Recovery Support Services

Recovery support services assist people seeking recovery, newly in recovery, or in long-term recovery. These services support the ability of a person to achieve success in his or her pursuit of sustained, long-term recovery. With the growing understanding that addiction is a chronic illness, there has been a parallel growth in the development and provision of recovery support services by paid and volunteer peers and other professionals. Recovery support services are an adjunct to professional treatment.

Peer and other recovery support services include sustained posttreatment checkups and support that parallels the kinds of posttreatment monitoring used in other chronic disorders like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Recovery support services are tailored to fit the needs of each individual. For example, if a person has a criminal record obtained while active in his or her addiction, recovery support services can include navigating the legal system.

Recovery support service providers can be paid or be volunteers, and the essence of their responsibilities is to guide individuals into a life of long-term recovery. According to author William White, these services include stage appropriate recovery education, linkage to communities of recovery, consultation on problems encountered in early recovery, ongoing monitoring of recovery stability, and assistance in reconstructing one's life. Recovery support services can also serve as an early warning system for individuals needing professional treatment.

Recovery support services link individuals to sober housing, recovery-friendly jobs, and health and social services. Individuals providing recovery support services are not Twelve-Step sponsors or counselors and do not seek to duplicate support activities that are already available and under way in the community or in clinical treatment. They seek to work with [Page 770]an individual to figure out the combination of services and experiences that will help move him or her from recovery initiation to long-term recovery.

There are a number of names or titles that are being developed to reflect the role of a recovery support service provider. They include recovery coach, peer recovery mentor, recovery support specialist, and recovery assistant. Recent news stories have profiled highly paid recovery coaches who accompany celebrities on road trips. Whether well-paid or volunteer, these individuals are building the bridge between professional treatment and long-term recovery for the people they work with.

Frequently, they are directing people newly in recovery into communities of recovery where there is a far greater likelihood of achieving sustained, long-term recovery. Some states, including Arizona, Connecticut, and Vermont and some cities, including Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have purposefully developed recovery-oriented systems of care that incorporate peer and other recovery support services into a recovery continuum of care.

The growth of peer and other recovery support services has raised issues around reimbursement for these services. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Facilities is issuing standards for peer-based recovery support services. Some states are establishing credentialing systems that set standards for individuals providing recovery support services, and other states are including coverage for recovery support services under Medicaid waivers. Under the federal government's Access to Recovery (ATR) Program, inaugurated in 2004, a rate chart was published that provided guidance for recovery support services (see Table 1). Treatment centers such as the Betty Ford Center and Hazelden are extending their services beyond primary treatment through the use of telephone-based checkups and other supports during the months following treatment.

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