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Building Community Capacity

We can save lives by referring people to proper treatment and helping them navigate systems of continued care. In fact, leaders in faith and community organizations can be trained to:

  • Respond to emergency situations,
  • Make referrals to treatment and recovery support providers,
  • Provide ongoing support for those in recovery and living with an addiction, and
  • Become peer-recovery coaches.

Getting Started

Your community can partner with local expertise (including public health offices, treatment facilities, hospitals, community health centers, or nonprofit service providers) to help deliver capacity-building trainings, such as:

  • Mental Health First Aid: Gain the basic skills to help someone experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis. bit.ly/PCPT-8
  • Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT): A public health approach to encourage early intervention and refer people to the appropriate treatment and support. www.SAMHSA.gov/SBIRT 
  • Emergency Response: Learn how to recognize overdose symptoms and administer naloxone (opioid overdose-reversing drug).
  • Peer-Recovery Models: Sharing experiences brings hope to people in recovery and promotes a sense of belonging within the community. bit.ly/PCPT-9 
  • Trauma-Informed Approaches and Trauma-Specific Interventions: Learn about the critical connections between recovery and resilience for people impacted by trauma. bit.ly/PCPT-9
  • Motivational Interviewing: Learn a counseling approach that seeks to facilitate and strengthen an individual's motivation to change misuse of substances and other risky behaviors. bit.ly/PCPT-10

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