Why is the Amistad Peer Community Support Project so important?
This project is crucial because the State of Maine does not fund treatment programs based on relationship-based peer support. They are reluctant to consider any strategies that do not follow the traditional medical model, despite extensive research that shows peer-based recovery to be an effective practice, supported by an irrefutable base of evidence. This project will demonstrate that this non-medical, non-traditional treatment strategy is worth funding through Medicaid or, as is done in New Hampshire, through their Community Development Block Grant allocation. Fifteen peer-run support and recovery centers in that state provide many of the services that only professional staff are funded to provide in Maine. The organized network of social clubs in Maine could readily duplicate the New Hampshire strategy.
