Wheeling Based Youth Services System Holding Recovery Coach Training Session
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WHEELING -- People in Wheeling are learning this week how to lend a stronger helping hand to those who are seeking recovery from alcohol or substance use disorder.
A new Recovery Coach Academy session is being held this week at the Youth Services System headquarters at 87 15th Street. The academy follows the evidence-based Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR) Recovery Coach Academy model and is led by Valery Staskey of Youth Services System and Jennifer Sorg of YWCA Wheeling.
The duo, leading its ninth academy course this week, has trained more than 130 recovery coaches in recent years.
The course covers topics such as communication skills, recovery stages, core values, ethics and more.
"YSS is committed to training coaches to help those in or seeking recovery to receive that extra help from another person who has been successful in recovery," Staskey said.
People recovering tend to pay more attention to those who have walked in their shoes.
"You don't necessarily have nearly enough people working to deal with the amount of people trying to recover, said Laura Albertini-Weigel, director of the YWCA Wheeling's Women Inspired in New Directions (WIND) recovery program. "I think right now that's the biggest struggle is you can't even get the people off the street, you know; they're dropping faster than we can get to them,"
The Wheeling Police Department reported 270 overdose calls and 22 overdose deaths in 2020.
Recovery Coach Academy graduate Travis McBride said he could have been an overdose statistic. He was prescribed Xanax for anxiety at age 12, and his doctor continued to up the dosage through his teens.
He got off that drug but turned to others. He lost his job and "basically squatted'' in his own house with no electricity or water for two years. He was arrested on felony drug charges and faced decades in prison, but Circuit Court Judge David Sims sent McBride to drug court.
McBride has been clean for two years and is a Project Rebound peer recovery coach for YSS Recovery Homes.
He is a mentor to the men living at Mark's House on Wheeling Island and said the house's four current residents have jobs and one recently obtained a driver's license and plans to buy a car.
"I love my job," said McBride, who plans on becoming a state-certified peer recovery support specialist. "I love what I do with these guys. This is what I'm supposed to be doing with my life."