The Power of a Peer Recovery Coach
The best feeling is knowing someone’s in your corner.
ASAC patients never walk alone. Achieving and maintaining recovery from substance use or problem gambling take a strong support system. That typically involves friends, family, and our full-time staff members, but we introduce another element: the peer recovery coach.
Discover how this distinctive role makes the difference for people on their recovery journey.
What’s a Peer Recovery Coach?
ASAC’s peer recovery coaches are former patients who can both relate to and encourage current patients on their path. Each patient is paired with a coach to provide a variety of support, including:
- Skill development and continuing education
- Supervision and guidance outside of treatment sessions
- Engagement through games and conversation
This role epitomizes ASAC’s human-centered approach, making the personal connections that lead to real progress. These coaches know the highs, lows, and in-betweens of treatment. Through consistent interactions and honest conversations, our coaches contribute to the small, incremental steps that lead to life-altering improvements.
The Power of Lived Experience
Peer recovery coaches have walked the walk.
They’ve been where our patients are now, and they approach each person with empathy, understanding, and authenticity. They have a way of breaking down barriers, becoming trusted mentors along the way. That might involve driving a patient to a meeting, serving as a voice of reason in times of crisis, or supporting them as they pursue job opportunities.
We often hear from our coaches, celebrating the patient success stories that we know as ASAC moments:
“We have been working on small goals. [The patient] now got a full-time job at Mercy Hospital and starts in a couple weeks. She is also learning to be a present mom of two small children, and it’s been fun getting to know them!”
-ASAC Peer Recovery Coach
Improving Lives. Changing Narratives.
Our peer recovery coaches are a perfect example of how we confront and reshape stigma.
They shift the conversation from addiction, addicts, and relapse to substance use disorders, patients, and setbacks. Language matters, and the focus remains on helping another human being pursue growth, healing, and wellbeing.
The result? Patients finding and reclaiming what they’d lost to substance use or problem gambling. And knowing that no matter what comes their way, someone always has their back.