CHRIS NEWCOMB: Welcome to Peer Into Recovery, a podcast with the focus on the profession of peer support. For more information about how to subscribe, please visit our website at www.vprsn.org. Hey everybody, this is Chris Newcomb. Welcome to another edition of Peer Into Recovery podcast.

I have a great guest today. His name is Bently Wood. He is a Lead Regional Peer Recovery Specialist Coordinator with Richmond Behavioral Health Authority, supporting and developing the peer workforce in Virginia’s DBHDS Region 4. He’s lectured on substance use and mental health challenges, stigma, recovery language, and peer support. He’s also a trainer for Peer Recovery Specialist in Ethics, Leadership, Certified Personal Medicine, Emotional CPR, Action Planning for Prevention and Recovery or APPR. He also supports the LGBTQIA plus community and the 72-hour Peer Recovery Specialist training curriculum required to become a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist in Virginia. Drawing on his personal journey from substance use and mental health challenges into recovery, he works as an advocate for social justice in behavioral health, the LGBT community while serving as the president of Vocal Virginia. Bently, how are you doing today?

BENTLY WOOD: I’m doing great. Thanks for inviting me on.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: You are welcome. We’re so glad to have you here. And well, kind of the way we get started is we’d like to hear a little bit about your story and how you got some peer services at some point and then moved into all the great work that you’re doing. So tell us a little bit about how your story got started.

BENTLY WOOD: You know, there’s a lot of childhood trauma in my life. There’s, I am, you know, I currently identify within the LGBTQI community, but denied that identity for much of my life. And so like many people, as I became more and more miserable, I turned to substances and those substances took me, you know, and Gabor Mate says that, you know, addiction begins and ends with pain. And that certainly is true in my story. But April 29th, 2016, the drug casque were traded in my house. And I like to look back and finally think of invited me to consider changing my life. You know, basically I had two choices, you know, that I want to continue to deny that I had a problem, and spend a lot of years in prison, or was I willing to, you know, do something I had never done before, and that was let go of the control that I had over, or at least trying to control alcohol.

So I ended up in a drug treatment court monitoring program. I was the one of the first graduates of that program. It was in Montgomery County, Virginia. And, you know, when I got arrested and was taken to jail, the very first person to come and see me, to determine my eligibility for that program, which I didn’t know that somebody was doing, was a peer recovery specialist. You know, so I got called downstairs, and I’d never heard of recovery. I didn’t know what recovery was because I didn’t think I had a problem. So I didn’t need any of that stuff. So over the course of the first couple of months, you know, I did what everybody in jail says, whatever it takes to get out, that’s what I’m going to do. And once I got out, you know, I got into services and I started working with the peer specialists. And, you know, I decided that’s what I wanted to do. You know, I remember something clicked. And one day I told my clinician that I was going to start chasing recovery as hard as I was chasing drugs. And that’s kind of the path that I’ve been on ever since then.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: I would say that’s a that’s a pivotal decision to put it that way. I mean, to chase, you know, say I’m going to stop chasing what was like not doing well in my life. And hey, let’s go down this road.

BENTLY WOOD: You know, all those things, I started out attending 12 Steps. I was so resistant in the beginning. I said some pretty ugly things to several people about the idea of going to a meeting. And I remember, you know, I went there, you know, I went there to get out of trouble and what I found was a new way to live. You know, it started out as what I did, and today, it’s the way I live. And, you know, I’m just grateful to have the opportunity to pay forward what was given to me in working with and supporting others.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: You know, it’s interesting, as someone in recovery myself, and I’ve been to quite a few meetings, and they have all kinds of sayings, as you know. One of the great ones is, recovery will ruin your drinking, or, you know, or whatever, whatever sub, take your substance, recovery will ruin that for you. And I always chuckle at that, because it’s true.

BENTLY WOOD: Yeah. And, you know, in my case, I didn’t realize, you know, I thought I was having fun. But I’ve since learned that, you know, I was doing things that recreational drug users tend not to do. So even the serious recreational drug users, so I am, you know, I’m just grateful, you know, instead of being almost eight years into a ten year prison sentence, I’m doing, you know, I’m out supporting myself and working with others, you know, advocating and involved in organizations outside of work.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Yeah. Take us to the moment, if you would, and you’re not going to hurt me to tell you what, but you’re at home and suddenly you get this knock on the door and you think it’s the pizza guy. You open the door and it’s not the pizza guy.

