Nation­al Recov­ery Month Pro­gram Spot­light: SUPR Services

August 31, 2022

Since 1989, Sep­tem­ber has been rec­og­nized as Nation­al Recov­ery Month, a time to cel­e­brate and hon­or the accom­plish­ments of peo­ple in recov­ery for sub­stance use and men­tal health chal­lenges. It’s also a time to spread aware­ness of recov­ery resources, treat­ment prac­tices, and ser­vice providers who guide folks through their recov­ery journey.

“To me, Recov­ery Month means edu­cat­ing and pro­vid­ing aware­ness about sub­stance use and men­tal health treat­ment, as well as how ser­vices can help com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers live a healthy and well-bal­anced life,” shares KYC’s Man­ag­er of SUPR (Sub­stance Use Pre­ven­tion and Recov­ery) Ser­vices, Danielle K., LCPC, CADC.

The ongo­ing theme for Recov­ery Month is ​“Every Per­son. Every Fam­i­ly. Every Com­mu­ni­ty.”. KYC’s SUPR ser­vices embody this idea all year-round, help­ing peo­ple of all walks of life achieve their goals.

About SUPR (Sub­stance Use Pre­ven­tion and Recov­ery) Services

SUPR ser­vices pro­vide evi­dence-based clin­i­cal treat­ment inter­ven­tions to help peo­ple liv­ing with a wide range of sub­stance use disorders. 

“Many clients come in with what they under­stand to be a sub­stance use dis­or­der, and we work togeth­er with them to estab­lish exact­ly what needs to be worked on from that point on,” shares Danielle. ​“That could include con­nect­ing them with sta­ble hous­ing, estab­lish­ing a prop­er men­tal health diag­no­sis, and con­nect­ing them with com­mu­ni­ty-based supports.”

SUPR clin­i­cians pro­vide indi­vid­ual coun­sel­ing and group ses­sions that focus on psy­choe­d­u­ca­tion to build skills and under­stand­ing to address sub­stance use behaviors.

This includes learn­ing how clients can reduce harm from sub­stance use and build­ing healthy habits that sup­port their indi­vid­ual needs. For instance, clients are trained in how to use NAR­CAN to pre­vent opi­oid over­dose. They’re edu­cat­ed on their rights and on Good Samar­i­tan laws, encour­ag­ing indi­vid­u­als to call for emer­gency ser­vices in the case of an over­dose with an under­stand­ing that med­ical assis­tance will be the pri­or­i­ty, rather than sub­stance con­fis­ca­tion and arrest. Learn­ing this infor­ma­tion can be key to pre­vent­ing death or seri­ous harm from an over­dose and ensures safer out­comes for peo­ple who use substances.

Harm Reduc­tion Treat­ment Guid­ed by Per­son­al­ized Goals

SUPR ser­vices fol­low a harm reduc­tion mod­el. ​“Harm reduc­tion is about meet­ing clients where they are — treat­ing them with dig­ni­ty, com­pas­sion, and respect.” 

Clients do not need to com­mit to an absti­nence-only course of treat­ment. Fol­low­ing a harm reduc­tion mod­el, clients can define their own goals and their own lan­guage for what suc­cess looks like for them. The over-arch­ing goal is to reduce the risk of over­dose and harm from sub­stance use behav­iors but does not require sobriety. 

“In absti­nence-based treat­ment mod­els, if you use the sub­stance again, you have to start over from day one or you could be kicked out of the pro­gram alto­geth­er,” Danielle explains. ​“A harm-reduc­tion mod­el is much more open, it’s about meet­ing the client where they are at.”

This mod­el affords peo­ple who are not ready to stop using sub­stances an oppor­tu­ni­ty to begin their recov­ery jour­ney at the point that’s right for them. By iden­ti­fy­ing the goals they have in that moment, they can begin work­ing toward them in a sup­port­ive, non-judg­men­tal space.

“Depend­ing on the indi­vid­u­al’s goals, we might start just by pro­vid­ing psy­choe­d­u­ca­tion, or exam­in­ing the safest way pos­si­ble to use their drug of choice,” Danielle men­tions, ​“so we may pro­vide link­age to nee­dle exchanges, we might share infor­ma­tion about safer sex, prop­er den­tal hygiene, or even skin care sug­ges­tions for peo­ple who may have skin chal­lenges relat­ed to sub­stance use.”

