Exploring support provision for recovery from substance use disorder among members of a sober active community

Social support systems are often the most important factor in initiating and sustaining recovery from substance use disorders (SUDs). The Phoenix is a non-profit organization whose mission is to create communities and host events that harness the transformational power of social connection to promote SUD recovery. Through online surveys and in-depth interviews, this study assessed factors related to support provision within Phoenix members' social networks. Online surveys measured participants' demographic information, when they started attending Phoenix programming, and how frequently they attended The Phoenix. During interviews participants were asked to identify who supports them in their recovery. For each network member listed, the participant indicated their relationship to the person, the person's gender, if that person was in recovery, if that person was a Phoenix member, and how often that person provided support to the respondent (Never to Always). Multilevel modeling explored factors related to more support provision across 723 support dyads reported from 79 participants. Participants (n = 79; 76% non-Hispanic white; 48% male; M^age = 38.27 years) reported an average of 9.15 members in their support networks (range 2-15). After controlling for network size, Phoenix members reported the most support provision from mentors (β = 0.356, p = 0.001), people in recovery (β = 0.451, p < 0.001), and fellow Phoenix members (β = 0.303, p = 0 .001). The longer someone had been a member of The Phoenix, the more likely they were to report greater support provision from their network members (β = 0.064, p = 0.03). This study makes two important contributions. First, while it is understood that social support broadly defined is important for recovery, this study provides specific characteristics of social networks that could yield greater social support provision. Second, because findings show that fellow Phoenix members provided participants more support, and that participants who had been involved in The Phoenix for longer experienced greater support, this study suggests The Phoenix could be an effective environment for creating the needed support systems for recovery from SUDs. More rigorous study designs could empirically test participation in The Phoenix as a laudable strategy for combatting relapse and supporting long-term recovery from SUD.