Eatontown, N.J.-based RWJBarnabas Health Institute for Prevention and Recovery’s Peer Recovery Program has grown from an emergency department initiative to a program integrated across all 12 RWJBarnabas Health acute care facilities over the last decade.
The program launched in 2016 in Long Branch, N.J.-based Monmouth Medical Center and Toms River, N.J.-based Community Medical Center’s emergency departments, according to a Sept. 16 news release from RWJBarnabas Health. It served patients who received naloxone before arriving or in the emergency department and expanded to Newark, N.J.-based Newark Beth Israel Medical Center later that year.
In 2017, RWJBarnabas Health created the Tackling Addiction Task Force to establish best practices and promote comprehensive substance use disorder services throughout the system. The Peer Recovery Program expanded hospitalwide in 2018 to serve all patients with substance use disorders, with recovery specialists beginning to work full-time in the hospitals.
The program launched All Recovery Meetings for patients, loved ones and community members in 2019 and remained fully operational during the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022. In 2022, it added Naloxone Distribution through a partnership with the Office of the Attorney General and the RWJBarnabas Health Corporate Pharmacy.
In 2024, the program launched at Hamilton, N.J.-based RWJUH Hamilton, marking its integration across all 12 RWJBarnabas Health acute care facilities. The expanded Naloxone Distribution program launched in 2025, promising to deliver 15,000 Naloxone and Harm Reduction kits statewide. In 2026, the Peer Recovery Program reached 150,000 patient referrals.
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