Your Guide to Addiction Recovery Is Ready When You Are

Leslie Laine: Welcome to Premier Health Now on air. In 2018, for the first time in almost 20 years, fatal drug overdoses dropped in Ohio, perhaps signaling a tipping point in the opioid epidemic.

Montgomery County led the way slashing drug overdose deaths that had been the highest in the nation by 47%. Now, the area's collaborative community-wide approach serves as a national model for what cities can do to reduce deaths and just as important help people on the path to recovery.

Stay with us today to meet someone who goes face-to-face with people suffering with addiction to tell and show them there is hope for a better life because she is living proof. I'm your moderator Leslie Laine, with me today is Cindy Heitman with Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley.

As the peer recovery support coordinator, Cindy oversees training and certification of peer recovery supporters. Welcome.

Cindy Heitman: Thank you Leslie.

Leslie Laine: Also with us is Darcy Shepard, one of the peer recovery supporters who uses her own recovery journey to help others with addiction to reclaim their lives. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us.

Darcy Shepard: Thank you Leslie.

Leslie Laine: Cindy, your peer recovery supporters serve a critical role in Montgomery County, turning the tide on overdose deaths and addiction. Can you explain what a certified peer recovery supporter is and what you prepare them to do?

Cindy Heitman: Well, a certified peer recovery supporter is someone that is in recovery and they are a person with the lived experience of a mental illness, an addiction or both. Those are the requirements to become a certified peer and that you're willing to share your story.

The person is willing to go ahead and commit to a intensive training that is provided by OhioMHAS, The Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and I help them on their walk through that training and it prepares them to go ahead and work with others and to share their story, to offer empowerment, support and hope to others that aren't walking in recovery yet.

Leslie Laine: Darcy, can you tell us a little bit about your life before seeking your own recovery and what prompted you to begin recovery?

Darcy Shepard: I started using drugs and alcohol when I was about 12 years old. I grew up in the suburbs. I had parents that worked 8:00 to 5:00. My real father was an alcoholic. Never in my life.

I wasn't going to be like him, but I pretty much am and just like him, I got pregnant with my daughter when I was 17 years old. Got with her dad when I was 14 we did lots of partying and stuff, so I had her when I was 18, I finished high school and then the addiction and drinking progressed.

I got pregnant with my son when I was 21 and I was a single mom at 21 years old. I ended up going to a doctor and telling them that I was really stressed out. I had lots of back pain, lots of anxiety, so this doctor just pretty much gave me everything I asked for and that progressed as well to the harder drugs, the heroin, and I started causing lots of harm to my family, to my kids, to myself, and I wanted help.

I just didn't know where the help was at and so I had gotten in a little bit of trouble. I was already on probation. When I was 28 years old, I got arrested and my probation officer said you're going to treatment.

Leslie Laine: That was the first time someone had suggested treatment to you?

Darcy Shepard: Yeah. My family growing up, they weren't really educated and the old saying like once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. So, they've grown a lot with me. We've learned lots of things together and so I went to treatment and I did what my probation officer had suggested. He said if I didn't stay in treatment, he was going to send me to prison.

Yeah and I did not want to go to prison. They worked really hard with me in treatment. They helped me understand some things and so I took their suggestions when I got out of treatment and started attending 12-step meetings.

I met lots of people that are in recovery just like me and have been through lots of the same things as me.

Leslie Laine: Are you back with your children?

Darcy Shepard: Yes I am. My son and daughter are everything to me.

Leslie Laine: How did you connect with Cindy and the peer recovery support program?

Darcy Shepard: There was another peer in the community that suggested that I would do great at this job and being a peer recovery supporter.

Leslie Laine: You didn't have the benefit of a peer recovery supporter, did you?

Darcy Shepard: I did not. I did not. The people in the 12-step meetings and stuff, that's one of the things we're supposed to do. We're supposed to help people and that's what I really wanted to do, but I wanted to do it outside of the 12-step meetings because I wanted help long before and I didn't know where to go.

Somebody introduced me, told me about the peer recovery supporters and I volunteered with him for a while and then he connected me ...

Leslie Laine: Him was?

Darcy Shepard: The other peer supporter and then he introduced me to the facility I'm employed with now, which does Easton Community Center and then my boss at that time introduced me to Miss Cindy.

