WHAT IS SUCCESS? HOW PEER SUPPORT WORKERS IN ONTARIO SEE ADDICTION & RECOVERY

The drug crisis in Canada has high mortality rates, especially in remote and rural communities, but there are significant barriers to accessing healthcare to which peer support may represent a partial solution, (Eddie et al., 2019; Englander et al., 2020; The Government of Canada, 2023; Kourgiantakis et al., 2023; Lavalley et al., 2020; Lennox et al., 202; Russell et al., 2021). Research how peer support workers define success in their work with adults experiencing addiction in Ontario, Canada is lacking, but important to understanding the crisis and implementing peer programs. Grounded in Marxist theory, the following exploratory research investigated the outcomes of interest to peer support workers, using data from 9 peer workers across rural, urban and remote Ontario. Thematic analysis produced 5 themes: i) “the professional is personal & the personal is professional”, “ii) Success is a blurry concept”, “iii) Recovery is more than abstinence”, iv) “Some barriers to peer work & recovery are institutional”, and v) “Some barriers to peer work & recovery are socially systemic”. The nature of peer work as the provision of unconditional support, not based on clinical outcomes, reveals a conflict between the peer workers and the larger healthcare system. The findings reflect both the psychological and material nature of addiction and the barriers to recovery, and are explained with concepts of alienation, reification, and capitalist oppression (Martin-Baro, 1994). Analyses of the addiction crisis in Ontario should take into account the historical and material sources of addiction. Social workers and clinicians should consider alternative models of support.