Peer support drop-in centers planned
County expanding aid for behavioral health conditions
Bernalillo County officials on Friday announced plans for an expansion of support services for those living with a behavioral health conditions, such as mental illness or substance use disorder.
The county is awarding of $300,000 in contracts to providers New Day and the Albuquerque Center for Hope and Recovery. And it plans to create a peer driven drop-in support program designed to provide places where participants support one another and receive services to assist them in maintaining their current level of care.
Under the program, peer support is delivered in-person at a center, by phone or over the internet with recovery services focusing on building or rebuilding social skills, education and training, vocation training and job placement.
“An informal survey a few years ago showed that Bernalillo County residents living with mental illness identified peer support services as a very high
priority,” said Bernalillo County Commissioner Maggie Hart Stebbins said during a news conference in front of the ACHR building in Downtown Albuquerque on Friday.
“Yet such services have been difficult to access here in our community,” she said. “These new drop-in centers will fill that gap with trained peer specialists who use their lived experience to support others in recovery by offering navigation, education and most importantly, hope to people living with mental health challenges.”
Evan Voth, associate director of ACHR, said adding a peer to a person’s life helps build positive relationships, social skills and a sense of belonging.
“By offering drop-in services, we are able to help and support a person when they need it most,” Voth said. “The Albuquerque drop-in center was created to give a voice to those who felt that their voices had been taken away and to do that in a friendly and safe place away from the clinical setting.”
New Day and ACHR are reviewing their real estate options to establish the centers.
ACHR is hoping to locate one center on the city’s West Side and in the South Valley. The city of Albuquerque will provide space for the drop-in center that New Day will operate at the Johnny Tapia Community Center at Wells Park on Mountain NW.
The services will be provided by certified peer advocates, peer support workers, certified peer specialists, recovery coaches, volunteers and other staff to support peers and families, both individually and in small groups.
Available resources include information on how to negotiate insurance barriers to treatment, outreach to families and individuals, connecting them to behavior health services, treatment and education.