Offer Training Programs to Build the Capacity of Communities to Respond
By referring people to proper treatment and helping them navigate systems of continued care, we can save lives. In fact, leaders in faith and community organizations can be trained to:
“They are getting into situations every single day without knowing exactly how to react.”
- Become a peer-recovery coach
- Make referrals to treatment
- Respond to an emergency situation, and
- Provide ongoing support for those in recovery and living with an addiction.
Getting Started
Your community can partner local expertise (including public health offices, treatment facilities, hospitals, community health centers or nonprofit service providers) to help deliver capacity-building trainings, such as:
- Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT): A public health approach to encourage early intervention and refer people to the appropriate treatment and support.
- Emergency Response: Learn how to recognize overdose symptoms and administer naloxone (opioid overdose-reversing drug).
- Peer-Recovery Models: Sharing experiences brings hope to people in recovery and promotes a sense of belonging within the community.
- Mental Health First Aid: Gain the skills to help someone experiencing a mental health crisis.
- Trauma-Informed Approaches and Trauma-Specific Interventions: Learn about the critical connections between recovery and resilience for people impacted by trauma.
- Motivational Interviewing: Learn a counseling approach that seeks to facilitate and strengthen an individual’s motivation to change misuse of substances and other risky behaviors.
