Certified Peer Recovery Specialists (CPRS) on the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board’s Peer Overdose Response Team (PORT) have lived experience with mental health and substance use disorders. They provide supportive outreach to individuals within the CSB and our community who are at high risk of opioid overdose. CPRSs emphasize a recovery-oriented framework, using principles of harm reduction and recovery management, with the goal of reducing the number of overdoses and substance use emergencies.
- Outreach and engagement in a community setting.
- Harm reduction education to limit the risks and harms of unsafe drug use.
- Wellness Recovery Action Plan education to learn how to create a self-designed prevention and wellness process for getting well and staying well.
- Connections to CSB and community resources for recovery.
- Links to ongoing support groups like Alcoholics/Narcotics Anonymous, SMART Recovery and Refuge Recovery.
- Support for family members to connect with local community resources.
Certified Peer Recovery Specialists connect with individuals through ongoing telephone contact and face to face meetings in the participants’ home or in a community setting to help improve their quality of life and increase their personal empowerment. PORT meets people where they are; no additional treatment is required to participate in peer support services. The length of services is usually three to six months but can be extended up to a year for individuals who are actively engaged in the program.
In addition, PORT works to promote inclusion and provide support to individuals receiving CSB services and their families to help them grow as self-advocates, assuring that the interests of people in recovery are represented and their input is considered in all planning and policy and development for the CSB.
PORT services can benefit opioid users who:
- Are being released from jail, detox or residential treatment.
- Have recently overdosed or have a history of overdoses.
- Have a history of relapse.
- Are struggling with other non-opioid substances.
- If you are interested in peer support services, call 703-559-3199.
- Family and community members can also refer someone to PORT by calling 703-559-3199.
- Local wellness and recovery centers, as well as CSB clinicians, can also refer individuals to PORT.
In a substance use crisis, call the Fairfax Detoxification Center at 703-502-7000, 24/7. Call 911 in a life-threating emergency.
