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Expand Peer Support Services and Recovery Housing

Enhance Peer Recovery Support Services Delivered by Trained Individuals With Lived Experience and Expand Access to Recovery Housing.

Peer recovery support services (PRSS) are an essential component of a comprehensive continuum of substance use services, providing critical resources that can effectively extend, enhance, and improve clinical services. PRSS staff members work in a wide range of settings, providing emotional support and mentoring, information on recovery and support services, linkage to services and prosocial activities, and assistance with tasks to support recovery. PRSS staff members develop unique relationships with individuals seeking recovery, based on their shared experiences. They often play a key role in establishing and maintaining social connections to support individuals’ recovery in the community.

Recovery housing is a housing model that uses substance use-specific services, peer support, and physical design features to support individuals and families on a particular path to recovery from addiction, typically emphasizing abstinence. While recovery housing can vary greatly in design—from independent, resident-run homes to staff-managed homes with on-site clinical services—all recovery housing is intended to promote safe and healthy living environments that leverage social and mutual aid to support recovery. Recovery housing can also be an important part of the housing and treatment continuum for individuals who lack the financial resources for housing and/or family/friends supportive of their recovery.

COSSUP supports activities that:

  • Implement or enhance peer recovery support services delivered by trained individuals with lived experience of recovery from substance use and co-occurring mental disorders.
  • Implement or enhance recovery housing. For more information on guidelines for recovery housing, see the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Policy Brief.

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COSSUP GRANTEES EXPANDING PEER SUPPORT SERVICES AND RECOVERY HOUSING

Grantee Projects

Kenton County Detention Center

Kentucky

The Kenton County Detention Center will reduce the prevalence of opioid misuse in Covington, Kentucky. In 2015, northern Kentucky lost nearly five times more residents to drug overdoses than to car accidents. This project proposes to address the issue by implementing the Kentucky Overdose Prevention and Education Project (KOPE), which has three main goals: to conduct an analysis of the severity of the opioid crisis; develop a multidisciplinary approach to address the needs of overdose survivors; and incentivize, propagate, and support pre-arrest diversion and naloxone distribution programs in the targeted region. This proposal will support naloxone distribution programs in the region. The Kenton County Detention Center will collaborate with local police departments and health-care and rehabilitation providers. Northern Kentucky University will serve as an action research partner.
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City of Clinton

Iowa

Clinton, Iowa, will increase community collaboration with a multidisciplinary team to address high-frequency utilizers of multiple systems. To tackle this community epidemic, the multidisciplinary team engaged in this project has determined to formulate and implement a Drug Abuse Response Team (DART) composed of Clinton police officers and Clinton Fire Department EMS, as well as specially trained Area Substance Abuse Council members, who will work in partnership with other community agencies such as Mercy and Bridgeview to identify, educate, assist, and provide resources to at-risk individuals. In addition, a medication-assisted treatment (MAT) program will be implemented that will partner to provide peer recovery support services, cognitive behavioral therapy, and case management. Dr. Barbara St. Marie of the University of Iowa College of Nursing will serve as the research partner for the proposed project. The applicant agreed to provide data through the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program (ODMAP).
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Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County

Indiana

The Marion County Public Health Department will expand the Indianapolis Harm Reduction Team (IHART) Program to employ two full-time peer support specialists, who will facilitate access to treatment, health-care resources, and community-based services. IHART will hire a full-time project coordinator to oversee the operation and serve as a liaison with the criminal justice and public health systems, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, and other government and community-based entities. Indiana University will serve as the research partner for the proposed project.
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