Carole Waddell is a Limestone County recovery support specialist certified by the Alabama Department of Mental Health. She is part of the Recovery Organization of Support Specialists, also known as R.O.S.S.

Carole Waddell is a recovery support specialist, but she’s also recovering from substance abuse herself.

She’s been through treatment twice and knows what it feels like to hit rock bottom.

Ask someone with substance abuse disorder and they will likely admit that trying to find help from someone similar to them can make recovery a little bit easier.

Waddell is part of the Recovery Organization of Support Specialists, also known as R.O.S.S. The organization’s aim is to advocate, empower and collaborate for any individual wanting to recover.

R.O.S.S. support specialists help navigate the substance abuse system. Services are provided before, during and after treatment for individuals and family members of those with substance abuse disorder.

“We are out trying to educate the community,” Waddell said.

All R.O.S.S. support specialists are certified by the Alabama Department of Mental Health. The services provided are funded by ADMH as well as by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The organization serves 39 counties in the state, including Limestone County where Waddell is located.

Beginning R.O.S.S.

Mark Litvine, R.O.S.S. director of marketing and co-founder, said the idea for R.O.S.S. started in March 2016 when a trainer with the ADMH stressed the need for state, peer-run organizations working to combat the opioid epidemic.

Litvine said there were organizations in other states, but not in Alabama. That’s when he and three other people got together and started training as well as creating bylaws.

Eventually, R.O.S.S. received a grant from the ADMH and was funded by the state and federal government.

The group opened its first location July 24, 2017, and is now headquartered in its second building at 716 37th St. South in Birmingham.

“We are getting out in the community and reaching the people who fall through the cracks,” Litvine said. “We are a free service. We have always been a free service and always will be.”

R.O.S.S. also started the first 24-hour addiction help line in the state, Litvine said. All calls are confidential, and the caller talks to a certified recovery support specialist backed by ADMH and SAMSA, he said.

“If someone calls at 4 a.m., we will be there,” he said. “It might be the first kind voice someone has heard in years.”

Litvine said the organization is putting boots on the ground and going out to addicted areas.

“We are taking people to get assessments, taking them to detox and getting them treatment,” he said. “We are doing whatever we can to help people and save lives.”

Educating the community

Waddell, a local resident, is working to educate the community about services. Her hope is that area churches and organizations will get involved.

“This is your community,” Waddell said. “This is our community.”

Currently, she is helping people find treatment options whether they have insurance, Medicaid or nothing at all. All R.O.S.S. referrals are made to state-certified facilities, which are monitored by the state.

Medication-assisted treatment is also available. Though funding for the current year has run out, more money will be put in place by the end the year, Waddell said.

Warm handoff

Waddell also helps with assessments before treatment and transportation to and from the facility.

“We don’t just drop them at the door and run,” Waddell said. “We do a warm handoff. We make sure they are comfortable … I know what it’s like. It is scary. It is so scary not knowing what you are going to do. You’ve done this for so long, and now it’s a whole new world.”

Waddell said she can meet with people face to face.

“I’m not just a voice on the phone,” she said.

She can hold a person’s hand as they walk through the process of recovery.

“They get a say in what they do,” she said. “You don’t just get an assessment and someone saying, ‘Well, you are going to go here, and this is what you are going to do.’”

Waddell said she listens to needs and acts as an advocate. She can even sit in on some assessments. When they are completed, she makes sure the assessment results go to the facilities where people want them to go.

Takes time

Waddell knows recovery and treatment is a process.

“It’s not going to all happen in 24 hours,” she said. “However, when you know what to do, step by step, and you have someone to turn to who knows the process, it makes it so much better.”

Waddell said she knows it’s a challenge to stay sober and that’s why she also helps with finding support groups. “There are a lot of support groups out there,” she said. “AA isn’t for everybody. NA isn’t for everybody. I’m not bashing any of them. I’ve been to all of them.”

She said some people want different options, like faith-based recovery, and there’s a group in Limestone County.

“Recovery looks different to each person,” she said. “I’m not here to tell someone what they have to do. I’m here to share my experience and to give them the resources that are available.”

Waddell said she recognizes people like her. “I’m able to walk up and say, ‘I can help you,’” she said.

She wants people with substance abuse disorder to maintain hope.

Hope

Waddell said there is nothing worse in the world “than to be out there and to be hopeless.”

She said her mother almost loved her to death. “She was my biggest supporter and my biggest enabler,” Waddell said. “If she could have gotten sober for me, she would have. But she couldn’t.”

She said when she was ready to get sober, she was ready. “That’s the thing. When a person is ready, they are ready right then. Tomorrow they might not be.”

She believes it is important for a person to get in touch with someone like her, so she can stay in touch with them on a daily basis until they get treatment and don’t lose hope.

“Don’t lose hope,” she said. “You are not falling through the cracks. You are not just a number to us. You are a human being who deserves dignity and respect and help.”

Waddell also knows about substance abuse and crime. She wants to help with the process of getting people out of jail and into treatment.

“That’s not to say people don’t have to serve time for their crimes,” she said. “But, being a person with substance abuse disorder is not a crime. It’s a disease. It’s not any more of a crime than if you have diabetes.”

Sure, people do things while they are under the influence, she said.

“There’s no doubt about that,” she said. “However, you shouldn’t have to die like that. Fact is, if you don’t get treatment and you go to jail and get out, more than likely you are going to go back to what you were doing.”

She believes treatment right out of jail gives people a chance to change.

“In my opinion, that is what jail is supposed to be about, rehabilitation. Right?” she said.

The first time Waddell went to treatment, she went into a 28-day program.

“When I got out, I thought my world was going to be rainbows and butterflies,” she said. “The world was going to be great.”

She was told to go to meetings and get a sponsor, but it wasn’t long before she realized her world hadn’t changed.

“I still didn’t have the coping mechanisms I needed to stay sober,” she said. “I fought it.”

She got in a cycle, but eventually she got to where she was hopeless and sought treatment again. While she was looking at treatment options, her mother died.

“I thought I had hit rock bottom the first time I went to treatment, but I had plunged really deep,” she said. “I became suicidal.”

Waddell attempted suicide and failed.

She didn’t know why she failed, but she knew there were others who weren’t failing. They were taking their own lives.

“When I failed suicide, all I could see was this long life ahead of me,” she said. “I thought, ‘Oh, my God, something has to happen.’ I realized I had to change.”

She went back to treatment and got the help she needed.

Now, she doesn’t want someone to fall through the cracks.

“Life is worth living,” she said. “It really is. Some of us come from really horrible situations, but if we give ourselves a chance, maybe we can change that.”

Waddell said if she can get clean, anybody can.

“Your life can have a purpose,” she said. “Addiction is a disease, not a moral failing.”

The R.O.S.S. 24/7 addiction helpline can be reached at 844-307-1760.

More information can be found at https://www.rosshelpline4u.org.

To contact Carole Waddell, call 205-573-7730.