House Bill 2010 Brings Access to Recovery Throughout Missouri

House Bill 2010 will ensure that more of Missouri’s families have immediate access and long-term relationships needed to fully recover from substance use disorders.

Since 2003, Missouri has led the nation with its implementation and management of an integrated paradigm to help people with substance use disorders return to healthy and fully restored lives.  This model, which is widely known as Access to Recovery (ATR), has been funded by a federal grant for the last 14 years achieving notable outcomes and an invaluable impact in select regions of Missouri.   Without HB 2010 to sustain funding for recovery supports, thousands of Missourians would have been displaced and many left without access to services such as recovery housing, peer support, recovery counseling, family support and employment assistance. 

 ATR Success & Impact: 

• More than 50,000 Missourians have received services in this recovery model.  (The majority of these 50,000 people do not qualify for Medicaid and do not have private insurance and cannot pay for services.)
• 86% of those individuals who received services are alcohol and drug free 
• 91% are socially connected 
• 94% have had no new adverse social or health-related problems 
• 95% have had no new arrests.

Hallmarks of ATR included:  

• Consumer-choice and individualized recovery. 
• Expanded network of providers including faith, peer and community-based providers for recovery support services. 
• ATR delivers recovery-oriented services and supports to help individuals and families achieve long-term recovery, health, wellness, and civic engagement. 
•  Recovery-oriented communities create an environment of hope, connectedness, and potential.

The Missouri Coalition of Recovery Support Providers (MCRSP) is a network of faith, peer and community-based organizations throughout Missouri who are among some of the first responders to individuals and families in local communities facing a substance use disorder.   Currently, there are more than 100-member organizations from five regions across Missouri that make up the coalition. 

MCRSP recognizes that there are many pathways to recovery, and based upon the individual and family’s unique needs, getting back to a place of wholeness may require a variety of those paths.  Recovery from addiction isn’t just about abstaining from the use or abuse of a mind or mood-altering substance.  Recovery is the process of restoring what was lost as a result of the addiction.  

“Recovery is marked by immediate access to services and long-term relationships,” said Rev. Ladell Flowers, who is a certified addictions counselor and serves as chair of the Missouri Coalition of Recovery Support Providers.  “There is often a brief window of time when an individual decides that he/she is ready for help, and there is no time to wait.  We see this even more critically in the interventions needed for opioid use disorders and the dramatic rates of overdose deaths.  Individuals and families desperately need help to come along beside them and help them navigate the path to recovery.”