Eastern AHEC Rural Health Immersion - Student Reflections: Gregory Griffin
Healthy Acadia has served as Maine’s Eastern Area Health Education Center (AHEC) since 2023. Our service area includes Washington, Hancock, Waldo, and Knox counties.
Maine AHECs provide community-based clinical training experiences to health professions students; encourage Maine youth to pursue careers in the health professions; offer training and continuing education programs to practicing health professionals; and develop public health approaches to address current and emerging community needs.
As part of this program, Healthy Acadia and community partners work together to create rural health immersion opportunities for health professions students to learn more about rural and underserved communities, including Rural Health Immersions (RHI) for Care for the Underserved Pathways (CUP) AHEC Scholars. and community-based experiential learning opportunities for non-CUP scholars.
We will periodically publish guest blog posts from AHEC Scholars who chose to share their experience with the program.
Guest post contributed by Gregory Griffin, UNE PA Student. Gregory participated in our March 2023 RHI and reflects on the experience.
On our final day of our rural health immersion, we packed up our items and headed north into Ellsworth. In this small coastal town, we stopped to spend time with the people at the INSPIRE Recovery Center. INSPIRE Recovery is a division of Healthy Acadia and supports a large catch area in the Down East area of Maine. We visited to tour the facility and learn what programs and opportunities were present.
When we first arrived the staff welcomed and provided information about the center. The INSPIRE Recovery Center first started with the idea of having a safe and comfortable place where people in recovery could come even to just enjoy a simple cup of coffee. The program has grown significantly, and now provides recovery coaching, navigation, and many other opportunities to those in recovery. The center also offers computers to work on job applications, check emails, or any other online task that internet access may produce a barrier for them. They also offer a calendar of events with activities, events, and small classes to assist the community.
The staff members Donna, Sonya, and Caroline also shared the recovery center’s newer role of serving as a warming center during the cold nights in Maine. This program started just last fall and offers a safe, warm, and clean environment for people who are unhoused.
After meeting in a large group, we broke off into smaller groups to meet with Sonya, a navigator, and Donna, a recovery coach. Sonya spoke to us in our small groups about the tasks of a navigator and the Proper initiative. This program offers support and recovery for pregnant persons with substance use disorder. The navigator functions as a guide to assist them in finding resources and completing tasks such as obtaining a driver’s license, safe housing, education, and any other task they may need.
Donna spoke with us in small groups about the role of a recovery coach. The recovery coach offers peer-to-peer mentoring and recovery support. The coaches offer support to find community resources in the community, navigate ways to meet their treatment, and offer recovery support goals. Donna also spoke about how close in proximity they are to the Hancock County Jail. Often, a person may have been arrested in a different season of the year and is now being released without proper clothing. The Center and a Recovery Coach can assist them in finding warm clothing and begin their journey to recovery on the right foot. All these services are offered free of cost to those in recovery.
I found the work of the INSPIRE Recovery Center to be an essential role in the community and a high resource to those in recovery. The members of INSPIRE spoke to their analogy of holding the hand of a person in recovery, not dragging them along. They spoke about finding a path to recovery based on a person’s autonomy and perspectives. Several of the members discussed their own experiences being someone affected by a person with substance use disorder. These experiences clearly create an environment welcoming to all and play such a crucial role in their community. We were all impressed, humbled, and motivated by this community and their commitment to those in recovery.