Peer recovery support services (PRSS) are increasingly being offered across diverse criminal justice settings to address opioid abuse and achieve positive outcomes. The power and potential of PRSS come from the unique roles that peers play, promoting both hope and pragmatic steps for change. Community Justice Programs (CJP) offer comprehensive case management, support, and advocacy to individuals with behavioral health and substance use disorders at all points of the justice system continuum. Since 1972, the Community Justice Program in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobiology at the University of Alabama (UAB) has been committed to developing programs in response to current and emerging challenges facing the community within the justice, behavioral health, and substance abuse systems. The program relies on research-based strategies to identify needs, develop solutions to address system gaps, and evaluate program effectiveness to improve services coordination.
This session will:
- Highlight the history of the Criminal Justice Program, as well as the partnerships that make it work;
- Clarify why UAB determined that implementing peer support is important;
- Describe the work of peers at varying points of the justice system continuum and challenges they face in the areas of specialty court and treatment; and
- Discuss how CJP evaluates the impact of its programs.
Presenters
- S. Bailey Davis, Director, Community Justice Programs, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobiology, UAB.
- Paul Bryant, Peer Coordinator, Treatment Alternatives for Safer Communities (TASC) Specialty Courts, Community Justice Programs, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobiology, UAB.
- Bobbi Jo Taylor, Peer Recovery Support Specialist, UAB TASC Specialty Courts, Community Justice Programs, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobiology, UAB.
- Dorothy Smith, Peer Recovery Support Specialist, Employment, Community Justice Programs, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobiology, UAB.
- Mike Wise, Peer Recovery Support Specialist, Clinical Services and Treatment, Community Justice Programs, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobiology, UAB.
- Pam Butler, Director, Peer Recovery Support, Alabama Department of Mental Health (invited).