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Recovery Coaching Provides Hope for Those Battling Addiction

By Contributor
Dallas Clark
Health Care

Speaking from Experience

By Elizabeth Sears

 

Dallas Clark

Dallas Clark says lived experience and empathy are key to what makes recovery coaches so effective.

Dallas Clark is in the business of spreading empathy and sharing hope. 

He is a recovery coach in the Recovery Coaching program at MHA’s BestLife Emotional Health and Wellness Center in Springfield. Inspired by the positive influence his own recovery coach had on him, Clark helps individuals who are facing the challenges of addiction to meet their goals and connect back into the community. 

A recovery coach is someone who has gone through the recovery process themselves and has completed the certifications required to become a coach. They act as a bridge to recovery, a ‘concierge’ of sorts, helping clients take control and regain power in their lives by providing them with wellness plans, encouragement, and other forms of assistance.

This model of treatment works because of the trust that is built between coaches and clients. Due to walking a similar path, recovery coaches are able to understand the experiences and emotions of their clients in a way others without such life experience cannot. They know what it is like to have an addiction and can connect on a personal level with someone looking to begin their own recovery. 

“The peer-to-peer counseling that recovery coaches provide is a very vital part of the process.”

“One thing that’s important about being a recovery coach is that we have lived experience. When we talk about empathy, we’ve been in those shoes,” Clark said. “I know it’s very important that you be supported by somebody that really does understand what you’re saying.”

Tommy Smyth, another recovery coach in the program, echoed this sentiment.

“The peer-to-peer counseling that recovery coaches provide is a very vital part of the process in terms of offering the comfort level of a shared experience,” he noted. “We are among the first supports someone beginning recovery encounters and often where they begin to trust the process. I continue to meet with them in addition to whoever and whatever else becomes part of their recovery.”

Recovery coaches help to motivate, support, and empower clients in a way that meets their specific needs. This help sometimes involves providing referrals. Clark recalled recently helping one of his clients find a primary-care physician and helping others with goals like finding a dentist or changing medications. 

Tommy Smyth

Tommy Smyth says no one should feel stigma or shame about seeking treatment for addiction.

Other times, recovery coaches help individuals communicate with their family, assist in building a broad support team, and provide resources for family members who may feel helpless. Whatever the case, clients are met exactly where they are in their recovery process, whether in the very early stages or further along. 

“We collaborate on a wellness plan, prioritizing goals and building on individual strengths to empower their recovery. It is their recovery,” Smyth said. “I can use my recovery as an example and in understanding what they are dealing with or feeling, but recovery is about giving power back to the individual to take charge of their healing and eventually their lives.”

 

Meeting a Growing Need

MHA’s Recovery Coaching program launched on Feb. 17, 2020 — less than a month before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The inability to meet clients in person proved to be a noteworthy obstacle for coaches to try to overcome, as well as trying to bring clients back into a community that was shut down.

“The major issue was not having the one-on-one connection because recovery coaching is really based on relationship building. Not being in-person and getting to meet the individual, it was hard to build a strong relationship over the phone,” Clark said. “It was a lot of meetings being on Zoom. A lot of people didn’t know how to use Zoom, so that was a difficult part, and just connecting people back into the community.”

However, the pandemic’s impact did not mean a slow start for the program. There was only one coach at the time of its initial launch, but an immediately full caseload emphasized a need to add more staff. Since then, MHA has added four certified recovery coaches for a total of five coaches in the program. They are continuing to expand, planning to take on more coaches as needed.

“We’re starting to build collaborations with other agencies, which are providing more referrals for us, so that’s one reason we’re expanding the Recovery Coaching program,” Clark said.

The program has now shifted to a hybrid format, offering a combination of in-person and remote coaching. Also, the impact of certain resources reopening after previously closing during the pandemic has been felt greatly by members of the program. 

“We’re getting back to that place now where recovery centers are back open. Drop-off centers are back open, and that’s a big plus because, when the pandemic hit, a lot of places had shut down that are recovery-oriented,” Clark said. “People didn’t have those safe places to turn to.”

Smyth spoke on the recent death of Jimmy Hayes, an NHL hockey player from Massachusetts who died from a combination of fentanyl and cocaine. Hayes’s father expressed fear of the media portraying his son as a “junkie.” In response to this, Smyth emphasized the importance of treating individuals who experience addiction with empathy and dignity, as well as providing them with the help they need. 

“If you want to get help, there are people out there, including recovery coaches who have been where you are, willing to walk and fight with you. You don’t have to keep going through what you are going through alone — you can take control, and you will get your life back.”

Addiction is a disease with a gripping nature that cannot be overstated, and with the especially risky nature of drugs being laced with cheaper and more lethal substances and sold to unsuspecting buyers, resources like MHA’s Recovery Coaching program are essential for members of the community experiencing addiction, Smyth noted.

“Recovery coaches can and do make a difference. The more we can educate the public about addiction and the role recovery coaches can play, the better,” he said. “No one should be stigmatized or judged for having an addiction to a substance. No one should be made to feel shame, rejection, or failure in seeking treatment to start and sustain recovery.”

 

From Despair to Hope

The feelings of empathy and hope that Clark and Smyth exude can be felt in a single conversation with them. Smyth concluded with a word of encouragement for anyone seeking to regain control of their lives from an addiction. 

“If you want to get help, there are people out there, including recovery coaches who have been where you are, willing to walk and fight with you. You don’t have to keep going through what you are going through alone — you can take control, and you will get your life back.”

