Statistics show that when peer services are delivered with adherence to the peer model and within recovery-oriented systems, they are highly effective for the participants and the systems employing them (SAMHSA). While the knowledge and experience brought into organizations and their systems by peers are extremely important, there are also great challenges as most of these systems operate in paradigms that differ greatly from the recovery-oriented environments peers are most effective in, leading to poor outcomes when appropriate support is lacking. We must ask: What are the ethical considerations in hiring, training, supervising, and retaining people with lived-living experience in existing organizations? This workshop provides ethically informed, policy-driven, equitable, and inclusive approaches that can be intentionally implemented within organizations of all kinds.

Presenters:

Paul Alves, NCPRSS, RCPF, is the Founder of Choice Recovery Coaching, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to Coaching Recovery across the continuum of care and systems. He has been developing the peer recovery workforce across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and beyond, focusing on wellness recovery-oriented systems (WROS) to diminish stigma while enhancing systems efforts and multiplying community wellness. Alves is a person in recovery from substance use disorder, food addiction, and mental health affliction. He has presented internationally on topics from mental wellness, resiliency during Covid-19, peer supervision, working with multi-disciplinary teams, recovery, and more. With a positive attitude and contemporary perspective, he believes that all individuals have the ability to recover.
 

Meghann Perry, CARC, RCPF, is a keynote speaker, educator, and addiction recovery coach professional who has spent the last decade working in peer support, recovery advocacy, and program design. She creates innovative interventions blending theatre, storytelling, and coaching and is best known for two groundbreaking programs: Recovery Storytelling and Embodied Storytelling. Perry delivers high-impact presentations on storytelling as a tool for healing and advocacy for highly stigmatized conditions for organizations like NAADAC, Peer Recovery Center of Excellence, and the Hazelden Foundation. She is the founder of Meghann Perry Group and leads a team of talented, dedicated facilitators offering innovative, revolutionary recovery programs.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to name three ethical challenges of policy and culture that peers may face within the relationship between peer and employer.
• Participants will be able to identify how these challenges impact service delivery and the ability of the peer to be effective in their role.
• Participants will be able to describe how a recovery oriented system of care addresses these challenges within organizations and identify several ROSC-based policies that enable better efficacy.