Yesterday I had a wonderful conversation with a professional colleague in our field. The conversation was centered in wellbeing over the much longer-term, and related research with the SUD population.
I found myself expounding the Stages of Healing proposal. And the 5-Year Model practice guideline as well.
During the conversation I found myself wishing I had my points written out on a single page that was concise, simple, and logical.
Well, that was all it took for me to put the following together. Perhaps someone will find it interesting or helpful. The active links in this post and the paper might be more worthwhile than the paper itself.
Addiction, the Stages of Healing, and the 5-Year Model
Stages of Healing (a mega-data project):
Clinical care of substance use disorders lacks a population-sized data set of bio-psycho-social-spiritual indicators of wellness at the lifetime length.
I suggest such a project be undertaken.
The project would initially enroll all people receiving SUD services.
Those initially enrolled would remain enrolled for their lifespan.
Data collection across the lifespan would include no-shows, drop-outs, and those that pass away.
Such a data set would eventually aggregate to a norm-reference group.
The data set would show what would be expected to improve, and when.
We would find useful and practical aggregate information, such as average critical periods for people making improvement, regressing, or being stuck. That is, stages would become evident.
The norm reference group could be matched against for the clinical picture of any person presenting for SUD service.
Everyone’s data would be recursive to the project, whether they are enrolled in services or not.
Two existing projects serve as practical examples of this proposal.
The Framingham Heart Study (1948 – current) represents the problem side of the proposal.
The Nurses’ Health Study (1976 – current) represents the wellbeing side of the proposal.
Our SUD area still awaits such a data collection project.
5-Year Model (a practice guideline):
In the meanwhile, literature reflecting personal change over a much longer period of time than has typically been examined now exists for severe, complex, and chronic SUDs.
This includes empirical studies, clinical-applied literature, and the written oral tradition of those experiencing personal change over the long term in this context.
Each of these, separately, now includes the recursive aggregation of that information over time.
Consolidation of the content of these sources into a clinical practice guideline would be helpful.
An initial preliminary attempt at developing such a practice guideline has been completed.
Some Inspirations and Resources
- Recovery Rising Excerpt: An Epiphany in Dallas
- An Interview with Searcy W – Alcoholics Anonymous – Dallas AA Intergroup
- Planes, Car Repair Shops, and Dentists – Recovery Review
- Envisioning Radical Change in Research, Clinical Training, and Service for Severe SUDs – Recovery Review
