Want to Respond to the Opioid Crisis? Fight Stigma, Peer Coach Says

As communities across the country cope with the opioid crisis and the dangers of fentanyl, anyone who wants to help must work to fight stigma and misconceptions. The peer coaches are part of a peer recovery support program launched in early 2020 and funded by DCHA and the DC Department of Behavioral Health. The program supports an initiative of the Medicaid provider AmeriHealth Caritas that aims to connect people to treatment and support services. The coaches are trained in part through a city program to certify peer specialists who are “successful in the recovery process and who help others who are living with mental and/or substance use disorders.”