Research - Voices of Hope

How is Voices of Hope contributing to the body of recovery knowledge?

Exploring the Distinction Between Support and Enabling in Families With Substance Use Disorder

Citation: Elswick, A., & Seale, K. Exploring the Distinction Between Support and Enabling in Families With Substance Use Disorder. Journal of Family Nursing, 10748407261442563.

“Being treated as the expert:” A blueprint for a community advisory board approach to elevate the voice of people with living experience with substance use in academic research

Citation: Moffitt, T., Henson, B., Young, A., Walsh, S. L., Vickers-Smith, R., Cruz, J., Byard, J., West, B., & Fallin-Bennett, A. “Being treated as the expert:” A blueprint for a community advisory board approach to elevate the voice of people with living experience with substance use in academic research. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, 10(e74), 1-9. DOI: 10.1017/cts.2026.10242

Delivering Peer Recovery Support Services in Community Settings Does Cost Money, but is a Good Value Proposition

Speer, D. D., Bush, J. L., Ekanayake, D. L., Fallin-Bennett, A., Moffitt, T., Elswick, S., Brumett, D., Orme, S., Walsh, S. L., & McCollister, K. E. (2025)

Facebook as a Strategy To Deliver a Peer Navigation Intervention for Recently Incarcerated Women with Opioid Use Disorder: A Mixed Methods Descriptive Profile

Martha Tillson, Jaxin Annett, ·Marguerite A. Webster, Amanda Fallin-Bennett, Mandi Webster,
Amber Clemons, Cynthia Robinson, Kevin Crabtree, Casey Baker-Romans, Michele Staton

Championing reproductive and perinatal health with the recovery community: improving access to healthcare and health promotion resources to support recovery

Hartley Feld, Alex Elswick, Jeremy Byard, Whitney Beckett, Amanda Fallin-Bennett

The costs of peer recovery support services provided through two models
within a recovery community center

Drew D. Speer a, Joshua L. Bush, Don Lochana Ekanayake, Amanda Fallin-Bennett, Trevor Mofﬁtt, Shelley Elswick, David Brumett, Stephen Orme, Sharon L. Walsh, Kathryn E. McCollister

An exploration of desired abstinent and non-abstinent recovery outcomes among people who use methamphetamine

Alex Elswick, Amanda Fallin-Bennett, Karen L. Roper1, Evan Batty, Christopher J. McLouth, William Stoops, Hilary L. Surratt1 and Carrie B. Oser1

The Importance of contextually specific support relationships in implementing programs to link people to medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) treatment in county jails

Margaret McGladrey, Marisa Booty, Susannah Stitzer, Hannah K. Knudsen, Sharon L. Walsh, Michael Goetz, Hallie Mattingly, Michelle Lofwall, Laura Fanucchi, Devin Oller, Amanda Fallin-Bennett & Carrie B. Oser

Increasing Initiation of Medications for Opioid Use Disorder Through Recovery Coaches: The Role of Implementation Setting

Hannah K. Knudsen, PhD, Amanda Fallin-Bennett, PhD, Laura Fanucchi, MD, Michelle R. Lofwall, MD, Margaret McGladrey, PhD, Carrie B. Oser, PhD, Gary Biggers, Anna Ross, BS, Jimmy Chadwell, and Sharon L. Walsh, PhD

We Drove to the Moon: Ensuring Methadone Access in Rural Kentucky through Peer Transportation

Amanda Fallin-Bennett, PhD, Trevor Moffitt, PhD, Sharon L. Walsh, PhD, Michelle Lofwall, MD, Jennifer Miles, CPA, Clinton Underwood, Kayla Combs, and Laura C. Fanucchi, MD

The development of a recovery coaching training curriculum to facilitate linkage to and increase retention on medications for opioid use disorder.

Moffitt, T., Fallin-Bennett, A., Fanucchi, L., Walsh, S., Cook, C., Oller, D., Ross, A., Gallivan, M., Lauckner, J., Byard, J., Wheeler-Crum, P. & Lofwall, M. (2024). The development of a recovery coaching training curriculum to facilitate linkage to and increase retention on medications for opioid use disorder. Frontiers in Public Health, 12.

A harm reduction journey: Connection, family support, and engagement in health care. Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment.

Fallin-Bennett, A., Elswick, A., (2023). 102. 106204. doi.org/10.1016/j.josat.2023.209179

Peer support specialists and perinatal OUD: Someone that’s been there, lived it, seen it. Addictive Behaviors.

Fallin-Bennett, A., Elswick, A., & Ashford, K. (2020). 102. 106204. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2019.106204

Voices of hope: A feasibility study of telephone recovery support.

Elswick, A., and Fallin-Bennett, A. (2020). Addictive Behaviors. 102. 106182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2019.106182.

“Voices of Hope: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Peer-Delivered Telephone Recovery Support Program” (2020).

Elswick, Alex, Theses and Dissertations–Family Sciences. 78. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/hes_etds/78

Emerging adults and recovery capital: barriers and facilitators to recovery.

Elswick, A., Fallin-Bennett, A., Ashford, K. & Werner-Wilson, R. (2018)., Journal of Addictions Nursing 29(2), 78-83.

Pharmacists’ role in harm reduction: A survey assessment of Kentucky community pharmacists’ willingness to participate in syringe/needle exchange.

Goodin, A., Fallin-Bennett, A., Green, T., & Freeman, P.R. (2018). Harm Reduction Journal, 15(4), 1-9

Pharmacists role in opioid overdose: Kentucky pharmacists willingness to participate in naloxone dispensing.

Freeman, P., Goodin, A., Troske, S., Strahl, A., Fallin-Bennett, A. & Green, T. (2017). Journal of American Pharmacists Association, 57(2S), S28-S33.

If you want to care for something, you call it a ‘flower.’ If you want to kill something, you call it a ‘weed.’

Language Matters

“Research shows that the language we use to describe this disease can either perpetuate or overcome the stereotypes, prejudice and lack of empathy that keep people from getting treatment they need. Scientific evidence demonstrates that this disease is caused by a variety of genetic and environmental factors, not moral weakness on the part of the individual. Our language should reflect that.” Drug Czar Botticelli (2017)

Stigma Hurts

Stigma remains the biggest barrier to addiction treatment faced by patients. The terminology used to describe addiction has contributed to the stigma.

You Can Help

“Specifically, we make an appeal for the use of language that (1) respects the worth and dignity of all persons (“people-first language”); (2) focuses on the medical nature of substance use disorders and treatment; (3) promotes the recovery process; and (4) avoids perpetuating negative stereotype and biases through the use of slang and idioms.” (Broyles, Binswanger, Gordon, et al., 2014)

Some Examples

Person first language say “person with a substance use disorder” not “Junkie, Addict, Crack-head, Abuser.” See the chart below for additional suggestions.

Language of Recovery

Current Terminology	Alternative Terminology
Treatment is the goal / Treatment is the only way into recovery	Treatment is an opportunity for initiation into recovery (one of multiple pathways into recovery)
Untreated addict/alcoholic	Individual not yet in recovery
Substance abuse	Substance use disorder/addiction/substance misuse
Drug of choice/abuse	Drug of use
Denial	Ambivalence
Relapse prevention	Recovery management
Pathology-based assessment	Strength/asset-based assessment
Focus is on total abstinence from all illicit and non-prescribed substances the clinician identifies	Focus is on the drug the client feels is creating the problems
A drug is a drug is a drug	Each illicit substance has unique interactions with the brain; medication, if available, is appropriate
Relapse	Recurrence/return to use