Today we’d like to introduce you to Garrison Nuckols.
Hi Garrison, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I suppose this chapter of my life began when I came to Nashville from Rockwood, TN in October of 2020 to check into Cumberland Heights, a local inpatient drug addiction treatment center. To get there I had first transitioned from a longtime Mechanical Engineering student, to restaurant worker, to individual completely ravaged by addiction and unable to hold employment. After years of struggling, I finally realized my addiction was going to kill me and sought help. Being very naive, I assumed I would spend 4 weeks in treatment and then be cured of my addiction. During my stay, I received another moment of clarity – that my addiction was a chronic condition that manifested in through my thoughts and feelings. This gift allowed me to take suggestions from the professionals around me, with the primary suggestion being, “go to a recovery home after treatment.” I felt strongly that I did not want to take that step, and that feeling is exactly why I choose to follow through and move into a Nashville-based recovery home.
At the time I didn’t know it, but I had won the lottery. I was referred to a residence that was certified by the Tennessee Alliance of Recovery Residences (TN-ARR) to uphold the highest nationally defined ethical standards in recovery housing. I largely credit this step for my successful transition into long-term recovery. While a resident at the home, I got a crummy sales job that afforded me to stay there, acquired a sponsor in an anonymous fellowship and began to apply recovery principles to my life.
Just after 6 months of sobriety, I accepted the house manger position at the recovery residence I lived in & shortly after became its Director of Operations. Money was tight, but I had received another gift – the opportunity to be of service to others full time. After this position change, I began attending TN-ARR meetings and volunteering for the organization. During this commitment, I got to develop a deep friendship with Susan O. Binns: TN-ARR’s founder, NARR (National Alliance of Recovery Residences) co-founder, and pioneer of the Social Experiential Model of Recovery. Though we were separated by 50 years of age, Susan and I shared the same passion for service and quickly became thick as thieves.
Through my mentorship with Susan, I began applying pro-social philosophies more deeply at the recovery residence I oversaw. The results were astounding – only two residents experienced a return to use in a calendar year and an average length of stay increased from 4 months to 6 months. Again, I was gifted with the chance to learn from one of the greatest recovery housing minds on the planet almost immediately into my tenure as a recovery housing operator.
After an ownership change, I left my original housing organization to confound a new recovery housing organization that catered specifically to the needs of professionals. At the time, there were no resources in the state of Tennessee that provided this service. This opportunity allowed me to build my first program from scratch and deeply weave the social experiential model of recovery throughout its operations. This proved to be to be highly successful, with 65% percent our residents reaching one year in recovery – almost double the national average.
During this period, I also accepted a position as TN-ARR’s office manager in an effort to streamline the certification body’s operations. What had once been a small grassroots effort to provide ethical recovery housing standards in Tennessee had turned into one of the larger NARR state affiliates, but was still lacking meaningful financial support. The work was arduous, but slowly with a team of dedicated volunteers, TN-ARR rose to meet the new demand.
Fast forwarding to November of 2024, I was named Director of Operations for the Tennessee Alliance of Recovery Residences. It was, and is, the honor of a lifetime to carry on Susan O. Binns life’s work. There was not much time to celebrate though, my housing business partner (and property owner) made the decision to abruptly close our organization. With 45 days notice, I began quickly searching for a property to provide our current residents a place to go.
This culminated in the founding of Mountain Pass Recovery, a NARR/TN-ARR Level 3 Certified Recovery Residence that focuses on pairing premium recovery support services and holistic care in a bespoke setting. After years of refinement, the MPR support model has a seen an early success rate of 77% of its residents transitioning into lasting recovery. In short, if someone becomes a resident they will more than like find their way into long-term recovery. These success rates are not necessarily a reflection of my proficiency as the directing founder, but rather a reflection of the many people who poured into me along my journey and the amazing care team that has been assembled around around me.
