Building Community Through Shared Experience: How MASStrong Helped Shape the Future of MAPSN 

By Hugo Vieira RN, President & Founder, Massachusetts Peer Support for Nurses (MAPSN)

When I founded Massachusetts Peer Support for Nurses (MAPSN), I had a simple vision: create the kind of space I wish existed when I was navigating recovery as a nurse. Recovery can be an isolating experience for anyone, but there is something uniquely challenging about being a healthcare professional in recovery. We are trained to care for others, remain composed under pressure, and solve problems. Asking for help or admitting weakness can feel like a threat to our identity, our careers, and our sense of self 

MAPSN was built to change that. 

Over the past year, our partnership with MASStrong and the GPS model has transformed not only the way we facilitate our peer support groups, but also the way we think about creating community. The GPS model provides a trauma-informed, strength-based structure that encourages participants to share authentically while recognizing that everyone arrives with different experiences, perspectives, and recovery pathways. 

One of the things I appreciate most about the GPS approach is that it creates space for participants to simply be human. We don’t gather to fix one another or provide clinical advice. Instead, we come together to listen, reflect, and discover that many of the thoughts, fears, and challenges we carry are shared by others who truly understand. 

Receiving a MASStrong grant allowed MAPSN to expand our programming and outreach. It also provided our group facilitators the opportunity to complete GPS facilitator training, which has had a lasting impact on how we approach peer support and group facilitation. The experience reinforced something I have learned through my own journey: healing happens in connection.

That partnership naturally led to another opportunity I was honored to be a part of, helping to develop the GPS For Nurses in Recovery curriculum guide. Working on the curriculum gave me the chance to combine my lived experience as a nurse in recovery with years of peer support work through MAPSN. Together, we created 12 sessions that explore topics many nurses rarely have the opportunity to discuss openly: shame, professional identity, returning to work, workplace anxiety, burnout, boundaries, relapse prevention, self-worth, and finding purpose after adversity. 

My hope is that participants see themselves reflected in these conversations and recognize that they are not alone. Recovery is not simply about abstaining from substance use, it is about rebuilding trust, reconnecting with ourselves and others, and creating a meaningful life while navigating the realities of a demanding profession. What excites me most is how I see this curriculum complementing the work we are already doing at MAPSN. The GPS structure provides consistency while allowing facilitators and participants to bring their own experiences into each conversation. It creates opportunities for reflection rather than instruction and for connection rather than comparison. 

As someone who once believed my career and purpose were over, it is incredibly meaningful to now contribute to a resource designed to support other nurses on their recovery journeys. I have witnessed firsthand the resilience, compassion, and growth that emerge when nurses are given a safe space to share honestly and be met with understanding instead of judgement. Recovery is possible and community makes it stronger. 

I am grateful to MASStrong for investing in MAPSN, believing the value of peer support, helping create resources that recognize nurses in recovery not by their struggles, but by their courage, resilience, and capacity to heal. I look forward to continuing this work and seeing these conversations reach nurses across Massachusetts and beyond.

Bring MASStrong to Your Workplace

GPS’s MASStrong program offers free GPS trainings, support groups, curriculums, and toolkits for Massachusetts medical, behavioral health, and community care workers and organizations. Eligible organizations can also apply for GPS partnership support and grants up to $10,000.