Leslie Laine: Cindy, do you remember that day?

Cindy Heitman: Yeah, Darcy called and she wanted to become a certified peer because one, it would help her personal recovery, but two it would be a benefit to her organization and so we started on a pathway of going ahead and getting her work done, her pre-course work and it wasn't always easy and we had a few lumps in the road, but we worked together and I stayed connected with Darcy because I knew all of what she had to offer, her story is so valuable.

Her experiences are valuable and she did it and she was able to gain the self-respect and confidence because she was able to finish it and she came into the training with a smile on her face.

Leslie Laine: There was pre-course and then training, what is ...

Cindy Heitman: Yes.

Leslie Laine: What does that entail?

Cindy Heitman: The pre-course work is modules. There's 11 modules on eBased Academy. You do it on your own time and your comfort of your home or at the library, wherever you have access to a computer and they're training you on what is peer support, what is addiction, the history of addiction, the history of mental illness, what trauma is.

It also talks about cultural competency, it's a very complete pre-training for the in-person training that we do and that's a 40-hour in-person training, it's Monday through Friday, 8:30 to 5:00 and it's intense.

It goes ahead and increases your recovery so you're looking back at yourself, you're sharing your story in a room with 25 other people and you're learning and we make it fun. We have role-plays where we all can laugh and learn at the same time and a person learns to be a certified peer, but they also take their recovery up even further.

Even if they're not going to go out and get a job and work in the community, they have increased their knowledge and so they're going to share their knowledge with their family and their friends and then it gets passed on, but it is a very intense training and then you take the state exam. You have a three hour time limit, there's 113 questions and you have to pass that exam.

Leslie Laine: What do you remember about that process Darcy? It sounds intense.

Darcy Shepard: Intense, long, exhausting, a little stressful because of the exam you have to take at the end. We think about that all week long. I'm not a big test taker so it was a little bit stressful.

Leslie Laine: Cindy said it was fun.

Darcy Shepard: Oh, it is, it is fun, it is fun to get close to people and meet people that are in recovery just like me.

Leslie Laine: I suspect there is no typical day for you in your work, but could you just walk us through what a day as a peer recovery supporter might be for you?

Darcy Shepard: Each peer recovery supporter has different roles. Mine is meeting people in the streets right where they're at.

Leslie Laine: How do you do that?

Darcy Shepard: Well, I get to ride around with the mobile crisis response team, which is the Dayton Police, and we follow up with people that have recently overdosed and we respond to overdoses.

Leslie Laine: You're in the cruiser, then you respond to an overdose, you get out of the cruiser and you're right there.

Darcy Shepard: Yeah, we use Narcan.

Leslie Laine: When you say we, that means you?

Darcy Shepard: I have. It's mostly him that does it, but I myself have had to use Narcan before because here in Dayton, sometimes just driving through the neighborhood, somebody will be laying there or in their car.

Leslie Laine: You're not always in the police cruiser when you're working, sometimes you're driving?

Darcy Shepard: Sometimes I am.

Leslie Laine: Yourself?

Darcy Shepard: Yeah. When we talk to people, we offer them treatment, give them resources that are here in Dayton and I let them know that I have a lived experience and I am here for them. I can help them in their recovery. I meet them literally right where they're at, right where they're at.

Leslie Laine: That has to take a toll on you.

Darcy Shepard: It really does. It's so rewarding to be able to help people, but it can be very exhausting. I still have to make sure I take care of myself. It's not my recovery, I still have to do the things that I do for my recovery.

Leslie Laine: What's the most challenging thing you find in your day?

Darcy Shepard: The most challenging is when we work with people over and over.

Leslie Laine: The same person you mean?

Darcy Shepard: Yeah. The same person over and over again and it takes some of us longer than others, but you build a connection and so you don't get super close to them, but you kind of do and sometimes, not everybody makes it.

Leslie Laine: On those hard days. What keeps you coming back?

Darcy Shepard: Knowing that I needed somebody like me when I was out there. I just don't give up on anybody.

Leslie Laine: How long have you been doing this Darcy?