BENTLY WOOD: I assure you that the front of the house vibrated. There was no doubt in my mind that it wasn’t the pizza guy. You know, I had been outside on the front porch at the time I was smoking cigarettes and I’d gone outside and I’d smoked a cigarette and I’d been in the house at like, you know, for two minutes and I was just looking at my phone. And it was 947 a.m. That’s how I remember that at 947 a.m. on April 29th, 2016, the Drug Task Force raided my house in Blacksburg. You know, when I walked, when I put my phone down, I kind of knew that things were going to be different. You know, there was a lot of fear, but in some way there was also just a little bit of peace to know that, you know, it was over. And I assumed at that point in my life, the rest of my life was over because I didn’t see, I knew what I had and I knew what I had been doing. I anticipated that I would spend the rest of my life.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Wow. Yeah. I mean, that, you know, pardon the pun, that’s got to be a pretty sobering moment.

BENTLY WOOD: It was, but, you know, that moment became a process, you know, where I encountered different bits of information or hear different things, and something inside me would click, and that would be like the next step.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: You know, an aptly time word in your life can change your life, the course of your life forever. You know, you mentioned that when you’re, when you’re in housing that you don’t want to be in, courtesy of folks you probably don’t want to hang out with. Do you remember like a statement or a saying or something that maybe clicked with you when you first started talking to folks in there who were chasing health and wellness?

BENTLY WOOD: Well, if you’re talking about the, you know, the forced housing, there was no one in there chasing health and wellness. But some things that I, you know, for me, hearing people share, you know, like hearing someone who had, you know, I had eight felony charges against me, hearing somebody who had 21 felony charges against them, and they didn’t end up spending years in jail. So, just hearing little things that helped me kind of silence some of the voices in my head around what was going to happen to me, you know, and hope started showing up a little bit at a time. And once I, you know, kind of got a little traction under me, you know, hearing Brene Brown talk about shame, shame is a huge part of my story. You know, Kristen Neff talking about self-compassion and the role that relating kindly with oneself can play in healing. And, you know, Gabor Mate, who basically in one of his videos, his story of addiction, he’s telling me my story.

So, hearing these people who are newer, you know, well-educated, highly intelligent experts in their field, and sharing things with me that I could identify with, that I could apply to my life. Those things made a huge difference, you know, and being able to talk about those things, whether it be in treatment group or whether it be, you know, once I started working as a peer, being able to share some of those experiences, you know, not just talking about it, but actually sharing the videos and doing the other things, you know, even today, it allows me to be reminded of where I once was and could be again.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: You know, you mentioned three authors. First one was Brene Brown. Is there a particular book of hers that you like?

BENTLY WOOD: Actually, her TED Talk on Empathy, the one of the famous ones where she said she didn’t have a, you know, she didn’t have a backup plan for 2 million or whatever it was. Well, I guess with all of them, it wasn’t necessarily a book. It was a video that I found online. Although, Daring Greatly is a book that I’ve read of Brene Browns. And Gabor Mate wrote about the hungry ghost.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Great, great, great book. And then who was the second person?

BENTLY WOOD: Kristen Neff is her name. She’s a researcher on self-compassion. And the video that I saw initially of her is comparing self-esteem and self-compassion and talking about the similarities and the differences and the advantages of one over the other. But just realizing that it was okay to be kind to myself and understanding the chemicals that the body releases when I’m both the attacker and the attacked. And saying these horrible things about myself. You know, just looking at the harm I’m doing to myself.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: What a powerful, you know, we name things in our life to make sense of them. And the attacker and the attacked. I mean, that is like brilliant. That’s really brilliant.

BENTLY WOOD: For me, you know, that just, I don’t know, those all of all three of those individuals, just something, you know, I moved forward a notch. Something clicked and made sense and was able to move forward. And I think everyone, you know, hearing Gabor Mate talk about the role of childhood trauma and just the way he described addiction, you know, using the medical model and then, you know, looking at the criminal justice system. You know, he believes it’s not only a disease and if it’s, you know, if we’re punished, then it obviously must be bad behavior. And you hear him talk about that. And then, Kristin Neff, talking about how important relating ourselves kindly is. You know, I like the way that she puts that. And of course, for Brene Brown talking about the, you know, the horrible things that shame does and the incredibly valuable role of vulnerability in just our recovery, but in our life.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Yeah, I once heard a great acronym for shame, which is should have already mastered everything.

BENTLY WOOD: Oh, never heard that. You know, Brene Brown describes it as, you know, guilt is I did something bad, shame is I am bad.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Yep, exactly.