Empow­er­ing Clients

At every turn, the client is empow­ered to define their own goals, and to cre­ate the path that fits them in their stage of liv­ing. Danielle con­tin­ues, ​“We pro­vide a nondis­crim­i­na­to­ry envi­ron­ment, where we can open­ly dis­cuss the chal­lenges they’ve faced in the past, and even to dis­cuss the bias­es they may hold toward themselves.”

“Many clients have been stig­ma­tized by every com­mu­ni­ty to which they belong, they’ve been told what they need to do, where they need to go, and what they have to do at all times if they’ve been through the court sys­tem,” Danielle notes, ​“it’s our respon­si­bil­i­ty as providers to acknowl­edge that, process it with clients, and work side by side to chal­lenge these bias­es and guide the client in exam­in­ing what they envi­sion for recovery.”

Help­ing a Whole Per­son Thrive

No per­son is defined by a sin­gu­lar aspect of their behav­ior. KYC’s SUPR team works not only to help indi­vid­u­als address sub­stance use behav­iors, but to con­nect them with the wrap-around sup­ports that help them thrive over­all. Beyond con­nect­ing only with our SUPR team of men­tal health pro­fes­sion­als, clients are pro­vid­ed a link to indi­vid­ual ther­a­pists from our out­pa­tient behav­ioral health teams. Addi­tion­al­ly, they may join one of KYC’s peer-led SMART Recov­ery groups to gain addi­tion­al insight and learn from oth­ers who face sim­i­lar chal­lenges. Indi­vid­u­als seek­ing sup­port may con­nect with our com­mu­ni­ty-based behav­ioral health teams, gain­ing addi­tion­al encour­age­ment as they nav­i­gate liv­ing in recov­ery in their own homes and neigh­bor­hoods. Clients may also take part in our Behav­ioral Sup­port pro­grams to apply the skills they learn to their roles as par­ents and par­tic­i­pate in struc­tured oppor­tu­ni­ties to use their skills in real-world scenarios.

Recov­ery can impact every aspect of life, from hous­ing, to employ­ment, to phys­i­cal and men­tal health. KYC’s SUPR team is not only well-versed in the suite of ser­vices that Ken­neth Young Cen­ter can offer, but they thought­ful­ly con­nect clients with the addi­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty resources they need to live their best lives. Our team of car­ing pro­fes­sion­als works hard to under­stand the com­plex needs of the peo­ple we serve and con­tin­u­al­ly do what they can to help clients con­nect to the sup­port they need to tru­ly thrive in recovery.

Con­nect with Recov­ery Resources

To learn more about KYC’s SUPR ser­vices, please call us at 847−524−8800 ext. 136. Our team will be hap­py to dis­cuss your sit­u­a­tion and the sup­port you’re seek­ing, and to answer any ques­tions you may have about our programs. 

In addi­tion to SUPR ser­vices, KYC offers a suite of recov­ery sup­port to help com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers thrive. Learn more below or by call­ing our team at 847−524−8800 ext. 136.

SMART Recov­ery

SMART Recov­ery is a peer-led, non-clin­i­­cal pro­gram for par­tic­i­pants to achieve healthy, pos­i­tive, and bal­anced lifestyles while nav­i­gat­ing sub­stance use and addic­tive behaviors. 

Out­pa­tient Therapy

KYC offers per­son­al­ized indi­vid­ual, cou­ple, group, and fam­i­ly coun­sel­ing to peo­ple who are work­ing toward their men­tal health goals. More than 4,000 youth and adults receive out­pa­tient ther­a­py sup­port from KYC each year.

Drop-In Cen­ter

Our Drop-In Cen­ter is a social set­ting for adults liv­ing with men­tal health diag­noses to find com­mu­ni­ty and sup­port dai­ly. Click here to learn more and to view the cur­rent Drop-In Cen­ter activities!

Com­mu­ni­ty-Based Sup­port Programs

We pro­vide a range of inten­sive com­mu­ni­ty-based behav­ioral health recov­ery ser­vices to sup­port clients as they devel­op inde­pen­dent liv­ing skills.

Employ­ment Services

Through our part­ner­ship with the Illi­nois Divi­sion of Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Ser­vices, we offer employ­ment ser­vices to help peo­ple with men­tal health diag­noses and dis­abil­i­ties find and keep employment.

Psy­choso­cial Rehabilitation

PSR (Psy­choso­cial Reha­bil­i­ta­tion) helps adults liv­ing with severe and chron­ic men­tal ill­ness work toward recov­ery by practic­ing skills to live, work, learn, and par­tic­i­pate ful­ly in the community.

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