News Photo by Julie Riddle Peer Recovery Coach Zach WIlliams speaks via videoconference, one of the ways he connects with people in addiction recovery.

ALPENA — Putting to use a grant of nearly $200,000 from the Michigan Opioid Partnership, Catholic Human Services is organizing wellness response teams — emergency responders, medical professionals, law enforcement, and peer recovery coaches trained to respond to drug overdoses.

Prompt response to a drug overdose is crucial as a quick reaction to a heart attack, said Larry LaCross, clinical supervisor with Catholic Human Services.

Responding to that urgency, wellness response teams will connect within 72 hours with people who have overdosed, offering support and, when desired, connecting them to resources or helping them into treatment, LaCross said.

Key to the program’s success will be the inclusion of peer recovery coaches, people who have travelled through addiction recovery themselves and now serve as advocates for others trying to break free of addiction.

The wellness response teams will be stepping into people’s lives when they are at their most vulnerable, but also their most open to making a change, said LaCross.

In that crucial time, the presence of someone who has been there, who understands addiction from the inside, can mean the difference between life and death, said Zach Williams, a peer recovery coach in Alcona, Ogemaw, and Iosco counties.

He’s seen too many people die because of substance use disorder, especially in the past year, said Williams, sober now after 20 years of active addiction.

He pulled back from his construction business to take a full-time job with Catholic Human Services to help people trying to make it into recovery. As a peer recovery coach, he meets with people in the hospital or their homes after they’ve overdosed, connects with judges and drug courts and homeless shelters on behalf of those fighting addiction, and fields phone calls from people who are ready to get help getting better.

In a hospital emergency room after an overdose, with medical staff telling them, “you have to do this, and you have to do that, and you don’t belong here,” an addict feels overwhelmed and ready to bolt, Williams said.

“Then, someone walks in the room who’s been there,” he said. “Now, all of a sudden, you’ve got hope.”

Catholic Human Services is still organizing wellness response teams in Alpena County, where the program isn’t officially off the ground yet, but the hotline is live, and people who need help are welcome to call and will get a response, LaCross said.

Wellness response teams are one example of the efforts made in Alpena County in recent years to encourage and enable the recovery community — efforts he said are praised by counties in other parts of the state, LaCross said.

The teams, with their reliance on the been-there influence of peer recovery coaches, recognize that recovery doesn’t look the same for everyone, said Williams.

Traditional 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are powerful and have helped many people change their lives, but they’re not for everyone. If that model doesn’t work for someone, that just means it’s time to try something else, Williams said.

Efforts like Catholic Human Services’ wellness response teams allow communities like Alpena to become places of support, opening doors to other recovery supports, such as transition houses and employers who intentionally hire people with drug and criminal histories, he said.

“It’s nice to talk about the problem,” Williams said. “That’s good. But it’s really beneficial to talk about the solution.”

To get help from a wellness response team

Call 800-356-5755.