BENTLY WOOD: And, you know, for me, as much of my life, I believe that I was bad and that there was something wrong with me. But, you know, so my recovery journey, you know, it’s given me an opportunity to have a life I never imagined possible.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: There’s wisdom in that old saying, wherever you go, there you are.

BENTLY WOOD: Yes.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: You’re in war with yourself. The battle goes wherever. You can go to Missouri, battles there. Europe battles there. And lay down your arms against yourself.

BENTLY WOOD: Yeah, because like you said, no matter where I go, there I am.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: The cool part about it, though, is when you get to a place where you reconcile and you’re at peace with oneself, then wherever you go, there you are, is peaceful because you carry you on the same team. You go through this thing, and you start to have people come into your life and resources and things that give you wisdom and insight about, hey, I want to change my life to do this and be different. You start chasing health and wellness and a better life. And then you move, tell us about your move into being a Peer Recovery Specialist, and then particularly also the older adult Peer Specialist certification that you have.

BENTLY WOOD: Yes. So a couple of years ago, it was in the summer of 2021, maybe, my time frame may be off, but something like that. The Office of Recovery Services sent out a notice for anyone interested in becoming certified in a curriculum that they had adopted, that was developed through the Center for Mental Health at the University of Pennsylvania. And so I signed up and was selected to be in the training. So I went through the training to become a certified older adult peer specialist. COPEs, you know, it’s actually an endorsement that we have. We’ve been through the training. And then a little bit, which is just a few weeks after I completed that, a notice came out to become a trainer of trainers, which I love teaching and training are my, are two of my, I love facilitating groups, I love, you know, passing on what I know. So I signed up and was admitted, you know, accepted into that.

So I became both trained and a trainer within a short period of time. And, you know, I’m, I’m near the end of the baby boomer world. So, you know, so I can relate to, you know, aging and recovery. And, you know, just like in general, offers new and unique challenges as we age. You know, being able to have a better understanding. For me, it was as much a journey of gaining personal knowledge and understanding for myself as it was to be able to support other individuals. You know, there’s some, I think, right now, there’s somewhere in the range of, there are 76 million baby boomers in the United States. And it is expected that by 2040, there will be 80 million older adults. And older adults in this training are classified as anyone 55 years or older. And that’s just, you know, I don’t want to say it’s the same, but that’s a lot, that’s a lot, that’s a lot of people looking at older adults from, you know, just a personal standpoint, and then professionally looking at supporting individuals who are older. You know, it’s expected that by 2040, there will be over 80 million Americans over the age of 55.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Wow.

BENTLY WOOD: And that seems, I mean, that’s a lot, you know, we currently have, I think, around 40, 400 million people in the United States, so, you know.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: A big number.

BENTLY WOOD: And most older adults have at least one chronic health condition. More than three quarters have two or more chronic health conditions, and anyone in recovery knows that we have a chronic health condition, whether our recovery be substitutes, mental health challenges, trauma, or whatever. We learn how to manage and live with those conditions. You know, COVID, you know, this, I went through this training right in the middle of COVID. You know, between 2019 and 2021, Americans lost one, more than one full year of life expectancy, just as a result of the deaths that COVID caused in the United States.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Wow.

BENTLY WOOD: You know, and they had very disproportionate impacts on indigenous, you know, people who are black, brown, indigenous had extremely high, you know, I think I read somewhere that Native Americans lost like six years off of their life expectancy as a result of COVID, just because of the disproportionate number of individuals from these populations. We break the population numbers down to Virginia, you know, and I’ve got a statistic pulled up here that in 2022, 16.3% of Virginians were aged 65 and older. So, Virginia ranked 46th in the nation with older adult population. By 2030, the Census Bureau estimates that 24% of Virginia’s population will be over the age of 65. That’s the fastest growing segment of the population in Virginia. So, you know, when we look at our mental health and substance use treatment facilities, you know, older adults are also affected by these conditions. And if, you know, our system is straining now, you know, what will happen when we add even more and more older adults? So that’s where I think it’s important as peer specialists that we have a knowledge and understanding base to be able to connect with. Because, I mean, it’s all about the relationship, right?

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Absolutely.

