Research to Recovery 2026

AnneMoss Rogers and her husband tried to find help for their struggling son, Charles, a creative genius and rap artist. Desperate to escape the darkness of his depression, Charles turned to heroin and died by suicide in 2015 at age 20. How common is suicidal thinking among those who are addicted? How many start using to numb intense and painful feelings or to normalize a mental health condition? And what can families do to help lower the risks and support their loved ones?

• Understand how stigma contributed to Charles’s feelings of low self-worth
• Learn the prevalence of suicide risk for those with addiction and substance misuse
• Recognize signs of depression and suicide, and what to do or say
• Explore strategies families and communities can use to reduce risk and support healing

In this orientation session, "Faith Responders Program: Strengthening Communities for Compassionate Recovery," we will provide an overview of the Faith Responders initiative, which is designed to empower faith communities as advocates for individuals and families in recovery.
Recognizing that many seek to integrate their faith into their recovery journeys, the Faith Responders Program is grounded in the understanding that religious or spiritual involvement significantly protects against substance use. However, we also acknowledge that faith communities often lack the tools and resources necessary to effectively address issues of addiction and recovery.
This session will highlight the Faith Responders Recovery Ally Training, which equips participants with the knowledge, strategies, and skills needed to respond to addiction challenges in a compassionate and holistic manner. Attendees will explore how this training can enable faith communities to create supportive environments for those in recovery and encourage open dialogue around sensitive issues related to addiction.
Join us to discover how the Faith Responders Program and its Recovery Ally Training can enhance your community’s efforts to address addiction and foster healing. By the end of the session, participants will have a clearer understanding of the program’s goals, the critical role faith plays in recovery, and practical tools for engagement within their congregations and communities.

ObjectivesUnderstand the Faith Responders Framework: Participants will gain an overview of the Faith Responders Program, exploring its foundation in the protective association between religious involvement and substance use prevention and recovery.
Identify the Role of Faith Communities: Participants will learn about the unique position faith communities hold in supporting individuals facing addiction and how they can contribute to holistic recovery efforts.
Explore Tools for Compassionate Engagement: Participants will discover key tools and strategies within the Faith Responders Recovery Ally Training that help communities address addiction and recovery compassionately and effectively.

Family support is a key form of recovery capital for individuals in substance use recovery. However, for too long, the dominant narrative in recovery has seen family members as a liability in recovery and labeled as codependent or enablers that need to be detached or disconnected from their loved ones in order to “help” a loved one. A shift in perspective is needed to recognize family bonds and relationships as catalysts for change while families are often the first responders to substance use. In this keynote, we will unfold another side of the story of family recovery by sharing the inspiration behind and creation of Together: Family Recovery, a documentary designed to affirm that families have work to do, possess agency, and that their ways of being have a direct influence on recovery outcomes. We will explore how storytelling serves as a modality for shifting belief systems, orienting families to recovery and influencing systemic change. We will also discuss the decision-making and implementation processes throughout the creation and screening of the film, and present evidence of its impact on families who have watched the film. Drawing on selected film clips and evaluation data from the VCU study, we will engage the audience in thought provoking discussions on strategies to challenge stigma and empower families to create environments that support recovery.

Objectives

1. Attendees can differentiate between the traditional "tough love" narrative and connection-based modern recovery models to understand the family's vital role in the recovery process.
2. Attendees can examine how documentary storytelling serves as a mechanism for shifting deep-seated belief systems and validating family agency.
3. Attendees can apply narrative strategies and creative media tools to challenge stigma, engage families, and advocate for systemic reform.

Join the team from the Together: Family Documentary for an open conversation on support for family members.

Description:
Pregnant and postpartum people navigating substance use disorders face a uniquely complex intersection of medical, legal, social, and systemic challenges — and the systems meant to support them are too often fragmented, punitive, or simply absent. This panel brings together four expert voices from across the continuum of care to examine what it truly takes to build effective, equitable support for this population.
Panelists include a Peer Recovery Specialist with lived experience working alongside pregnant women with SUDs, a reproductive rights attorney examining the legal landscape shaping care access and patient autonomy, the CEO of a recovery housing organization serving pregnant and parenting women, and a PhD, MSN nurse researcher specializing in the neurodevelopmental impacts of prenatal substance use and maternal psychiatric conditions. Together, they will explore how individual-level care, community-based services, housing stability, and policy reform must work in concert to meet the full range of needs facing this population.
The panel will address gaps in the current system, center the voices of those with lived experience, and offer attendees concrete frameworks for advancing both systemic change and person-centered care in their own communities and organizations.
Objectives:
·      Participants will be able to identify the barriers pregnant and postpartum people with substance use disorders face across medical, legal, housing, and social systems, and describe how integrated, trauma-informed approaches can address these gaps across the continuum of care.
·      Participants will be able to explain the neurodevelopmental and psychiatric impacts of prenatal substance use and maternal mental health conditions, and recognize how this clinical knowledge should inform both individual care planning and broader systems design.
·      Participants will be able to describe models of peer integration, recovery housing, and legal advocacy that support pregnant and parenting people in recovery, and identify strategies for implementing or strengthening these approaches within their own organizational or community context.