When asked what message he would like to leave with BusinessWest’s readers, Clark spoke, without a single hesitation, of hope.

“I think the most important part is providing that hope for others. I always tell people that I didn’t know what that looked like. I didn’t even believe in myself, but somebody believed in me. I didn’t have hope — somebody gave hope to me.”

Coaching Caregivers Offers Guidance in Often-difficult Situations

By
Health Care

Game Plan

By Mark Morris

James Ferry, certified aging life care manager at Coaching Caregivers Inc.

James Ferry, certified aging life care manager at Coaching Caregivers Inc.

Many adults take on the role of caregiver for an aging parent, but few are prepared for what’s actually involved in taking on that all-important assignment.

What starts out as a trip to the grocery store or a ride to the doctor’s office can, and very often does, become overwhelming when the parent has a medical crisis or other event where their needs suddenly change.

“It often begins with a hospitalization,” said James Ferry, who manages Coaching Caregivers Inc. in Northampton. “Let’s say your mom is admitted for a urinary-tract infection. After a short stay at a skilled-nursing facility, your family is told that she can no longer stay home alone.”

If the family is local, he went on, an adult child, usually a daughter, typically tries to be the caregiver. But as she tries to balance her mother’s care needs with holding down a job and taking care of her own family, burnout inevitably sets in.

And that, unfortunately, is the time when many families usually reach out for help.

“They come to me when they’re exasperated,” said Ferry, a certified aging life care manager with more than 25 years of experience and an advanced degree in social work. He sees his role as someone who helps navigate the complexities of elder care to relieve the family’s burden and develop a course of action that provides a quality life for the elder parent.

He’d rather get involved before people become exasperated, but human nature often precludes that from happening. Regardless of when he does get involved, the goal is the same — to come up with a care plan that works for both the elder parent and the caregiver.

It’s an art and a science, he says, that brings many rewards.

The Big Picture

In order to develop a plan, Ferry starts by doing an assessment.

“I’ll visit the elder in their home and ask them to tell me their family story,” he explained. “At the same time, I’m listening for what’s going on emotionally and with their mental processing. Then we might take a tour around the home to see how they maneuver in that environment, how safe it is, and how realistic is it for them to remain in the home.”

After the assessment, Ferry develops a care plan to best meet the elder’s needs. The plan can range from a few basic services on an as-needed basis to a more substantial plan that provides daily services.

Arranging for help with even simple tasks can provide great relief for the family, he added. “There’s a big difference between having nothing and having a person in place for grocery shopping, doctor’s appointments, or just to walk the dog.”

For more intensive needs, Ferry will often recommend a plan that functions like assisted living, but takes place in the person’s home and still allows for family to be involved.

He refers to this type of plan as a “split-shift approach” in which a caregiver arrives in the morning around 8 a.m. to help the elder client with bathing, getting dressed, and eating breakfast. Then the caregiver will make lunch, clean up after lunch, and leave. The client has the afternoon to themselves to watch TV, catch up with friends, or take a nap. The elder can be alone during this time because they will have a lifeline-type device in the event of an emergency.

A second caregiver arrives around 5 p.m. to prepare dinner, do the cleanup afterward, and help get the client get ready for bed.

“With a plan like this, you can cover the whole day with only seven or eight hours of care,” he explained. “This approach is much less expensive than an assisted-living facility and provides a much higher quality of life for the client.”

This type of plan reflects the current trend of ‘aging in place,’ where services that were once provided in a facility are now delivered in the home. In recent years, home-healthcare agencies have seen strong growth because their services can cost much less than an admission to a long-term-care facility. In addition, studies have shown that people enjoy better quality of life when they can stay in their home and follow their own schedule.

In addition to health concerns, caring for an aging parent also involves financial, legal, and other issues. During this time, family dynamics can bring out a whole new level of stress. “If a family member has a resource agenda, such as the parent’s house or some cash, they could potentially subvert a plan of care because they see it as less going to them.”

Ferry’s role in these situations, he explained, is to be a facilitator who helps the family reach common ground and remind everyone of what’s best for their parent.

Age-old Concerns

The need for the services provided by Coaching Caregivers and similar businesses is sure to increase as more people than ever before are living longer in retirement. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a 65-year-old couple has a 50% chance of one of them living to age 93, and a 20% chance that one of them will reach age 97.

“I work with a lot of people in their 90s who need some help, but clearly do not need a nursing home,” Ferry said, noting that, 25 years ago, far fewer people lived past age 90.

When an aging parent is living a vital and independent life, it’s easy to avoid an elder-care discussion, but he said that’s the time to do it. As difficult as it is to start the conversation with a healthy parent, Ferry said it’s much easier than waiting for a crisis when significant decisions about care must be made under stress.

“When people are desperate for help, they don’t have the capacity to shop around. Instead, they listen to the first person who can offer a solution,” he noted, which may not be in the elder’s best interest.

Ferry counsels people to ask many questions before selecting a caregiver. “Try to get a sense of their reputation. Are they looking out for your parent, or are they steering you to the business they are in?”

There are many professionals who consider themselves care managers, he added, but may represent the interests of an agency or an insurance company. His advice, simply put, is to look for someone who will objectively represent the client’s interests. Once a care plan is in place, he explained, he then takes on the role of ‘consumer advocate’ for the client to make sure they get the services they were promised.

“Professionals like me have no bias for a particular course of action,” he told BusinessWest. “I have relationships with many home-care and assisted-living agencies, as well as other professionals I can recommend. My only interest is what’s best for my individual client.”

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