Board of Aldermen — 11/28/17 Page 2
made an impact, but we can do better. As | said, the facts — both anecdotal and various studies — show that
this peer recovery coaching has a very significant impact.
So what does a peer recovery coach do? This would often be a licensed drug and alcohol counselor. A peer
recovery coach helps people who are coming off treatment or coming off a 28-day program, who are in
treatment and stay in recovery; helping them with daily problems when they are in a very vulnerable situation
and have trouble thinking through even normal lifetime situations. What if they can’t find housing? What do
they do? Where should they go if they have a different medical problem? How about trying to find a job? How
to organize life in general? This is what a peer recovery coach does; helps a person work through the daily
struggles that a person in recovery has, so that as they advance to 30 days to 60 to 90 to a year to two years
and their brain continues to get better, and they get into a very stable, long-term recovery, this assists a great
deal in that respect. We have this, that is peer recovery coaching or any mentor that works closely with a
person with this type of problem. We have, in the city for several months now, Revive Recovery, which has
opened 263 Main Street. It’s been open since this summer. They’re in grant funding for three years. They’re
led by Justin Ebling, Nikki Casey, and Alan Erwin, who are all in long-term recovery; Justin for 20 years, Nikki
and Alan for about two years.
What I’m proposing is, and of course this issue would be referred to a committee, is that we provide a $42,000
grant to Revive Recovery to hire a recovery coach who can work with people coming off the safe stations
program; either who are coming out of a 28- or 30-day treatment program, (Safe Stations, then the inpatient,
then they come out; sometimes they’re just kind of thrown into life “Well, have a good life,” and we don’t really
know what happens), or into an inpatient recovery program or intensive outpatient program over at Harbor
Homes or elsewhere. This recovery coach could work a caseload of 30-50 people who have reported to safe
stations, and this could be a rotating group, and who have either gone through the 28-day treatment program
or are in another type of treatment. If you agree to fund this proposal, this would be a one-year pilot. We would
propose a contract with Revive Recovery, which we would bring to Finance, to define their obligations under
the grant. But what we need to do with respect to this is to develop data and information that can be used to
show how effective this can be here in Nashua. For example, we can require that their recovery report
indicates how many people that they’re dealing with and how many people they’ve dealt with, how many are in
recovery after 30 or 90 or 180 days or at 360 days, the number of people that have gone into relapse, the
number of people that have been lost. If this proves to be as effective in keeping people — and it won’t be
everyone — but keeping many people in recovery as is suggested by research and by anecdotal reports, then
we can use this data to convince other funding sources to help rapidly expand Recovery Coach network here
in Nashua. It would help us understand much better what is happening to the safe stations’ participants, and it
would help us to demonstrate and gain funding and expand this program.
I’m going to come to the committee and | think | can bring the people from Revive and you can meet them, we
can give you more data and more support. But | think the issue of opioids is affecting so many people and so
many families that | wanted to address you in some length to explain what I’m hoping to do and I’m hoping you
will adopt, and how | think we can build an even stronger response to the opioid problem in Nashua.
RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR
Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja
| would just say, Mayor Donchess, that my experiences working with juveniles through the Juvenile Parole
Board has shown to me that laydex play an important role in working both with individuals as they travel the
road of recovery and their families.
President McCarthy stepped down; Vice President Wilshire presided.
