[ad_1]
JOHNSON CITY (November 10, 2022) – East Tennessee State University’s Center for Addiction Sciences received the Advocate of Peer Recovery Service-Agency Award from the Peer Recovery Specialist Program of Tennessee from the state Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
This award, presented at the Tennessee Certified Peer Recovery Specialists annual virtual conference, is presented to the group or agency that, over the past year, has been at the forefront of advocacy for peer recovery services that empower Tennesseans with a mental health and/or substance use disorder. The recipient of the award has championed the advancement of peer recovery services throughout the state of Tennessee and has done outstanding work in the peer services movement.
“This is an important recognition from the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services,” said Dr. Randy Wykoff, dean of the ETSU College of Public Health. “Certified Peer Recovery Specialists play an important role in helping people with substance use disorders in recovery because they have been there and are able to extend empathy and understanding to those who they go out of their way to help. We value the contributions of the certified peer recovery specialists at our Center for Addiction Sciences and appreciate this state recognition for the work we do together.”
The ETSU Addiction Science Center was nominated for this honor by its own Elizabeth Childress, a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist (CPRS) at the center.
Childress praised the Addiction Science Center for its work to help people get jobs that are considered “hard to get” because of crimes or substance use disorders (SUDs) and for its work to secure grants to help people with SUD.
He pointed to the center’s regional outreach through the Network of Studies to Advance Recovery (STARS), which includes researchers from various universities and health care systems that focus on the urgent need for research to advance recovery services. recovery support in central Appalachia. In particular, he praised the work of Drs. Rob Pack and Angela Hagaman, co-directors of the Addiction Science Center, for their dedication to the work of the center and their recognition of the work of CPRS professionals.
“The ETSU Center for Addiction Sciences is made up of many different types of people, all with a common passion for peer work and an appreciation for what Certified Peer Recovery Specialists do,” Childress wrote . “ASC and the STARS network are dedicated to studying fellows in the Appalachian region – what they do and how they contribute so much to recovery. (Hagaman) has supported me and been so loyal and understanding of what we do and why it’s so important, and it’s going out of its way, especially STARS, to show through research that what we do is special and life-changing.”
For more information about ETSU’s Addiction Science Center, visit etsu.edu/cph/addiction-science-center/.
[ad_2]Source: Addiction Science Center wins state award