peer recovery specialist onto our team. We believe with this additional support would serve as a valuable resource for our clientele. If you or someone you know is a peer recovery specialist and is looking to help others, look no further. Contact us today (540) 535-1111, we would love to get you involved!