Darcy Shepard: Two and a half years. I started volunteering first before I even took the peer support class or anything. One of the officers I have literally been writing with him for two and a half years.

Leslie Laine: Cindy, earlier this year you recommended Darcy to become a trainer for new peer recovery supporters. What a tremendous vote of confidence that is. What prompted you to take that step?

Cindy Heitman: I had taken the training myself and was a peer for many years and the opportunity came and my mentor said let's do this. We did it together and it takes your passion to a whole another level and to be a trainer is so rewarding because then, you know that you're passing on the knowledge and the experience to people who are ready to share with others that.

Leslie Laine: What was it about Darcy that told you she would be a great trainer?

Cindy Heitman: Her passion and her desire to give back and how serious she takes her recovery. Darcy is very dedicated to her 12-steps and she's very dedicated to her family and to the peers. The peers in Dayton know Darcy, go out on the streets and they also tell you they know the girl with the curly hair, Darcy.

They may not know her name, but that's how they identify her is the girl with the curly hair. I called Darcy and said, "What about being a trainer?" And she was like, "Oh, okay." She did and the full circle of it is Darcy and I got to do a training together. That was just amazing.

Leslie Laine: When you say you got to do a training together, what do you mean?

Cindy Heitman: I'm sorry, here at Goodwill-Easter Seals, we do the certified training every other month and Darcy and I got to train together a couple of months ago and so that was very, very rewarding.

Leslie Laine: We've been talking about recovery, it's not a point in time where boom, you're done. Can you help us understand what it means to be in recovery?

Darcy Shepard: I cannot use any drugs or alcohol for the rest of my life and I'm going to keep growing in my recovery, learning new things, helping people, staying connected with my support.

Leslie Laine: What have been important things that you've learned when you say you're growing and learning or in your recovery?

Darcy Shepard: It's very important that I know that I cannot use drugs or alcohol anymore. The care, the compassion, that we are worthy, we are worth living.

Cindy Heitman: We have to keep the mindset in place every day that this is our journey and it's a journey that we take a forward step with and work at. It's not something we can forget because if we forget to work our recovery, we will be back to square one.

Recovery is not a trophy that you put up on the shelf. It is something that you live and every person's recovery is a different pathway. There are no two people that you put together that in recovery are doing it the exact same way.

There's the 12-step programs, there's the faith based, and then there's the educational medical model that somebody can follow and so there's many, many pathways and they're all different.

Leslie Laine: Which leads me to a question if I know someone who might be on a path to addiction, is there something I can do to help them get to that mindset of recovery? Do you have any suggestions of approaches, what would help? What would make things worse? If I know someone, is there anything I can do?

Darcy Shepard: Love them. Love them, know the resources in the community, be there for them the best that you can and if you have to set boundaries yourself, like I said, know your resources, peer supporters.

Cindy Heitman: To reach out for help, to give them possible connection, to be able to be there without judgment and that's hard because our families hurt almost more than we do because we are numb from the drugs and the alcohol.

Our families are wondering if we're going to be alive in the morning and they live with the stigma of someone that is on drugs and alcohol or that have a mental illness. They have their friends, they have their neighbors, they have their coworkers and to say, "My daughter has a mental illness, my daughter is an addict."

Those are things that impact our families, our children to go to school and say, "Mom's an addict." Or that somebody else knows what happened because it's made the papers. It's made the news. It's very hard and so just to be able to accept that it's an illness, it's not a weakness.

It's an illness. It's a mental brain disease and it is treatable if somebody is able to walk in recovery, but it has to be that person's choice of recovery. You can't make somebody recover.

Leslie Laine: Tell us where the resources can be found. Is there a one stop shop for now for listing resources?

Cindy Heitman: For resources, Montgomery County ADAMHS board has a website that lists dozens of places where you can get food, you can get treatment, you can get everything. The other place that I love the most as Goodwill-Easter Seals.

We have so many resources in this building. Main street recovery, we have peer support, we have case management and we are here to help that peer. All they have to do is walk in the front door.

Leslie Laine: That was my question. What does it take?

Cindy Heitman: Walking in the front door and saying, "I need help."

Leslie Laine: That friendly lady at the front desk?

Cindy Heitman: Yes.

Leslie Laine: Your program Cindy has certified I believe more than 250 peer recovery support.

