Cheryle Pacapelli, Leader of Harbor Care’s Capacity Building Efforts to Stand Up Recovery Centers throughout New Hampshire

Meet Cheryle Pacapelli (video to the left), Harbor Care’s Director of its Facilitating Organization-Peer Recovery Support Services (FO-PRSS) program. Cheryle and her team stand up Recovery Community Organizations (RCOs) and Recovery Centers throughout New Hampshire, helping what are essentially new start-up non-profit organizations to build capacity to offer local programs and services that support individuals in all stages of recovery from substance misuse. In addition to providing critical funding and back-end services such as helping the centers hire and train employees and volunteers and providing technical assistance to achieve CAPRSS accreditation, Harbor Care facilitates growth and communications between RCOs and advocates for their “place at the table” as part of a Recovery and Resilience System of Care that meets people where they are at in their recovery journey. Harbor Care’s FO-PRSS program is funded by New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Services and provides support to 20 NH Recovery Centers situated around the state from the North Country to the Massachusetts border.

Recovery Community Organizations (RCOs) have become valuable resources in their local communities. Different than treatment centers, each offers a variety of wellness activities and connections to various people involved in recovery, including impacted family members. While the core services of Recovery Centers include telephone coaching ad one on one and group peer support meetings, peer support throughout the state can range from informal support networks and mutual support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous to trained recovery coaches and volunteers, often connected to a recovery center. The value of many Recovery Centers are their coaches who have been through the process of recovery themselves and bring their experiences to work with them every day so they can help others. Centers also offers holistic services such as yoga, art, and music, in order to provide healthy avenues for calming, centering, and redirecting strong emotions. Non-traditional group meetings are often offered, such as supports for those using medication assisted treatment and parents in early recovery. Harbor Care’s PRSS-FO programming provides the funding and technical assistance Recovery Community Organizations need to offer more than 82,000 services annually.

Recovery can be a lonely time in people’s lives.

Cheryle Pacapelli and the staff and volunteers of NH Recovery Hub provide Peer Support to Granite Staters in recovery.

The Value of Recovery Support Services

Recovery Centers coaches, staff and volunteers are people like Eric of White Horse Recovery Center, Yolanda of the Greater Tilton Area Family Resource Center, Priscilla of Revive Recovery Community Center, and Laina, formerly of SOS Recovery and who now works at Harbor Care. Cheryle herself been in recovery for more than 30 years.

These are people who know firsthand how difficult recovery can be sometimes. Often those entering recovery have to walk away from old friends or unhealthy family dynamics and find new connections. This is because, for some, those closest to them are the very people who promote drug and alcohol use and set up barriers to recovery.

It’s a catch-22, because we need the support of friends and family during difficult times, such as the early days of recovery which can be accompanied by physical pain and emotional turmoil. Having someone who’s been through this process, who has walked that path and knows the waypoints, is a blessing to those in recovery. step in to provide the support that’s needed; they prove every day that recovery is possible.

It’s not just only during the early days of recovery that peer support is important, however. In order to maintain sobriety after being discharged from treatment, those in recovery have to develop a new circle of friends who support their new, healthy recovery lifestyle. They also need people in their lives who understand where they come from, what they’ve been through, and respect their struggle.

Peers know the type of stresses that can bring on a setback — such as a job loss, postpartum depression or the overdose of a close friend — and step in to provide extra support during those times. Peer support helps those in recovery build a community around them as they rebuild their own resources.

“Recovery Coaches and center volunteers are helping people who have precious few resources available to them, assisting them in navigating toward self-directed lives in sustained recovery,” Cheryle said, adding, “Recovery Community Centers are proving to be valuable meeting places and offer a variety of wellness activities and connections to various communities of recovery, including impacted family members.”

Recovery support services have taken on even more importance during the era of COVID-19; economic upheaval has made life more difficult for many clients, while social distancing has taken away many of the social supports they depended upon in the past. Recovery coaching via Zoom meetings and by telephone has become a lifeline to many, whose recovery has been put to the test by increasingly difficult circumstances.

Technological advances like online meetings are helpful, but Cheryle says that it’s the “peer” part of PRSS that is most important. Everyone needs people in their lives who understands their struggles and can offer support.

Through the FO-PRSS program , Harbor Care has opened doors for thousands that may never have achieved sustained recovery otherwise.

Recovery Support Centers and Services: A Key to Recovery