BENTLY WOOD: And understanding how to make a connection with an older adult who can be less trusting.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Sure. You know, the United States, we tend to be culturally a youth-as-king, worshiping youth culture. And in other countries, those who are further down the aging line are treated with reverence and respect, because the idea is the longer you’ve lived, the more wisdom you have. And younger folks in those cultures are taught, sit at the feet of people who are older than you. And I always joke and tell people, it’s good to have one friend who is older than you and one who is younger than you. The older one can give you wisdom, and then in the spirit of peers, you can bring the one that’s under you along. So I’m Gen X, you know, and we’re cynical about everything. We’re the lost in the relationship. Nobody ever talks about us. But, you know, so would you say, so one of my things is I think there’s a difference between the word old and older. I think old is a mindset that can really limit folks, because it’s often accompanying with, well, I can’t do anything that I used to do or I can’t do something new because I’m quote unquote old. Now, of course, there can be physical limitations. And as we age, those things are going to happen. But I think just saying I’m older is a different perspective than old. Any thoughts on that?

BENTLY WOOD: Well, I mean, I guess my personal thing is, age is simply a measure of how long this body has been on this earth. And I think I’ve heard it said that our body is our temple. And it gives us back what we know. It treats us the way we treat it. For many of us, we’re fortunate that’s not literally true. That my body isn’t treating me the way I treated it for all the years that I’ve just treated it. There is something to be said for the attitude of old. And the, you know, the physical, the noun description, you know, old is simply, you know, it’s a number. But I can be a young 80, or I can be an old 50, you know, I’ve heard both of those things said. And I think that’s what you’re speaking to, is that age is as much about, it’s as much about how I feel about myself. Learning about aging is a big part of the curriculum of this certified older adult peer specialist is, you know, going through just like in recovery, you know, we focus on the eight dimensions of wellness, you know, and in the COPE curriculum, a similar approach is taken, you know, looking at the spirituality component, looking at the, you know, the physical health, the emotional health, you know, managing our stress, physical exercise, you know, doing the things that allow us to age in ways that are healthy rather than ways that are not healthy. It’s taking the solution-focused approach, which I like, is the way I like to think about recovery, is recovery is focusing on the solution.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Absolutely. The other night, I was taking a family member home to their apartment building, and when we got there, all three elevators were broken. And she lives on the third floor and has Parkinson’s. And it makes mobility very difficult. And she could have given up, she’s 82, and the only way to get there was through the steps. And it was really cool to see, because she really, you know, just kind of dug deep down with motivation. And we walked up three flights of stairs, and she took her time. You know, I was walking behind her and I said, we’ll take as long as we need to. And so we got up there, and she was tired, but she got home on her own. And I think it was a really positive experience for her afterwards to realize, hey, I can still do some things. And that was really, really cool. A little bit of a funny story. I’ve been kidding for years that I would not join AARP when the time came. And I just turned 50, and I went to the mailbox and I saw the familiar AARP logo. But it was my mice name. She’s five years younger than I am. And I laughed and I thought, there is justice in the universe. I sent a picture of it to her and she was not pleased.

BENTLY WOOD: Oh, goodness. In this training, you know, we also touch on some some difficult, you know, issues like memory loss and dementia. You know, going all the way into Alzheimer’s, we talk about suicide, you know, we talk about some, you know, some of the legal issues that are that are connected with with getting older. We talk about the, you know, like the minority populations, like the LGBTQIA plus community, you know, individuals who don’t have families that will support them and look after them. So who who do they turn to in our culture? If they don’t have the final resource, financial resources to support themselves, you know, where do they turn? So, you know, just looking at what obstacles does aging bring into the recovery process. And as individual peer supports, how can we, you know, I first believe I have to be aware of something before I can help understand it or help others understand it. So, for me, this training was a lot about, you know, there were a lot of, oh, I never thought about that or aha, that makes so much sense now. You know, a lot of moments like that.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: I don’t know if we said it earlier. So, it’s certified older adult peer specialist, which is C O A P as in Paul S, correct?

BENTLY WOOD: Yeah, it’s commonly called COAPES. Yeah, Virginia, I don’t remember how many, but there are a couple dozen facilitators in Virginia. They’ve done one round of TOTs. I think the plans are to bring another around at some point. TOT is that, you know, you can go through the training to have their credentials, and then you can go through the additional training to become certified to train other people to have their credentials.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: So, what is your favorite thing about working with an older population?

BENTLY WOOD: The wisdom and the stories they have to tell, you know, I just turned 60 myself, so I might resemble the remark that you just made.You know, I remember things about the mid-60s as a very small child, you know, that were very tumultuous times in our society, that, you know, in some ways, some things that are going on around us right now, or around me, it feels like that again in some ways.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: But we have a culture where language is so important. How do you refer to someone who is physically older than someone else, but not means something derogatory by that? Do you find that that’s something that you, as a trainer, help people to think about when they’re training about language and how this population is referred to?

