Supporting Incarcerated Recoverees in a Pandemic

We are now well over a year into the COVID-19 pandemic and what a ride it has been. Across the globe, community-based service organizations have had to alter the way they administer programs and services to ensure the health and safety of both their employees and the people they serve. Seemingly overnight, services that had always been delivered in-person were shifted to virtual platforms so people would not be left without support. Healthy Acadia, alongside all our community partners, was quick to adapt. This transition proved more difficult in some settings than in others, especially in the case of providing recovery coaching for incarcerated individuals. 

Healthy Acadia has provided recovery coaching in the Washington and Hancock County jails since 2017. The pandemic presented new challenges for our recovery coaches and coordinators, but it did not keep them from helping the population of recoverees who are incarcerated. Donna Mitchell, a Recovery Coach Coordinator for Hancock County, specializes in providing and coordinating coaching in jail settings. She has long been very passionate about this work and played a key role in the program’s rapid pivot from in-person to virtual recovery coaching. “I feel the support was already in place for us to change the delivery method of recovery coaching,” said Mitchell, adding that Healthy Acadia coaches were provided with Zoom accounts to enable remote coaching sessions. 

Corrections officers in both counties, eager to see recovery coaching continue, facilitated the movement of residents in and out of coaching sessions efficiently to maximize every minute of the allotted time. “They did not miss a beat,” said Washington County Recovery Coach Coordinator, Gretchen Harrington. “I thought everyone did an amazing job to be able to move all of our services to virtual overnight.” 

Mitchell and Harrington also note that the shift to virtual coaching did not result in a decrease in the quality of services provided or the level of positive responses from incarcerated individuals served by the program. 

“I didn’t really see any negative changes,” said Harrington. “People who are incarcerated are already in a not-so-good situation, and they were happy that they could finally meet with someone in some capacity. Being able to visit via Zoom has increased engagement because coaches have been able to maintain contact at a greater level than we were able to through in-person visits. [Zoom also enables] Healthy Acadia’s recovery coaches located in other counties to coach in Hancock and Washington County jails via Zoom, as long as they pass a background check. This allows more coaches in the jail, and I don’t see this service going any anytime soon.” 

One of the most noticeable impacts of the pandemic is the massive influx of recovery coach requests. “More people are seeking recovery coaching in the jails as well as our communities,” says Harrington. “With more and more individuals seeking help at this time, Healthy Acadia staff are making matches between trained coaches and community members as quickly as they can.”

To learn more about recovery coaching, or if you are interested in becoming a recovery coach, click here.