40 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • AUGUST 2018
By EDEN LAIKIN
Recovery coaches and peer advocates
are offering the latest trend in
recovery from addiction.
The idea began out of the desperation
of a substance abuse recovery
community in Connecticut nearly
10 years ago. Members — those
in recovery and those affected by
them -- hoped that with some formal
training, they could learn to better
utilize their personal experiences
and strengths to help others stop
relapsing and sustain recovery.
The Connecticut Community for
Addiction Recovery (CCAR) may
have led the charge for the movement
that’s spread across the country and
has been recognized by the New
York State Office of Alcoholism and
Substance Abuse Services (OASAS),
but it was a Baldwin agency that was
among the first to offer the training
on Long Island.
“I’m helping you be more conscious
of the way in which we help individuals,”
Anthony Bryant, executive
director of Great Escape Substance
Abuse Training and Information in
Baldwin, told attendees of a five-week
Recovery Coach class he taught in
Bohemia last month.
In recovery from substance addiction
for 24 years, Bryant took the
curriculum for Recovery Coach and
ran with it. Great Escape offers the
CCAR’s 30 educational hours needed
to begin the process of becoming
either a state-certified Addiction
Recovery Coach or Recovery Peer
Advocate. Trainees would then need
an additional 30 hours of education to
become a recovery coach or 15 more
hours for the Peer Advocate, which
can also be obtained at Great Escape
and consists of ethics, peer supervision,
medication assisted therapy, etc.
The center has trained about 125
people over the past three years. Great
Escape’s primary program is the
350-hour Credentialed Alcoholism and
Substance Abuse Counselor course,
which has been offered since the facility
opened on Grand Avenue in 2012.
Recovery Coaches and Peer Advocates
are not clinically based or
driven. The designed to bridge the
gap between clinical treatment and
long-term recovery. They’re training
is based on these ideals: Meet people
where they’re at; there are multiple
pathways to recovery; you are in recovery
when you say you are; focus
on the coachee’s recovery potential,
not their pathology, to elevate recovery
outcomes.
According to OASAS, the recovery
coach serves as an “accountability
partner to help the person sustain
his/her recovery.” The coach helps
the person access systems needed
to support recovery such as benefits
and health care. and promotes
recovery by removing barriers and
obstacles.
State-licensed agencies that receive
Medicaid can now be reimbursed for
peer support services. As a result, it’s
become a career path for some, while
it remains a lay life skill for others.
And it’s not just for those addicted to
drugs.
“We’re all recovering from something,”
Bryant says.
THE
OPIOID
CRISIS
Most of Bryant’s students said they
were there to learn to better help
friends or family members.
Kameryn Jackson, 18, of West
Babylon, is in recovery from a severe
trauma suffered when she was
a child. Her older brother was shot
and killed on her ninth birthday. She
said she now feels like she’s at a place
where she can support peers trying
to get through a difficult situation.
“I feel like we have a lot of teens
going through things that they don’t
really feel comfortable telling adults,”
Kameryn says. “I want them to be able
to talk to me because I’m their age. I
know things from their perspective.”
Bryant tells the students that to
help someone you should increase
your knowledge of resources to
better refer them so their needs can
be met.
“Know where they’re located,
know you’re not putting people in
harm’s way,” he says. “If they don’t
have means to travel, know the public
transportation system.’’
“It’s about helping someone identify
their recovery capital, discover
their internal and external motivators,”
he continues. “Today you’re
learning from me. I’m not the person
I was 24 years ago. Recovery works.”
For more information visit greatescapeinc.
org or call 516-442-1967.
PRESS HEALTH
PEER ADVOCATES:
NEW RECOVERY TREND
Recovery coaches are the latest trend in drug rehab.
“It’s about helping someone identify
their recovery capital.”
Anthony Bryant, executive director of Great Escape
Substance Abuse Training and Information