Addiction led Rhonda Warren and Paul Moore to years of despair, including prison.
Recovery set them free – and put them on the road to helping others with their hard-won wisdom.
Peer counseling is frequently part of the journey of addiction recovery. Studies show its benefits include reducing the length of hospital stays and lessening symptoms of depression and anxiety for patients, along with boosting the self-confidence and skills of the counselors themselves.
“Peers have what we call ‘lived experience,'” said Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, a Rhode Island psychiatrist who became the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ first assistant secretary for mental health and substance use in 2017. “Their experiences may be something that the person can identify with very strongly, and that can be very helpful to them, in not only helping them to stick with their treatment, but in also providing them hope.”
Rhonda Warren’s story
That can be healing for the helpers as well as those they help. Warren, of Pawtucket, experienced trauma as a child. She said her parents divorced when she was a baby, her father was an alcoholic, and living with her mother was difficult.