Podcast
Ep. 4 Transcript: Probation Peer Support with Eddie Wiggins
Transcript
DANIELLE DONALDSON: Welcome to Peer Into Recovery, a podcast with a focus on the profession of peer support. For more information about how to subscribe, please visit our website at www.vprsn.org. Welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I am your host, Danielle Donaldson. In this episode, I’m going to be speaking with Eddie Wiggins about probation peer support. Eddie is a registered certified peer recovery support specialist as well as a certified Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services peer recovery support trainer and a certified WRAP facilitator. He has previously worked with the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board, Next Step Psychosocial Unit, as a peer specialist facilitating educational groups and activities. Currently working with Mental Health America of Virginia as the probation peer manager, he supervises PRS facilitators in three probation and parole districts in the state of Virginia, and is responsible for developing and implementing a pilot wellness support group for the Virginia Department of Corrections. He has also held the position of member at large with Sarah of the Peninsula, volunteering to go into the Newport News City Jails to co-facilitate recovery wellness groups for criminally involved individuals seeking their path to recovery. Hi, Eddie. Thank you for joining me today. How are you doing?
EDDIE WIGGINS: Hi, Danielle. I’m doing great.
DANIELLE DONALDSON: Thank you for joining me. Of course, I just said that. But let’s get started. So could you let everyone know, how did you get started, I guess, maybe in peer support, but more specifically in probation peer support?
EDDIE WIGGINS: Well, I first got started as a trained PRS, working with probationers in April of 2016, while working on a psychosocial unit with Hampton Newport News Community Services Board. And so all of the participants in that program were living with co-occurring diagnosis and a number of which were criminally involved individuals who were considered NGRI, which is not guilty by reason of insanity. As part of the conditions for their release was to successfully complete the program. So, but prior to that, to that tenure with Hampton New Pernod Community Services Board as a CPRS, I worked with the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program on Peninsula in Hampton New Pernod, as ASAP facilitator from around February of 2007 up until last year. And it was really during this time that I began became aware that my lived experience had a great impact on those individuals that were headed down the same path that I had years before been on.
DANIELLE DONALDSON: That sounds great. What do you think is unique about offering peer support within the criminal justice system? How does it differ from, I guess, peer support in other areas?
EDDIE WIGGINS: Well, there are a lot of, I mean, a lot of the things are the same, regardless of just the setting or where you’re coming from. But there are some unique things that are involved with the criminal justice system. And for those who are reentering a society after being incarcerated, especially for those who have been incarcerated for long periods, the process can provoke a tremendous amount of anxiety. Prison is a society within a society and living behind bars brings with it its own unique challenges and stressors and even trauma. For the probationer, there are a great many steps to prepare for reentry. And so having someone like a peer to support them through this transition is pretty paramount. So a lot of folks feel really lost and hopeless. And in most cases, they are thrust back into society with a guidance, a little guidance, but a great deal of requirements placed on them. So having someone who has walked in the same shoes to model what recovery or wellness can look like, it’s a very cathartic experience. So peer support is an evidence-based practice that assists in guiding the individual to respond to stressors and to help chart their course when encountering hard choices. And so that’s what we find that most of the people that are working with the program that I’m working on, they have lived experience in the criminal justice system as well, as well as myself. So having someone who’s been there and done that, they tend to want to pay or surrender to whatever it is that they’re going through, whether it be mental health issues or whether it be substance abuse or whether it be both. Now the program we’re working on primarily deals with people with mental health issues. And so part of that program is writing a wellness plan. And we know that wellness plan is also an evidence-based practice. So it gives opportunity for them to write their own plan, those things that they want to do, they want to see accomplished, and then bring those things into fruition and be able to, when they’re well, be able to determine how they want to navigate through things when things start to breaking down or when they end up in crisis. Hopefully, they minimize the amount of crisis or the opportunity to go into crisis with working this wellness plan.
DANIELLE DONALDSON: So would you mind perhaps talking a little bit about the current program that you’re working on? I know that you have definitely faced some challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But I would like to hear, if you wouldn’t mind sharing a little bit about the program, because I’m sure there’s people who don’t know about it or what it’s hoping to accomplish. But also just maybe some of the details of your day-to-day experience, trying to get it off the ground during a pandemic.
