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Recovery is Possible. The Chance to Change Your Life.

Recovery benefits everyone – families, friends, neighbors, and the person who gets into recovery. It is a reality for thousands of New Mexicans of all ages, ethnic backgrounds, and economic and social classes. We must accord dignity to people with opioid substance use and recognize that there is no one path to recovery.

 “Recovery is for Everyone: Every Person, Every Family, Every Community.”

– Faces and Voices of Recovery

The key message at hand? People can and do recover.

To hear more inspirational recovery stories from New Mexicans, click here to watch the 2025 Behavioral Health Star Award Ceremony and Evening Celebration. 

Connections Free Smartphone Apps

Provide Peer & Community Support for People in Recovery

Connections is a FREE app for individuals with substance use disorder and common co-occurring mental health conditions that provides anonymous 24/7 peer support, access to an online community, resources to promote coping skills, daily check-ins, and tools to help track and celebrate milestones! This free resource is made available by The New Mexico Behavioral Health Service Division.
Join us in embracing the journey to recovery with the Connections app, an evidenced-based smartphone app and comprehensive support tool made available for free through New Mexico Health Care Authority's Behavioral Health Services Division (BHSD).

The Connections app is designed to build healthy habits that reduce relapse and reduce isolation for individuals with substance use disorder and common co-occurring mental health conditions. It provides safe, confidential, and anonymous 24/7 access to peer support specialists, an online community, resources to promote coping skills, daily check-ins, and tools to help track and celebrate milestones.

Teen Connections App

There is also Connections for Teens, which offers the same peer and community support and recovery management tools but is available for teens in recovery only.

Spanish Conexiones App

A Spanish version of the app is available as well. Conexiones offers dedicated support for the Latinx communities who face additional challenges accessing recovery resources. The new Conexiones app is designed with these communities in mind and includes culturally appropriate content written by native Spanish speakers and personalized attention through in-language peer support.

Companion Connections App

Also available is the Companion app, which provides a supportive online community and valuable resources but is tailored for family members, friends, and caregivers of people in recovery.

New Mexicans can enroll for free by downloading the app. Share the Connections promotional fliers attached below with your agencies, patients, community members, and loved ones so they can benefit from all that Connections has to offer.

OPRE – Office of Peer Recovery and Engagement

The NM Behavioral Health Services Division’s Office of Peer Recovery and Engagement (OPRE) provides training, certification, and support to Certified Peer Support Workers (CPSW) in New Mexico. CPSWs are important and influential members of treatment teams, to include judicial settings, medical settings, and treatment settings. For more information on becoming a CPSW please visit The Behavioral Health Services Division’s nmrecovery.org or reach out to OPRE.BHSD@HCA.NM.GOV

To become a Certified Peer Support Worker (CPSW), you must:

• Be 18 years of age or older
• Have a High School Diploma or GED
• Have minimum of 3 years in recovery
• Complete 40 hours of supervised hours of volunteer or paid work with direct client contact in a behavioral health agency. Click HERE for current approved behavioral health organizations where the prerequisite hours can be completed.
• Complete an application online
• Agree to abide by the New Mexico CPSW Code of Ethics
• Successfully complete the Peer Support Worker training offered through the Office of Peer Recovery and Engagement by State Approved Trainers
• Complete the certification examination provided through the New Mexico Credentialing Board

Stop the Stigma - Let’s change the conversation.

Anyone can become dependent on drugs and struggle with opioid use disorder. No one likes to feel judged or devalued. 2 out of 3 of us know someone struggling right now. We must reduce the stigma to encourage people to ask for help and get into recovery. Every community is touched by opioids—rural, urban, tribal, large or small.

Blaming, shaming, ignoring and rejecting someone won’t break the opioid cycle, but opioid treatment medication and support will.

Family, friends, and the public often have negative feelings about drug use or behavior. Blaming, shaming, ignoring and rejecting someone struggling with an opioid use disorder creates stigma and it can keep a person from wanting to seek treatment or get healthcare.

Opioid substance use is not a moral failing, and we need to remember that we can all change the conversation and decrease the stigma around drug use and opioid substance use. People with a substance use disorder have a chronic disease of the brain that can be successfully treated, but stigma negatively impacts a person’s willingness to get treatment or health care and can cause significant self-esteem and mental health issue.

What can we do?

• Offer compassionate support.
• Display kindness to people in vulnerable situations.
• Listen while withholding judgment.
• See a person for who they are, not what drugs they use.
• Learn about how drug dependency works.
• Treat people with drug dependency with dignity and respect.
• Avoid hurtful labels.
• Replace negative attitudes with evidence-based facts.
• Speak up when you see someone mistreated because of their drug use.

We are not our disease. We have a name. We have a history. We have a personality.

We come from families and communities. We have a story to tell.