RECOVERY
The process of improved physical, psychological, and social well-being and health after having suffered from a substance use disorder.

RECOVERY COACH
Typically a non-clinical peer support specialist or “peer mentor” operating within a community organization (e.g., a Recovery Community Center) or a clinical organization (e.g., treatment program or hospital) and can therefore be a paid or volunteer position. Recovery coaches are most often in recovery themselves and therefore offer the lived experience of active addiction and successful recovery. They focus on helping individuals to set & achieve goals important to recovery. They do not offer primary treatment for addiction, do not diagnose, & generally, are not associated with any specific method or pathway to recovery, supporting instead an array of recovery pathways.

RECOVERY COMMUNITY CENTER
A center or hub that organizes recovery networks regionally and nationally to facilitate supportive relationships between individuals in recovery as well as family and friends of people in recovery. Centers may provide advocacy training, peer support organization meetings, social activities, job linkage, and other community based services.

RECOVERY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS (RCO’s)
An independent, non-profit organization led and governed by representatives of local communities of individuals in recovery from a substance use disorder.

RECOVERY RESIDENCES
An alcohol- and drug-free living facility for individuals recovering from alcohol or other drug use disorders that often serves as an interim living environment between detoxification experiences or residential treatment and mainstream society. Also known as Sober Houses, Sober Living Houses (SLHs), Sober Living Homes, or Sober Living Environments.

REFERRAL
A clinical linkage strategy designed to enhance engagement with another clinical service, provider, or recovery support service (see also: assertive linkage).

RELAPSE
(stigma alert) Relapse often indicates a recurrence of substance use. More technically, it would indicate the recurrence and reinstatement of a substance use disorder and would require an individual to be in remission prior to the occurrence of a relapse.

The highest risk for recurrence of substance use disorder symptoms occurs during the first 90 days following the initial intervention. The risk for recurrence of symptoms decreases after 90 days. This indicates that individuals attempting to recover from substance use disorder need the most intensive support during this first 3-month period, as individuals are experiencing substantial physiological, psychological, and social changes during this early recovery phase. There is typically a greater sensitivity to stress and lowered sensitivity to reward that makes continued recovery challenging.

This term has a stigma alert, as it can imply a moral failing for some people. Instead it may be preferable to use morally neutral terms such as “resumed,” or experienced a “recurrence” of symptoms.

RELAPSE PREVENTION (RP)
Relapse Prevention is a skills-based, cognitive-behavioral treatment approach that requires patients and their clinicians to identify situations that place the person at greater risk for relapse – both internal experiences (e.g., positive thoughts related to substance use or negative thoughts related to sobriety that arise without effort, called “automatic thoughts”) and external cues (e.g., exposure to people that the person associates with prior substance use).

RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT
A model of care for substance use disorder that houses affected individuals with others suffering from the same conditions to provide longer-term rehabilitative therapy in a therapeutic socially supportive milieu. Also known sometimes as in-patient treatment, although more technically, is medically managed or monitored whereas residential treatment does not have to be.

RISK FACTORS
Attributes (e.g., genetics), characteristics (e.g., impulsivity) or exposures (e.g., to prescription opioids) that increases the likelihood of developing a disease or injury.