This four-hour interactive training prepares peer support professionals to work effectively and compassionately with individuals impacted by opioid use disorder (OUD).
Grounded in the Hazelden Betty Ford Comprehensive Opioid Response (COR) model, the training emphasizes that medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) are evidence-based treatment, that harm reduction saves lives, and that stigma has no place in high-quality care. COR also highlights the importance of integrated evidence-based practices and peer-supported recovery, ensuring that individuals receive compassionate, person-centered, and science-aligned support.
A key component of the training is understanding recovery as a process of hope, healing, and ongoing growth. Recovery is framed as a self-directed journey of improving health and wellness, building a meaningful life, and working toward full participation in community and family life. Because OUD is a chronic but treatable condition, recovery often requires long-term support, ongoing monitoring, increases in recovery capital, and sustained encouragement. Peer support professionals play a vital role in fostering hope, modeling lived experience of healing, and reinforcing a person’s ability to move forward, even when the path is nonlinear.
Aligned with the ASAM Criteria, Fourth Edition, the training highlights the essential role of Recovery Support Professionals in ongoing care. Participants will build skills in trauma-informed peer work, including recognizing trauma responses, and using non-stigmatizing, person-first, recovery-oriented language. The training incorporates the Recovery Capital framework and the BARC-10 to help peers collaboratively assess strengths, identify needs, and support personalized recovery plans that reflect diverse pathways and goals.
Through interactive discussion, real-world scenarios, and applied practice, participants will enhance their ability to support individuals and families affected by OUD using evidence-based, trauma-informed, non-stigmatizing, and recovery-oriented approaches that align with the COR model and the ASAM Criteria, Fourth Edition.
Objectives:
- Explain the evolution of the opioid crisis and the foundational principles of the Comprehensive Opioid Response (COR) model.
- Demonstrate understanding of recovery as a process of hope, healing, and ongoing growth for a chronic but treatable condition.
- Apply trauma-informed principles and peer support skills to effectively engage individuals within their window of tolerance.
- Utilize recovery-oriented tools and frameworks—including Recovery Capital and the BARC-10—to support individualized, ASAM-aligned care.