Nicotine and cannabis vapes have proliferated in our communities at staggering rates. Both industries created and advertised a narrative for consumers about their use and safety that have been largely accepted. While signs of the negative impacts to public health have existed in communities, data is emerging that describes potential short- and long-term health implications of vaping. This session will describe what we know about the design of vapes and the chemical formulations that could precipitate negative health outcomes. Adverse events and the emerging scientific data that demonstrate these health outcomes will be discussed. Community proliferation of vapes and evolution of products will be described.
1. Discern the myths and untruths of vaping and cannabis use that have been promulgated by the industries.
2. Describe the scientific data that counter the myths and untruths generated by the industry stakeholders
3. Describe the scientific data that demonstrates the potential for more significant long-term negative health implications than was originally thought.
4. Describe the proliferation of vapes in communities and be able to identify novel vapes.

The Healthcare Affordability Roundtable is a small, interactive discussion designed to bring together leaders across behavioral health, recovery services, research, and community organizations to explore one of the most pressing challenges facing the field today: the rising cost and accessibility of care. Participants will engage in a candid conversation about the real drivers of healthcare affordability in behavioral health and substance use recovery — including barriers to treatment, gaps in care coordination, and opportunities to better support individuals and families on their recovery journeys.
 
This informal roundtable will focus on sharing perspectives, identifying practical opportunities for collaboration, and elevating the voices of providers, peer recovery specialists, researchers, and advocates working on the front lines. The goal is not a presentation, but a facilitated dialogue that surfaces ideas and insights that can help strengthen access to care and improve outcomes for the communities we serve. Space is limited to encourage meaningful discussion.
 

A Richmond-centered panel on Opioid Abatement Authority (OAA) funding, using harm reduction as a case study into excellent interorganizational collaboration. The panel will discuss how city, state, and community organizations can use these funding opportunities to build a collaborative continuum of care, exemplified through the implementation of Harm Reduction Vending Machines in Richmond. The panel will also reflect critically on who benefits from these funds, what's missing, and how to sustain collaborative efforts.
 
Objectives:
 
·      Participants will be able to describe the structure and purpose of Opioid Abatement Authority funding and explain how city, state, and community organizations can leverage these resources to build a collaborative continuum of care for people who use drugs.
·      Participants will be able to identify the key elements of successful interorganizational collaboration, using the implementation of Harm Reduction Vending Machines in Richmond as a model for translating OAA funding into community-level harm reduction initiatives.
·      Participants will be able to critically evaluate equity considerations in OAA funding distribution, including who benefits from current allocations, what populations or services remain underserved, and what strategies can sustain collaborative harm reduction efforts over time.

Integrating Peer Recovery Specialists (PRS) is an evidence-based strategy that transforms the "revolving door" of emergency care into a path of sustained wellness. Research shows that patients supported by peers are 45% more likely to start treatment (MOUD) after an overdose and experience significantly fewer repeat crises and hospital readmissions. By reducing stigma and improving trust—especially in high-stakes areas like EMS response and postpartum care—peer integration lowers overall healthcare costs while significantly increasing patient engagement and hope.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Identify Critical Gaps: Pinpoint specific "disconnects" in traditional medical trajectories (from EMS arrival to hospital discharge) where the absence of peer support leads to higher recidivism and patient disengagement.
2. Analyze the Pre-Hospital Peer Model: Describe the operational benefits of integrating peers into EMS and 9-1-1 response, specifically regarding de-escalation, trust-building, and "warm handoffs" to clinical settings.
3. Evaluate Hospital-Based Peer Integration: Discuss strategies for implementing peer support within specialized clinical environments, such as the Emergency Department and Postpartum Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP).
4. Apply the "Continuum of Connection" Framework: Utilize a modified Sequential Intercept Model to map out peer-led touchpoints within their own local healthcare systems to improve long-term recovery outcomes.