ad·vo·cate – noun – a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy.
In Connecticut the peer recovery community does not have a shortage of advocates, that being said we will never stop encouraging others to stand and be heard. Every advocate is an asset to our community, we are grateful to all those who continue to fight for needed changes to our system of care and for the rights of the people who rely on those services. Many people involved in advocacy work along side of groups or agencies such as Advocacy Unlimited or Keep the Promise Coalition who help local advocates by keeping them informed on legislative issues and opportunities on how and when to testify.
Writing testimony, letters, and emails is not always easy for everyone but good communication skills are important to making the desired impact regarding the topic for which you are advocating. If you need help with crafting your message the team at Ripple would like to volunteer. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation are all things that stand out and can sometimes take away from the overall message you are trying to send.
Helping people communicate effectively goes a long way towards their personal empowerment and we all need help from time to time. We are people who understand this, right now Ripple has volunteers within our organization who live with dyslexia and other learning disabilities which makes written communication difficult. This is not an obstacle that should keep anyone from expressing their views and making their voices heard. You may be an individual advocate but in this community you are not alone.
If you would like basic proof reading or feedback on what you have written please feel free to send it to us. We will write you back with any suggested edits. If you would like more information or would like to submit a document for review you can reach us at: RockingRecovery.org@gmail.com
Please include a phone number and a good time to call when contacting us, in some cases being able to talk to a person over the phone will allow the process to move faster. It will also ensure we understand the goal of your message and the desired outcome for the issue you are addressing.
Writing Tips:
When writing a letter to a community leader or preparing testimony to be read at a public hearing there are a few things to keep in mind so your words have the desired impact. Advocacy, whether done as an individual or as part of a group, has the goal of raising awareness, calling for action, and changing lives.
1) Be direct, identify the problem and suggest a solution: State the problem and how it effects you or the people for which you are advocating. Constructive ideas on how to solve a problem go much farther than than trying to assign blame as to who’s at fault. Offer to work with them to come up with a solution that works for everyone. A leader is more likely to work with someone who makes suggestions rather than demands, it also lays a better foundation for any future interactions when you need their help again.
2) Always be respectful: Advocates are passionate people, there are a lot of emotions involved when sharing a story or trying to make changes to better the lives of others. It is very important to remember that person or persons you are engaging with have all of the same emotions that you do.
3) Proof read everything twice: Have you ever heard the expression, you never get a second change to make a first impression? Mistakes can often make your recipient wonder if you actually care about what you are advocating for. It is best to use a computer when composing your thoughts, use spell check, Grammarly is also extremely useful. TIP: You can cut and paste your letter or testimony into Google Translate and have it read your writing back to you. Sometimes it is easier to hear mistakes than it is to see them.
4) Do your research – Testimony: If you are planning on writing a testimony and would like to read it in front of a committee please keep in mind that you are limited to three minutes of speaking time. You are required to submit a written version of your testimony before the public hearing starts. Use this to your advantage, lets say in your testimony you state that one out of every five people live with a mental illness. While that statement is true you should site your source of that information with your written testimony.
When you have finished your time the committee will thank you for your time, they will then ask any of the committee members if they have any questions for you. One may ask where the statistic one in five came from. At that point you can state the source and then point out that the source is noted in the written testimony. TIP: Have a copy of your written testimony with you even if you plan to paraphrase and not read directly from it. Highlight your source information for quick reference should you need it.
5) Do your research – Letter writing: When writing a letter you are not really limited on how much information you can convey, but you should keep in mind that community leaders are extremely busy and have great demands on their time. First make it clear what your ask is, identify the problem, how long the problem has been occurring, and how it is effecting you. Ask for their help or for them to direct you to someone who can aid you in resolving the problem. Lastly, always thank them for their time. You are more likely to get a prompt response if they believe you appreciate the work that they do.
6) DO NOT write anything if you are angry: How you word things is very important and when you are mad or upset the real issue you are trying to advocate for may suffer. The tone of your words must be direct but not sound combative. It is okay to say something like, “I have been living with this problem for so long I am angry, frustrated, and just want a solution that will work well for everyone .” That is actually a good thing to communicate because it reflects on how you are being effected. Writing while angry on the other hand, “I am so angry that you have allowed this nonsense to go on for so long, what do we have to do before you fix it?”
Writing Samples
Testimony before the Insurance Committee
February 27, 2020
H.B. No. 5248 AN ACT ESTABLISHING A TASK FORCE TO STUDY HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR PEER SUPPORT SERVICES IN THE STATE.
