MOUNT VERNON — The 2019 KSAAT Knox Addiction Conference at Mount Vernon Nazarene University concluded its second and final day Wednesday with a series of addiction-related seminars, including the Recovery Housing as a Foundation of Recovery event, moderated by Amy Smart of the Riverside Recovery House.
Smart, the executive director of Riverside, hosted a panel of speakers, some of whom were residents or recent graduates and some managers of specific houses. They all discussed recovery housing, and how it helps its participants as well as the challenges that both managers and participants face.
The presentation provided an overview of the research showing that recovery housing helps improve addiction recovery outcomes. It reviewed key principles of supported recovery housing.
Smart introduced Shephard, who talked about the differing terms of recovery housing. Shephard essentially holds the same position at Pike County Recovery as Smart does at Riverside.
“All these definitions and terms are all evolving,” Shephard said. “Traditionally, a halfway house is a step down unit that’s more of a criminal justice type of terminology. Recovery housing is really addiction focused and people who are in recovery - they change people, places and things. That’s a core foundation of the message in treatment. What has happened is that people don’t have anywhere to go. If you’ve been doing this for maybe 10 years, you’ve exhausted your resources and even family.”
Shephard broke it down even further.
“By its strictest definition, recovery housing is a safe and healthy living environment that promotes abstinence from alcohol and other drugs with peer support, accountability and all these wraparound services. It supports that sustained recovery,” he said.
Wysinger, the program manager at Naomi’s House, echoed the thoughts of Shephard.
“I think that recovery housing really benefits people because they have a safe and secure environment where they can start their life all over again,” Wysinger said. “It’s a matter of learning or, in some cases, re-learning how to live and how to function as an adult. But before anyone can do any of those things, you have to feel safe. You have to feel secure. You have to not be hungry. That’s what I think recovery housing provides for people. Recovery is not easy.”
Smart summed up the whole concept at the conclusion of the seminar.
“As our men and our women go back out into the communities, that’s one of the main things that we really want to focus on is so they can practice being good neighbors and be able to live next to you and be that productive person in our neighborhoods. We may have the ‘recovering addict’ attached to our name, but we are no different than anybody else. We’re no different than the next person. In some form or fashion, we are all broken in some way or another. Everyone on this panel is here to help heal those broken pieces.”