EDDIE WIGGINS: Okay. Well, our program is, like I said, it’s more of a wellness support group. We are helping individuals who are already on probation. These individuals are already on probation. They’re not still incarcerated. All of them are out and on probation. So they’re not required to do this work group. But we have approximately right now about 36 individuals that have been referred to us. And so initially what we did, we have three districts in the state of Virginia. One is here on the East Coast, Southeast Coast, and then we have one in Northern Virginia, and then one in Southwest Virginia. And so each one of those offers different challenges. But the whole concept is that we want to come in and help them to develop a wellness plan. Well, we were using sort of a public domain version of the wellness plan that was written by Mary Ellen Copeland along with some other folks, and this through SAMHSA. But since then, all of the facilitators have gotten trained as far as being able to use the actual Mary Ellen Copeland Foundation’s trademarked WRAP program. So what we do is we’re finding out from the individuals what types of things that they want to accomplish, and we’re just helping to guide them through developing their toolbox, being able to start developing their wellness plans, as far as when things start breaking down, when they might go into crisis, and even post-crisis. So we had just really gotten started with the program when COVID hit. And so for a while, we were kind of figuring out how we were going to be able to address because there was no contact. So we have come up with a means by which we created a sort of like a readiness group where we would call individuals up, even referrals, people who had not even been in the program yet, and just to touch bases with them, build a relationship with them. And then the next phase of that would be to start slowly moving into being able to write their plans, but we’re going to be doing it over the telephone or whatever other digital or virtual platform that we can use. And so a lot of that has been retraining. Yes, but COVID has put a big dent on what we were hoping to have accomplished by this point.
DANIELLE DONALDSON: So you’re going to try to shift it to a more digital format now?
EDDIE WIGGINS: Yeah, we don’t have any choice because we’re not able to have any physical contact with the individuals. Before we were working out of the probation centers in the three districts, actually we only had one up and running because the other two we were trying to get staffed and also find out how we were going to be able to, because like I said, each location had some different obstacles we had. And we were way out west and so having the ability to get internet service has been a challenge and those sorts of things. So, but we had, Portsmouth was one of our, is one of our, one on the East Coast. So we had that up and running for about a month, month and a, close to a month before we were shut down in March. We actually got started in January, the latter part of January and then we got through February, but in March we had to shut it down. So yeah, but we’re looking at other means besides just using the telephone right now, all we’re doing is just touching bases and keeping them engaged. You know, just providing peer support to them, peer support services to them. So until we can come up with a means by which we can maybe go to some sort of virtual like Zoom or Google Chat or some other platform that we can actually sit down and do a face-to-face.
DANIELLE DONALDSON: So are you working on with them one-on-one right now?
EDDIE WIGGINS: Yes. Yes.
DANIELLE DONALDSON: Okay. Do you have plans to have them work together as a group?
EDDIE WIGGINS: That’s something that we’re looking at as we move along, is maybe we’ll start with individually, getting everybody acclimated to talk. We have a lot of referrals. We have more referrals than we did actually have people in the program before we shut down. So we went from 12 people to 36 people down that we have. And the other folks, they are really just referrals. And so we’re just building relationships with them at the present. So we’re going to start individually just by getting that relationship established. And then as we get that established, then we’re hoping to create a group where we could do like maybe conference calls. And then the next phase may be moving into doing something more virtual. Like I said, like Zoom or Google chat or something of that nature.
DANIELLE DONALDSON: So, is there anything, excuse me, that you could recommend if people are interested in doing this particular type of peer support? Are there any particular trainings you might recommend, or resources they might be able to research?
EDDIE WIGGINS: Well, of course, in order to be a part of this type of program, you’d have to be a peer, so you’d have to get that training, that educational training. We want certified individuals, but we right now, we have everyone is certified with the exception of maybe one or two people. I think it’s two people that are not certified, and so they’re working on their certification. So we also are looking for someone who has rap background or have a rap experience. It doesn’t have to be the trademark rap through Copeland Foundation because we are able to, like I said, use SAMHSA’s version, which is basically the same program. But the thing with Copeland is we have a lot more material that we can work with. So we want everybody to be certified as rap facilitators. And that is something that we really want to enforce. Now, there’s some other programs that I have found out since we’ve shut down that is coming into Virginia. And that is Forensic Peer Support. And so Forensic Peer Support is based on individuals who are actually coming out of the system, out of the criminal justice system, out of prisons, out of jails, and that sort of thing. And they are exclusively being trained through a program that’s coming out from out of state, but it’s also recognized by Virginia Certification Board for its CEU value. And so you would have to be a peer initially, and then the Forensic Peer would be something that would support your CPRS.
DANIELLE DONALDSON: Oh, that’s good to know, because I think I’ve had that question myself when I saw news of that training. So that’s good to know that it’s meant to be a compliment or a next step, I guess, for a trained peer specialist in order to focus on that specific kind of work.
