In his 4 ½ page paper from 2005 titled, “Treatment Works! Time for a new slogan”, Bill provides a look at the pro-treatment, pro-recovery, and de-stigmatizing slogan promulgated by many including the US government: “Treatment Works!”.
- In doing so he accurately outlines the advantages of sloganeering, and some of the positives inherent in the “Treatment Works!” slogan.
But the majority of the paper is a strong critique of that slogan.
He does propose criteria upon which a replacement slogan can be built. And he does offer some real examples of possible alternatives..
Here are two quotes that exemplify his critique:
The slogan Treatment Works erroneously conveys the existence of a singular, static entity – treatment – that is consistent in character and quality across the United States.
The slogan Treatment Works conveys a single pathway model of AOD problem resolution and perpetuates an acute care model of intervention that for many people does not “work”.
Bill also states that, “The slogan fails to convey the following limitations of addiction treatment as currently practiced in the United States” and outlines the following problems it does not address:
- Failure to attract/Limited access
- Treatment attrition
- Inadequate treatment dose
- Absence of continuing care
- Post-treatment relapse and readmission
- Instability of early recovery
- Post-treatment mortality
He goes on to say, “The slogan Treatment Works shifts the responsibility for recovery from the person being treated to the treatment professional, but blames the client when treatment does not result in sustained abstinence.”
By the end of the paper he suggests, “The phenomena of addiction and recovery are much too complex to be represented in a single slogan and are best portrayed through a cluster of interrelated messages. Ideally, these messages should, in his words:
- be recovery-focused
- communicate hope
- emphasize the role of personal choices, responsibilities and enduring efforts inherent in the recovery process
- affirm the varieties of recovery experience
- extol the role of family and community in the recovery process
- detail the potential role of treatment in recovery
- create informed consumers
- incorporate a wide menu of metaphors to initiate and anchor recovery
- call recovered and recovering to join the ‘wounded healer’ tradition”
I can say that one giant advantage of working in our community agency (Human Service Center/Fayette Companies) in Peoria, Illinois during the entire ten-year lifespan of the Behavioral Health Recovery Management (BHRM) project, was direct and early access to much of Bill’s educational and training materials (to say nothing of him personally training us himself). For example, here’s his original manuscript from 2004 with the title “Treatment Works! Is it time for a new slogan?” It’s a much fuller treatment of the topic than the 4-page version I’ve synopsized above that came out a year later.
Full manuscripts of this kind from Bill were posted on our BHRM website to disseminate them to the public.
Perhaps in coming days I’ll post a number of them here on Recovery Review as I’ve done with the BHRM clinical practice guidelines.
Ok, are you ready for the conclusion of this post?
During the BHRM project Mike Boyle, our CEO, and Bill worked together to make a poster based on their combined thinking on this topic.
The poster was framed and hung up inside each of the (dozens) of outpatient clinical buildings, residential programs, and administrative buildings that comprised our agency. These were put in public areas, such as entrance foyers, and also in much deeper interior spaces, such as group rooms and residential hallways, where patients lived or were clinically served. And they were also placed in staff-only rooms such as clinical conference rooms where decisions were made. The posters were placed in such locations very intentionally – mainly for the purpose of “increasing the tension for change” and raising staff-accountability for innovation from a patient perspective.
Here’s the PNG file:
and a quick PDF for an easy look..
Recovery Review 
