As a peer support worker, you play a vital role in assisting individuals in need of services for a substance use disorder (SUD) to understand that they can improve their health and wellness and achieve recovery. As a person in recovery, you can provide guidance, advice, encouragement, and support based on your own experience.
As a peer support worker, you enhance recovery by offering lived-experience mentorship, which reduces return to use rates (from 24%–33% down to 7% in some studies), improves treatment adherence, decreases stigma, and increases engagement.
Your involvement as a peer support worker benefits individuals in SUD treatment by increasing treatment motivation, engagement and retention, improving relationships with treatment providers, family members, and social supports, and increasing satisfaction and confidence.
You can help individuals understand that there are many different pathways to recovery, including the use of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). Helping them to find a treatment plan that meets their individual needs is crucial in achieving their treatment and recovery goals.
The Role of Peer Support Workers
There are various pathways to recovery. The use of Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), including buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone, is one component of an evidence-based care plan that also includes counseling, behavioral therapies, and medical and social services to meet the needs of each individual.
With the elimination of the DATA-Waiver (X-Waiver), individuals seeking MOUD now have expanded access to buprenorphine through primary care and other non-specialty settings. As a peer support worker, your lived experience uniquely positions you to connect with people on a deeper level, fostering acceptance, breaking down emotional barriers, reducing stigma, and providing the critical support needed for them to engage in treatment and recovery.
Integrating MOUD into Peer Support Services
Explore Peer Certification
SAMHSA has collaborated with federal, state, tribal, territorial, and local partners, including peer support workers, to develop the National Model Standards for Peer Support Certification, inclusive of substance use, mental health, and family peer certifications. These National Model Standards closely align with the needs of the peer workforce, and subsequently, the overarching goal of the national behavioral health strategy. Learn more about the standards at SAMHSA’s National Model Standards for Peer Support Certification webpage.
Engage Peers in MOUD
- Warm handoffs – Facilitate smooth transitions to treatment by accompanying peers (if possible) to their first appointments with MOUD prescribers.
- Ongoing support – Help facilitate continuous support through follow-ups, peer-to-peer counseling, and connecting people with peer support groups.
Breaking Down Barriers to Treatment
Resources to help remove barriers to treatment in your practice.
Practitioner Training and Resources
View training materials and resources for all practitioners to address key aspects of MOUD implementation.
Practitioner Champion Initiative
You can help to expand access to MOUD and create a greater awareness of the effectiveness of these medications. However, barriers to increasing availability of MOUD remain, including stigma and hesitation from practitioners to integrate it into their practice.
Practitioner Champion Initiative
Practitioner Champion Videos
Learn from Practitioner Champions who have integrated SUD and MOUD services into their practices for years on how they integrated, the benefits, and dispelling stigma within their practice.
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Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.samhsa.gov
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