To develop drug disposal peer support workers, Indiana covers certification costs

Peer support professionals support people in the recovery process from a substance use disorder and use their own experiences with the disorder or serious mental health issues to support this process.

Dr. William Cooke was the only doctor in Austin, Indiana, during the 2015 Scott County HIV outbreak that was linked to injection drug use. He said peer support professionals can help by connecting with people in ways health care professionals often can’t.

“Some people only know where it’s safe and where there are healthy options if we have people they trust and familiarize them with,” Cooke said.

Cooke said people with ties to these populations played a key role in health workers’ response to the outbreak.

Niki Howenstine, recovery director for the Family and Social Services Administration’s Division of Mental Health and Addictions, said Indiana introduced a new curriculum earlier this year that was aligned with national standards. She said the state has also begun offering family members of people with substance use disorders the opportunity to become certified peer support professionals.

“We have really focused on our impact across the state by growing our workforce and are currently training up to 100 new colleagues per month,” Howenstine said. “(That) is the capacity for our training when it’s full.”

The training process takes approximately 48 hours and spans two weeks.

“We really emphasize things like ethics within peer work, you know, boundaries,” Howenstine said. “How do we deal with stigma? How do we interact with our manager? And depending on which organization you work with, that oversight can look very different.”

This training is then followed by a supervised examination.

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Indiana launched the new training program in January and has been covering the cost of both training and testing since then.

“The department has taken on the hurdle of the cost of becoming a certified peer, which has been a really great thing for people who may have previously viewed that as a problem with training,” Howenstine said.

Howenstine said the state is also integrating peers into its evolving crisis response system.

“Our mobile crisis teams are now operating in many communities, responding to crises within the community, and it is a requirement that these mobile crisis teams have a certified colleague on the team,” Howenstine said. “When someone is deployed as a mobile crisis team, there is a colleague on that team that people can talk to and get support.”

Indiana also has 20 regional recovery centers covering every county in Indiana. These hubs ensure access to peer support for everyone across the state.

“We have access to peer support 24/7 through 211,” Howenstine said. “Anytime someone just needs to talk to a peer support worker, you get access to option 211, enter your zip code – that’s how we kind of know where you are in the state – and then click option six a peer support worker at all times.”

Howenstine said people can also access peer support professionals through Recovery Community Organizations (RCOs). There are more than 20 certified RCOs in the state.

Abigail is our health reporter. Contact them at [email protected].

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