EDDIE WIGGINS: Yes, it’s because there are some things that they’re bringing, that is bringing to the table, that is coming out of the prison system, that we don’t get trained in as a CPRS, through the DBHDS or through the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. So it’s just kind of is an accent on our own training, our CPRS training, but it gives us a little bit more information because we’re dealing with a different, there’s a little difference in the people who are coming out because a lot of that is trauma that they’re experiencing being in prison by itself. So you have some people who have been in prison for a long, pretty times. They may not even know about technology. They have a lot of stressors and a lot of things that are affecting them as far as making the right choices. So we want to be as educated as we can. And so using peers who are or who have been in the system is a bit a big add on to what we have to offer.
DANIELLE DONALDSON: Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, it’s obviously a very unique experience that if you haven’t had that experience yourself, it would be challenging to offer probably the type of peer support they need. So I think that’s great that they’ve got that new training to focus on that. I think that’s probably very much needed and wanted.
EDDIE WIGGINS: Yeah, so, you know, having someone who has walked in the same shoes to model to you what recovery or wellness looks like, there is, I mean, it’s unparalleled. And that’s with whether it’s, you know, through the criminal justice system being criminally involved in the justice system, or whether it’s, you know, you’re dealing with substance abuse or you’re dealing with mental health or co-occurring type of situation. You know, it’s something about someone who has been there and done that, that makes a big difference. At least I have found that to be so. As I mentioned earlier, and I think you read in the bios that I used to work for the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program. I was the first, and as far as I know, the only person that I know of anyway, that did not, I went in there with my lived experience. And so, I mean, I spent 23 years out there in the streets and getting brushes and this and that and the other with police and that sort of thing. And so, but they hired me because of my lived experience. And I found the impact that it had on those individuals, and those individuals were on probation as well. The impact it had on them when they hear someone’s life story, they’re talking about the things that they’ve experienced and they could relate to it, made a lot of difference in whether they wanted to try to change the direction that they were going in.
DANIELLE DONALDSON: Yeah, no, I absolutely agree. I mean, that is really truly the beauty of peer support is that it, you know, you go through your life feeling like you are the only one. And it is, it’s life changing to hear someone else say, no, me too. And this is how I dealt with it. I think it’s wonderful when you can find someone who shares some of your experiences and can help you navigate your way out of them. So did you have, do you have any final thoughts or that you’d like to share? Or do you have any resources that you might want to share with the audience?
EDDIE WIGGINS: Not so much resources. I’m still learning myself. This is brand new for me. I mean, I had, I did work, I didn’t mention, but I did work for a while with Sarah, Virginia, and we went into the jails and we were doing this, the very same thing that we’re doing now. And so, you know, I learned a lot, but I’m still in that learning process, you know? So I would just say to anybody who’s interested in, in becoming a peer support specialist or getting into the jail system, as far as a specific area that you want to work in, is just be committed, just be committed. You know, I run across a lot of people, even in my training with folks, there’s a lot of people want to get that certification so that they can get a job. And yes, we can make money or have a living, and then, you know, but if you’re not committed to it, if you’re not authentic, you know, people can read through that, you know? And we’re not really doing that person any justice by just showing up, you know, just to get a paycheck.
DANIELLE DONALDSON: Yeah, that’s very true. And I do think that peer support does bring out a lot of people who are passionate about it. So I think it’s wonderful that that opportunity is out there for people who really want to make that their lives work.
EDDIE WIGGINS: Yeah, I do it because, but by the grace of God, you know, when I look at the folks that we’re providing service to, that could have been me. You know, I, you know, I’ve had my brushes with the police. You know, I’ve been incarcerated, but I’ve never had to do like long stints in jail or anything like that. You know, so like I said, but by the grace of God, there goes me, you know. And so that’s why I’m doing this is, I feel like this is my calling. You know, it’s my purpose in life. You know, that’s why I went through all that hell that I went through when I was out there, you know, so that I could come back and share with people. But this is what happened to me. And so, and give people options. Once you have an option, you can make better decisions.
DANIELLE DONALDSON: Absolutely. Well, thank you, Eddie, so much for sharing your experience with us.
EDDIE WIGGINS: Thank you for having me.
DANIELLE DONALDSON: I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to do this. So, thank you so much. And thank you for listening to the Peer Into the Recovery podcast, brought to you by the Virginia Peer Recovery Specialist Network and Mental Health America of Virginia. If you like our show and would like to subscribe to the podcast, please visit our website at www.vprsn.org. And please leave us a review on iTunes. Take good care of yourselves, everybody.