Jeffrey Santo, RSS
Senator Lesser, Rep. Scanlon, and members of the Insurance Committee,
My name is Jeffrey Santo, and I am a registered voter in the city of Norwalk. I am here to testify regarding H.B. 5248 An Act Establishing A Task Force To Study Health Insurance Coverage For Peer Support Services In The State. Unfortunately, I can not be there in person to deliver this testimony to you, but my absence should not undermine how important this issue is to me.
I am a state-certified Recovery Support Specialist and, as such qualified to work alongside treatment teams for mental health care, people living with addiction, or a co-occurrence of the two. Peer Recovery Coaches, as well as Recovery Support Specialists, are held to the same professional and ethical standards other providers are to adhere. I want to support the creation of this task force in any way I can and feel that it is a step in the right direction. My one disappointment is that this was not done before bills were put forward in the past. One example of this was HB 5270: An Act Concerning Peer Support Specialists and Requiring Health Insurance Coverage for Outpatient Peer Support Services Provided By Certified Peer Support Specialists. This bill was raised in the 2019 legislative session, and many certified peers, including myself, came to testify before the Insurance and Real Estate Committee on March 5, 2019.
We have known for a long time about the benefit that Peers in recovery can provide, as far back as 1935 when Bill Wilson talked to another alcoholic, Bob Smith, about the nature of alcoholism and a possible solution. This was when Alcoholics Anonymous, more commonly known as AA, was founded. An article written by Brian Prioleau in 2014 titled “Peer Support Recovery Is the Future of Behavioral Health” remains posted on the SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) website. In this article, he says,
“Peer support specialists are becoming more vital to the field. Mr. Cameron believes peer supporters fill an important role in the behavioral health workforce. “The real value a peer supporter has is that they are uniquely qualified to engage people with mental health issues.” In a 2017 presentation, SAMHSA answered the question, What Does A Peer Support Worker Do? “A peer support worker is someone with the lived experience of recovery from a mental health condition, substance use disorder, or both. They provide support to others experiencing similar challenges. They provide non‐clinical, strengths‐based support and are “experientially credentialed” by their own recovery journey (Davidson, et al., 1999). Peer support workers may be referred to by different names depending upon the setting in which they practice. Common titles include: peer specialists, peer recovery coaches, peer advocates, and peer recovery support specialists.”
As a Recovery Support Specialist, I am a mental health professional. I am required to adhere to HIPAA guidelines which protect the privacy of any client who works with me. I am required to take additional classes and continue my training just as other professionals in the mental health and addiction services field. To keep my certification in good standing, I must earn 60 continuing education credits every three years. If SAMHSA is right, and many peers believe they are, we are the future of mental health, not only in the United States but around the world. This task force is necessary to prepare for that future and to make sure the residents of Connecticut have access to the level of care and services they will need now and many years to come.
Thank you for reading to my testimony this today and providing this forum for all of our voices to be
heard.
Representative Dathan,
I wanted to reach out to you today to talk about the upcoming vote on HB 5270, An Act Concerning Peer Support Specialists and Requiring Health Insurance Coverage for Outpatient Peer Support Services Provided By Certified Peer Support Specialists. I strongly support the passing of this legislation and feel it will enhance the services available to those in the mental health and addiction treatment system.
Peer support is one of the most effective ways to break through the walls of stigma and show a person in crisis that recovery is possible; no other treatment team member can do what peers do. Organizations like the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) agree that Peer Support has been proven to impact a person’s recovery in positive ways. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) uses a peer support structure and has been widely successful since 1935.
Peers have also proven their value right here in Connecticut. Advocacy Unlimited is a Peer driven and respected resource, one that the state values enough to have awarded a $5,954,460 contract. Other Peer driven groups, such as ours, Recovery Innovations for Pursuing Peer Leadership and Empowerment (RIPPLE), is entirely funded out of pocket and run by passionate volunteers. RockingRecovery.org, Ripple’s online resource, is being used by several service providers in the state to connect their clients to additional programs to improve their quality of life.
We need to make a change, and I believe adding peers to the workforce is a step in the right direction. Evidence has already proven we can be effective; all we are asking is that we are allowed to prove that and so much more.
Thank you for your time,
Jeffrey Santo
Norwalk, CT
To the editor, The Hour
I have never liked the term “War on Drugs” because a drug is an inanimate object; I prefer to look at it more as a war on drug trafficking. People who live with addiction are not the enemy and we should not be waging a war with people who need our help. There are two sides to this problem, the supply of drugs and where they come from is one. The other is addiction and the stigma associated with the lifestyle and behavior of an addict. I want to address the addiction side of this issue.
