Source: https://www.samhsa.gov/brss-tacs/recovery-support-tools/peers

Who Are Peer Workers? 
Peer support workers are people who have been successful in the recovery process who help others experiencing similar situations. Through shared understanding, respect, and mutual empowerment, peer support workers help people become and stay engaged in the recovery process and reduce the likelihood of relapse. 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.

• Learn about the foundational core competencies for peer workers in behavioral health services.
• Access a list of frequently asked questions about core competencies for peer workers.
• Learn more about the process of recovery.

Peer Support Role
Peer support workers engage in a wide range of activities. These include:

• Advocating for people in recovery
• Sharing resources and building skills
• Building community and relationships
• Leading recovery groups
• Mentoring and setting goals

Peer support roles may also extend to the following:

• Providing services and/or training
• Supervising other peer workers
• Developing resources
• Administering programs or agencies
• Educating the public and policymakers

Peer support workers may need to develop additional core competencies to provide services to specific groups who also share common experiences, such as family members. The shared experience of being in recovery from a mental health and/or substance use condition or being a family member is the foundation on which the peer recovery support relationship is built in the behavioral health arena.

There are MANY pathways to recovery. 

• Peer support groups 
  • Recovery Centers
  • SMART Recovery
  • Recovery Dharma
  • 12-Step (AA, NA, Al-anon, Alateen)
  • many more!
• 1-1 support
• Early Intervention
• Treatment programs:
  • OP (Out patient)
  • IOP (Intensive Out Patient)
  • PHP (Partial Hospitalization)
  • Detox
  • In-Patient (Rehabilitation) 
  • Halfway Houses
  • 3/4 Houses
• Medicated Assisted Recovery (MAR) 
  • Medications that help prevent reoccurrence of use and improve successful recovery.

Source: https://harmreduction.org/about-us/principles-of-harm-reduction/

Harm reduction is a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use. Harm Reduction is also a movement for social justice built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use drugs.

Foundational Principles to Harm Reduction

Harm reduction incorporates a spectrum of strategies that includes safer use, managed use, abstinence, meeting people who use drugs “where they’re at,” and addressing conditions of use along with the use itself. Because harm reduction demands that interventions and policies designed to serve people who use drugs reflect specific individual and community needs, there is no universal definition of or formula for implementing harm reduction.

However, National Harm Reduction Coalition considers the following principles central to harm reduction practice:

1. Accepts, for better or worse, that licit and illicit drug use is part of our world and chooses to work to minimize its harmful effects rather than simply ignore or condemn them
2. Understands drug use as a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon that encompasses a continuum of behaviors from severe use to total abstinence, and acknowledges that some ways of using drugs are clearly safer than others
3. Establishes quality of individual and community life and well-being — not necessarily cessation of all drug use — as the criteria for successful interventions and policies
4. Calls for the non-judgmental, non-coercive provision of services and resources to people who use drugs and the communities in which they live in order to assist them in reducing attendant harm
5. Ensures that people who use drugs and those with a history of drug use routinely have a real voice in the creation of programs and policies designed to serve them
6. Affirms people who use drugs (PWUD) themselves as the primary agents of reducing the harms of their drug use and seeks to empower PWUD to share information and support each other in strategies which meet their actual conditions of use
7. Recognizes that the realities of poverty, class, racism, social isolation, past trauma, sex-based discrimination, and other social inequalities affect both people’s vulnerability to and capacity for effectively dealing with drug-related harm
8. Does not attempt to minimize or ignore the real and tragic harm and danger that can be associated with illicit drug use

A co-occurring condition means that a person might have a substance use disorder and at least one mental health condition; such as mood, personality, eating, or developmental disorders. 

A mental health assessment or a psychological evaluation can help determine co-occurring conditions, and can help provide information or treatment recommendations.

If you know or suspect you have co-occurring conditions, it can be beneficial to seek a treatment provider that is knowledgeable in both substance use and mental health.

Treatment providers or programs will typically make known on their website if they treat co-occurring conditions.Co-Occurrinmg

Substance use and addiction are preventable.
Results from NIDA-funded research have shown that prevention programs involving families, schools, communities, and the media are effective for preventing or reducing drug use and addiction. Although personal events and cultural factors affect drug use trends, when young people view drug use as harmful, they tend to decrease their drug taking. Therefore, education and outreach are key in helping people understand the possible risks of drug use. Teachers, parents, and health care providers have crucial roles in educating young people and preventing drug use and addiction.​
(source: https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugfacts/understanding-drug-use-addiction​)

Preventing addiction or the progression of addiction might look like:

• Prevention programs that teach skills or best practices, and help individuals make informed decisions. 
• Reducing access and availability to harmful substances in the home, or community. 
• Promoting an inclusive, caring, and equitable community where all individuals can thrive.
• Promoting access to help, support, and information that might interrupt the progression of addiction.