BENTLY WOOD: Oh, absolutely. I mean, you know, I mean, stigma exists and lives everywhere. And language is the most powerful tool that I have, that anyone has available to them to help fight and overcome stigma and work on reducing the biases that language can create. And I, yeah, I think so. And, you know, my motive, you know, we say that a lot of things, you know, we say things like that a lot as peer recovery specialists, is what is my motive? Why am I asking this question? Was it, is it important? Who is it important to? I tell people, you know, I was born before John F. Kennedy was assassinated. That, that’s not a number, but that gives people a point of reference that even 20 year olds, they just know it’s been a long time. You know, they can, they can relate, a 20 year old can relate to 60 as much as I used to think 40 was old. And then I became 40, you know, and then I became 50, and now I’m 60. And it’s, it’s a frame of mind, like you said earlier, you know, age can be a frame of mind.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Absolutely. And I tell people my goal is to be 115. And they look at me like I’m, you know, on drugs and I’m like, why not? There are people that live that long, you know, why not have a goal? And then I, then I give a caveat. I’m like, you know, there’s a few things that I would like to have, like, you know, I could walk or whatever. But, you know, being alive is a really cool thing. You know, I saw a meme that said, the chance of us being here, just being here, and then being alive in this time and place is like, I mean, it’s ridiculous. It’s such a gift. So, tell us, Bently, what’s one of the things that’s challenging for you in the work that you do when you’re working as it copes with older adults?

BENTLY WOOD: Well, I think that my age makes it most of the time a little easier, because many times older folks have had difficult experiences in life, and trust is difficult for them to do, to have or to find with new people. So, I think, sometimes, remembering that it may take a little more work for me to make that connection that makes peer support so effective, and to realize that it may take multiple short interactions rather than one longer interaction. So, I would say that the approach that I need to use in building the relationships can be a little challenging, or at least that’s my experience with some of the folks that I’ve worked with. But now, other folks, they’re the easiest people to connect with. So, I think it’s probably just like every other person that we work with. It’s not allowing the stereotypes and the stigma that we’ve been taught to kind of get in the way of the authenticity of trying to build a relationship with somebody.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: It sounds like if you are… I would imagine consistency is something that would be helpful in building a relationship with folks in that demographic because if they can see, hey, this guy, Bently, keeps showing up. And I don’t have any red lights because he keeps showing himself as a consistent person.

BENTLY WOOD: And another thing that comes to mind is the impact of the culture might have a much greater influence on an older individual. Especially if you’re talking about an individual who comes from a minoritized population, you know, who may have grown up during the 40s and 50s and 60s when life was very different for people who don’t look like you and I. And so I think that just recognizing that the cultural differences and being aware that, you know, that’s, of course, being culturally competent or at least culturally aware. I don’t know that I could ever actually be culturally competent, but I can be culturally aware that, you know, to honor and respect things that I may not be aware of.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Well said, yes, for sure. And if you were to talk to someone who’s a peer recovery specialist, who wants to begin to work with the older adult population, what might you say to them?

BENTLY WOOD: That it’s very rewarding work. And obviously, this training would be a great place to start. I know that it’s still kind of on the ground floor in Virginia. I don’t know that it’s been offered. I don’t know how often it’s been offered. But, you know, pay attention. I know that it’s the trainings are being, you know, ORS is in the process of relocating trainings to the portal beyond the PRS training. I know that COPS is one of the trainings that are going to be, they’re going to be managed through there. So, trainings will be announced and sign ups will happen through the portal, just like they do for the 72-hour training.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: Bently, it’s been a great conversation. Really appreciate you being on the program today and talking about your experience, strength and hope and the work that you do with older adults with the COPS program, which is Certified Older Adults Peer Specialist. And working with a population like you were talking about, that’s going to hit 80 million. And what that’s going to do for the medical field and the load that’s going to put on it. And giving honor and respect to those in that demographic that they have value and that they need just as much respect and dignity and support as anyone in any demographic, which it goes back to ending the stigma. So thank you for being here.

BENTLY WOOD: You’re welcome. I’m grateful to be here. And, you know, nobody brings that to the, to the, you know, support profession like peers do.

CHRIS NEWCOMB: So absolutely, absolutely. I want to thank our listeners for listening to the Peer In Recovery Podcast, which is brought to you by the Virginia Peer Recovery Specialist Network and Mental Health America of Virginia. And 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 brief review on iTunes. In the meantime, please take care of yourselves, everyone. We’ll see you soon.