By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Peer navigators are either planting a seed or watering a seed of recovery. That was the message Rise Up Central Kansas Coordinator Amy Ferguson had for the Barton County Commission Tuesday morning. Ferguson provided updates on the program and a recent Increase the Reach grant that was used to ensure underserved populations, especially those with substance use disorder in rural areas, had access to COVID-19 information and vaccines.
"We use peer navigators, who are people in recovery, employees actually, in recovery from substance use to provide support, including transportation to 318 various recovery-related meetings," Ferguson told the board.
Rise Up also provided adverse childhood experience training to more than 200 parents and caregivers in 2023.
"This type of support is crucial today because our region, according to (the Kansas Department of Children and Families), has the highest percentage of substance-affected infants in Kansas. We're the third-highest in caregivers affected by substance use compared to the rest of the state."
Ferguson said as a task force of Central Kansas Partnership, Rise Up will continue to collaborate with professionals and community partners to improve identification and raise awareness of drug-endangered children. Having peer navigators with real-world experience helps in that effort.
"Using the recovery community to connect individuals and families to resources is crucial because it may be the first intercept that provides the earliest access to recovery," said Ferguson. "We don't want it to go all the way through to where somebody is in jail. We want to use the community that has been there to be able to help the community that is there now."