COMPANION-ASSISTED RECOVERY
Person-directed, Recovery-oriented Care
Often times we express knowledge of recovery skills but struggle with executing the actions necessary to maintain sobriety. Companion-Assisted Recovery is peer-based, one on one recovery support offering structure and accountability to help newly recovering people increase their chances of remaining sober in their home environment or on the road.
I’m Timothy Harrington and I am in long-term recovery, which means that I have not used alcohol and drugs for more than 9 years. I am committed to recovery because it has given me and my family new purpose and hope for the future, while helping me gain stability in my life. Recovery has helped me change my life for the better, and I want to make it possible for others to do the same.
Welcome
Why is this type of recovery support so important?
Recovery from addiction is not like getting over an infection for which we can rest and take medication for a week or two and then get back to our otherwise unchanged lives. Those who view treatment for addiction in this way make up the group for whom treatment does not work. Recovery from addiction is closer to how someone successfully manages diabetes or heart disease - conditions that require sustained decisions and actions for life.
The main reason people don’t stay sober is that
they drink and/or do drugs while failing to follow
a post-treatment continuing care plan.
People completing addiction treatment are precariously balanced between recovery and re-addiction in the weeks and months following discharge, and current models of intervention are plagued by high post-treatment relapse and re-admission rates.
Addiction treatment outcomes are compromised by the lack of sustained recovery support services. Reports of treatment effectiveness note robust effects. Treatment follow-up studies report an average full remission rate of one-third and significant reductions in AOD use/AOD-related problems for most clients (Miller, et al, 2001). Hundreds of thousands of people have entered recovery through the pathway of professional treatment, but claiming that “treatment works” as a result of these findings masks the fact that the majority of people completing addiction treatment resume AOD use in the year following treatment (Wilbourne & Miller, 2003), with over half of all post-treatment lapses and relapses occurring within 30 days of discharge (80% within 90 days of discharge) (Hubbard, Flynn, Craddock & Fletcher, 2001).
The self-contained, brief episodes of assess, diagnose, treat, discharge, terminate the service relationship that typify most addiction treatment would be unthinkable in the treatment of any other chronic medical condition.
Assertive Approaches to Continuing Care
More sustained and assertive styles of monitoring and support following completion of inpatient or outpatient treatment mark a transition in thinking from aftercare (or follow-up) to continuing care 642—from treatment intensity (short-term/high intensity) to treatment extensity (long-term/low intensity).643
Assertive approaches to continuing care constitute one of the hallmarks of recovery management models of care and share several key characteristics. Such assertive approaches:
• encompass all admitted clients/families, not just those who successfully “graduate”;
• place primary responsibility for post-treatment contact on the treatment institution, not the client;
• involve both scheduled and unscheduled contact;
• capitalize on temporal windows of vulnerability (saturation of check-ups and support in the first 90 days following treatment) and increase monitoring and support during periods of identified vulnerability;
• individualize (increase and decrease) the duration and intensity of check-ups and support based on each client’s degree of problem severity and the depth of his or her recovery capital;
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•utilize assertive linkage rather than passive referral to communities of recovery;
• incorporate multiple media for sustained recovery support, e.g., face-to-face contact, telephone support, mailed and emailed communications, and SKYPE;
• emphasize support contacts with clients in their natural environments;
• may be delivered by counselors, recovery coaches/companions, or trained volunteer recovery support specialists; and
• emphasize continuity of contact and service (rapport building and rapport maintenance) in a primary recovery support relationship over time.644
Companion-Assisted Recovery is a powerful and assertive option
for those who want to increase their chances of staying sober.
Many people benefit greatly from a personal “guide” who facilitates disengagement
from the culture of addiction and engagement in a culture of recovery.
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Recovery by any means necessary.
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The focus is on the goal, not the method.
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More assertive than the role of sponsor.
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Preparing the soil in which recovery can grow.
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Facilitating the ongoing lifestyle reconstruction that is crucial for successful long-term recovery.
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Credibility that springs from experiential knowledge and experiential expertise.
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The credential of experiential expertise is granted through the community “wire” or “grapevine” (community story-telling) and is bestowed only on those who have demonstrated their wisdom and skills as a recovery guide within the life of the community.
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“How can the process of recovery be initiated and anchored within the client’s own natural environment?”
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Personal guidance into and through the recovery process and nesting each client within a larger community of individuals and families in recovery.
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If we can stabilize and support people in recovery, they won’t need repeated episodes of such higher-cost interventions.
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C.A.R. is collaborative and strengths-based.
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I help people achieve sustained recovery from their SUD.
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I do not manage people but rather I “coach” or “consult”.
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The opportunity to teach daily living or recovery management skills in real-world settings.
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I am a partner and consultant with the client in attempting to achieve the
client's self-defined goals.