First, we should never wage a war against someone who truly needs our help. We should be standing beside them and help them get a stronger foothold in the battle they are fighting against addiction. I believe the only way to win this fight is by helping one person at a time rather than addressing this as a systemic problem in our society. Not everyone uses drugs for the same reason and no two people are exactly alike. A one-size-fits-all solution will not solve this problem; if it were going to work it would have already yielded much better results.
I have never had a problem with any type of chemical addiction, I’ve been lucky. Since becoming more involved in the mental health awareness movement, I have met a large number of good people who have had treatment in the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services system. They have struggled to take their lives back and free themselves from the hold drugs had on them. Eventually I was able to take the Recovery Support Specialist (RSS) training and become certified to help people living with mental illness, addiction or a co-occurrence between the two.
Trained peers in the workforce are an often overlooked option by the state agencies trying to deal with the problems created by drug use, one of the biggest is the opioid epidemic. In Connecticut there have been trainings on how to administer Narcan, they have been free of charge and open to the public. This is a huge step in the prevention of deaths as a result of overdose, but does little to address the issue of addiction. Last month in New Haven, dozens of people were transported to area hospitals after overdosing on a tainted batch of K2 or “Spice,” which is a synthetic marijuana. A city official said 114 calls for people needing medical attention came in, at least 10 people overdosed more than once.
My RSS certificate number is 00979 and I was not a part of the last class to graduate. This leads me to believe that there are more than 1,000 certified peers within my state who are trained to help. The rapid response of EMS and police certainly saved lives, but no one addressed the fact that even though the emergency had passed the crisis was still happening for some of these people. At one point, volunteers walked around New Haven just keeping an eye out for anyone showing signs of a drug overdose. When it came to saving lives and the response of the system, it worked as it should have. I do, however, have to ask the question about the level of follow-up support considering how many people overdosed more than once.
If they want to call this a “war,” then let’s look at it from that point of view. You can’t fight a war without soldiers, boots on the ground. They need to be trained, they need to know the enemy and they need to know how to beat that enemy. Peers working in the field have been proven to be a valuable asset and they have the skill set needed to make a difference. I, for one, would volunteer and step forward to help someone start their path of recovery and I know I am not the only RSS who would.
In military terms, the number of graduates from the Advocacy Unlimited RSS trainings are roughly the same number of soldiers in a battalion. If someone from the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services ever reads this, I want you to know one thing — You are not going to win a war without troops. We are here, we are willing and we are ready.
Thank you for your time,
Jeffrey Santo
May 2, 2021
To whom it may concern,
I am writing you today on behalf of Ms. ********** **************. This correspondence is to confirm that ********** has been attending a peer level support group and to document some of her progress since she first connected with us back in late September of last year.
My organization is a volunteer-run, federally recognized non-profit. Our staff have lived experience with mental health or addiction challenges and have taken various training to become certified as peer support specialists. We launched our Zoom-based late-night peer support group in response to the pandemic as an effort to connect people who were struggling during that time.
Even though our attendees were all local to Connecticut, word soon spread, and people have reached out from around the country. ********** first contacted me on September 23, 2021, via email, looking for resources that could help her get back on her feet. She was going through a challenging time and knew she needed help. For confidentiality reasons, I can not go into specifics but I can say this: it takes a tremendous amount of courage to ask for help and find the strength to work on
oneself.
This is especially true while a person is still living through a highly stressful situation. Since her introduction to our peer support group 27 weeks ago, ********** has logged approximately 160 hours via Zoom and interacted with us through an open peer forum based on Facebook. The platform connects group members throughout the day and offers support as it is needed. Many people recover from stressful or traumatic events, and ********** has come a very long way in a short time.
What is most remarkable about her progress is that she is still living through the stressful event which led her to connect with us. She overcame homelessness, found employment, and has begun studying web-based coding to increase her options in pursuing future career paths. She has become a valuable member of our group, has shown great empathy, and has successfully supported others over the last several months.
Recovery is not something a person can achieve unless they are ready and willing to do the work. My experience with ********** makes me believe that she will not only recover and survive but continue to grow and thrive.
Sincerely,
All communications between Recovery Innovations for Pursuing Peer Leadership and Empowerment, Inc. will be kept strictly confidential. We will not forward material to the intended recipient or any other third party. This service is free of charge and subject to availability. During the legislative session please keep in mind that many people may seek to use this service. To service a larger number of people we ask that, for testimony, you submit no more than two pages.