Cindy Heitman: [crosstalk 00:17:15] 272. We are so proud of that number. We started our trainings in October of 2016 and we've consistently done six trainings a year and we're looking to do those again in 2020 and we are so proud. Our ADAMHS board didn't limit us only to Montgomery County.

Jodi Long went ahead and said if they're in Ohio and they need a certified training, come to us because our rural areas in Ohio, they don't have enough numbers to have a training or maybe a County that somebody is wanting certified and doesn't offer the training.

They can come to Montgomery County. We have dozens of counties that we have worked with and it's very proud that our County opens their hearts to everybody.

Leslie Laine: How do they connect with that program?

Cindy Heitman: Well, they are call Goodwill-Easter Seals and say, "I'm interested in the peer support program. I want to be a certified peer. Can I talk to Cindy?" We get referrals from other agencies.

We get referrals from probation officers, we get referrals from everywhere. A lot of it is somebody who's been in a meeting, they've been worse than somebody else and they are talking about the peer support program.

They want peer support to be certified or to receive peer support services because we're here to offer our educational groups and we're here to offer our individual peer services.

Leslie Laine: Same connection number, whether you want to become a peer supporter or you need a peer support?

Cindy Heitman: Absolutely.

Leslie Laine: [crosstalk 00:18:56] Easter Seals.

Cindy Heitman: Goodwill-Easter Seals Miami Valley.

Leslie Laine: Great. Talk to us a little bit about the impact you see from you said 2016, impact you see from these, your peer supporters in the community.

Cindy Heitman: Wow. Dayton is awesome. Everywhere you look, there's recovery. Everywhere you look, there's a peer.

Didn't start out that way, but we've grown and yes, we were hit by that impact of the opiate crisis and our government officials, our ADAMHS board, our agencies all banded together.

Nobody stayed siloed. They all came together and said our community needs help.

One of those ways was with peer support because when there's a Darcy that's walking on the street offering somebody recovery, when she's going ahead and doing the Narcan to bring somebody back to life, that's recovery.

When you talk to people, they know another peer is here.

We have peers in the hospitals, in the emergency rooms.

We have peers at recovery centers, sober living homes.

In your typical agencies, we have peers in Montgomery County, Clinton County and Warren County jails that went through the training here at Goodwill-Easter Seals.

That's the impact.

That's the impact when I can pick up the phone and call another peer and say, "I don't have the resources, this peer needs X, Y, Z."

And they say, "Okay, Cindy, I got it."

When we call Darcy and say there's somebody on the street, "Yeah, I know her. I'll check in on her."

That's peer support.

That's recovery here in Dayton.

Leslie Laine: I'd like to ask each of you what you hope people take from this discussion today. If there was one thing that they walked away with, what would you hope they remember?

Darcy Shepard: The love, the care, the compassion. We are all humans. We all deserve to be loved.

Cindy Heitman: For me, that recovery is possible because for a long time I didn't think it was and other people didn't think it was in my life either. It is and that's the glory of it and that's what gives us the passion to do what we do.

Whenever we were low on energy, we have a peer that we can call and we get support from and we get encouragement from to get zapped back right up and do what we do again.

Leslie Laine: What do you hope the future holds Cindy for your peer recovery support program?

Cindy Heitman: We keep going. I think the community sees where it is a good connection that it goes ahead and it blends with therapy. It blends with the doctors and the case managers.

We all work together for that peer.

It's not that the therapy is in one corner and peer support is in the other corner. We work together as a team.

When you put that team around a peer, they have more chance. They have a better chance to go ahead and live and to live that fulfilled life.

Everybody deserves to have that fulfilled life to be happy, to enjoy their families, to wake up and say, "I matter."

Leslie Laine: We are so grateful for all that you are doing and also for helping us today to better understand what you can do for our family, our friends, our neighbors who suffer so deeply with addiction.

Thank you Cindy Heitman of Goodwill-Easter Seals Miami Valley and peer recovery supporter, Darcy Shepard.

If you want to know more, visit premierhealth.com/healthnow.

We'll be back. We hope you will.

I'm Leslie Laine and thanks for joining us. Watch for our next edition of Premier Health Now on air.