Today, aside from providing direct services through Mountain Pass Recovery, my role as the Director of TN-ARR provides endless opportunities to serve the countless Tennesseans that are suffering from substance use disorder. From being a voting member of multiple TDMHSAS Policy & Planning committees to serving on the National Alliance of Recovery Residence’s Standards and Advocacy committees, I have been given a voice to direct policy change at both the state and national levels. Through Susan’s tutelage, I have also become a nationally renowned voice for the Social Experiential Model of Recovery – regularly presenting to policy makers and providing direct training to recovery housing operators across the country.
The irony isn’t lost on me at all. The one thing I definitely did not want to do (move into a recovery home) has become a passion I am excited to wake up for each morning. The only I really did was get out of the way, try to do the next right thing and say yes to what life presented me. I am proof that people do recover when they are treated with dignity and provided so support. I will be forever indebted to those who paved a way for my recovery and am deeply honored to be allowed to advocate for those who can’t advocate for themselves.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It was a very Nashville road, a lot of bumps – ha. I alluded to many of these in the first question, but the biggest struggles have been: -Implicitly trusting the suggestions of strangers in early recovery
-Spearheading the growth of a statewide ethical standards certification body
-Successfully designing and opening an untested recovery housing model
-Opening a business, finding a property, furnishing the property and moving a houseful of residents into the new business with a 45 day notice
-Completely re-imaging TN-ARR’s operational model and facilitating 90 hours of weekly work with 1 part time employee and a smattering of volunteers
-Helping policy makers understand that there is more to recovery than inpatient treatment
As you know, we’re big fans of Mountain Pass Recovery/TN-ARR. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
At Mountain Pass Recovery, we take great pride in providing the best recovery housing experience available on the planet, focusing on providing individual recovery plans with weekly support, weekly somatic sessions, weekly recovery workshops with top practitioners in the field, monthly nature excursions, daily mindfulness practices, and a family-like community in a bespoke setting. Mountain Pass Recovery is geared to cater to the needs of business professionals, but can serve any man seeking recovery from substance abuse disorder. If the there was one thing for the reader to know, it would be that the support staff for MPR is the best of the best. They make the magic happen and provide the best recovery housing experience available in Tennessee.
The Tennessee Alliance of Recovery Residences was originally founded in 2008 (predating NARR) and started the recovery housing movement in Tennessee. We certify recovery housing organizations that choose to adopt the only nationally defined ethical standards across the full continuum of recovery housing, advocate for operators and residents and provide continual training to raise the bar for recovery housing in our state.
Over 20 states support their NARR affiliate, unfortunately Tennessee isn’t one of those. We have a simple belief, recovery housing organizations in our state should abide by ethical standards. Much like the DMV, we appropriately train housing operators before they “get on the road.” Currently our state allows multiple certification bodies, this has been tried in other states and predictably create a “race to bottom” where the individuals seeking safe housing are harmed in the absence of ethical best practices derived from experience. The NARR/TN-ARR standard is supported by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the National Council for Mental Wellbeing – our work is to help the volunteer state do the same.
I am deeply inspired of our limited staff and their ability to handle our massive workload without meaningful support. We were recently able to conduct an economic impact study with the Fletcher Group that found TN-ARR certified homes will save save the state of Tennessee approximately $8 Billion dollars in net benefits over the next 15 years. These benefits are currently provided with a meager annual operating budget comparable to a single state agency employee’s salary.
The reader should know that recovery housing is already an infrastructure in practice, now its time for it to be an infrastructure in policy.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
The shift has already begun. In October 2023 the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) released their 4th Edition Criteria – the national standard for adult addiction care in the medical community. This guide aligns directly with the NARR standard and recognizes that NARR certified recovery housing is a foundational component for all addiction care.
Tennessee has a choice to make.
a) Follow national guidance, support our state’s recovery housing ecosystem and save billions taxpayer dollars while providing Tennesseans and their families with easier access to life saving services
or
b) Continue to exclude recovery housing from meaningful support, leave the ecosystem fragmented without any mandate for ethical standards where “anything goes”, and keep Tennessee’s overdose rates and overdose related deaths deaths top 5 in country.
This decision will shape our state’s financial future and be a literal matter of life and death for many.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mountainpassrecovery.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TNARRrecoveryhappenshere/
- Other: https://www.tnarr.org/
