The Same Emergency Room, A Different Chair: How Lived Experience Built a Peer Program St. Mary’s County Trusts

Published: August 31, 2026
Facility: MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital
Region: Southern Maryland
Featuring: Eric, Peer Recovery Specialist, MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital

Tagged

Southern Maryland
Identification and engagement
Initiation/continuation of addiction medications

Inclusion is not an endorsement

The Maryland Department of Health shares this account to highlight practices other facilities may find useful. Appearing in this series is not an endorsement, recommendation, certification, or approval of any hospital, health system, provider, vendor, or program by the Maryland Department of Health or the State of Maryland. Descriptions and figures are provided by the participating facility.

“I wasn’t sure she would ever get sober, but we never gave up. It just eventually, something works.”

— Eric, Peer Recovery Specialist

Eric has worked in the emergency department (ED) at MedStar St. Mary's Hospital since April 30, 2020, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the peer recovery program was so new that no one could even be on site to train him. “We had to FaceTime and do Zoom meeting calls to kind of work through it,” he said. “We were the first peer group to be inducted without having somebody on site.”

Six years later, Eric is one of the most trusted faces in that same emergency department, the one he was once carried into himself. Back in 2015 and 2016, before nine years of sobriety, Eric was a patient there, at one point running out into a snowstorm in the middle of a crisis before being brought to the hospital's behavioral health unit. Today, patients meet him on the other side of that same hallway. “I tell them, look, I've been in a similar situation that you're going through,” he said. “We're here to relate and help you attain that sobriety.”

Today, Eric’s lived-experience is a valuable resource for clinical staff. Doctors and nurses now seek his input on medication decisions and treat the peer program as core to patient care. “They love us here,” Eric said. “They're amazing, and they're definitely appreciative of the staff that we have."

A Rural County with its Own Patterns

St. Mary's County looks different from Maryland's urban emergency departments. Eric expected to see mostly opioid overdoses when he started; instead, alcohol is the county's biggest driver of ED visits. “Our services are way greater than what I expected on the opioid side,” Eric said. “It's a lot of alcohol that we see down here.” That pattern shapes the county's Overdose Survivor Outreach Program (OSOP), which builds 90-day relationships with overdose survivors as well as with patients withdrawing from alcohol who need steady, non-judgmental follow-up.

Eric and his peer partner, Jess, have run the program together for years, alongside a newly hired third peer covering additional shifts. It is a small team by design. “I feel like we've done two peers now for four years,” Eric said. “We know each other, we're really involved with this line of work, and the turnaround can be pretty fast for other counties, but we've been here since the inception of this program.” That continuity means patients see familiar faces, sometimes years apart, and Eric believes that consistency is what builds enough trust for people to open up.

A Four-Year Relationship, Not a Single Encounter

One story stands out for Eric: an individual who came through the ED repeatedly over several years. “I wasn’t sure they would ever get sober, but we never gave up,” he said. Eric and Jess referred them to numerous treatment programs in Maryland, none of which held. Eventually, a facility out of state gave them the change of scenery they needed. They have now been sober for two years and are doing well.. It took four years of Eric and Jess simply not giving up. Eric said, “It just eventually, something works.”

Removing Barriers, One Ride and One Referral at a Time

Eric credits the Healing Opportunity Free From Addiction (HOFFA) Foundation, a state-funded program that provides free rides to treatment facilities, with removing one of the biggest obstacles his patients face: transportation in a rural county with limited public transit. For patients who decline treatment, Eric sends them home with naloxone, fentanyl and xylazine test strips, and a resource packet carrying his contact information. “Even if they don't want to go, we put it in the back of their mind that we're here,” he said. He has received calls for help months, sometimes years, after a first encounter.

Eric would still like to see change. Persistent gaps in a county near a major naval air station include limited treatment options for patients on Medicare and slower pathways to care for veterans navigating the federal Veterans Affairs system. “I wish there were a little bit better treatment options for Medicare specifically,” he said. “Medicaid, you're good. But if you have Medicare primary, it's a little bit more difficult.”

By the numbers

2020peer recovery program launched remotely, trained entirely by video during the pandemic
90 daysthe relationship the Overdose Survivor Outreach Program builds with each survivor
4 yearsof persistence behind one patient’s return to sobriety, their job, and their child

Figures reflect what the interviewee reported and are provided by the participating facility.

What other Maryland hospitals can take away

Consistency builds trust. A small, stable team means patients see familiar faces, sometimes years apart.
Follow the local pattern, not the assumption. In St. Mary’s County, alcohol drives more emergency department visits than opioids.
Leave the door open with naloxone, fentanyl and xylazine test strips, and a resource packet, even when patients decline treatment.
Integrate peers into clinical decisions, so the program is treated as core to patient care rather than an add-on.

More impact spotlights

Meeting a Life or Death Moment With Care — Meritus Health, Western Maryland
How Meritus Health Builds Recovery Infrastructure on a Scarce Budget — Meritus Health, Western Maryland
Hope as a Strategy — ChristianaCare Union Hospital, Upper Eastern Shore

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The Overdose Data to Action team is interviewing emergency department clinicians and peer recovery specialists across Maryland.

Tell us about your program and the team will follow up about an interview.

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Questions? Contact the Overdose Data to Action team at [email protected]. Submitting the form does not guarantee inclusion, and inclusion is not an endorsement by the Maryland Department of Health.