"What is past is prologue" as William Shakespeare once said. While this does not mean that history is fated to repeat itself, it does point to the tendency for patterns to echo. Understanding those patterns can help us understand the present and potential risks we face currently. Readers interested in learning about our history, the … Continue reading The Road Ahead: Marginalization or Inclusion of the Faces and Voices of Recovery?
Author: billstaufferpa
William Stauffer has been the Executive Director of Pennsylvania Recovery Organization Alliance (PRO-A), the statewide recovery organization of Pennsylvania. He is in long-term recovery since age 21 and has been actively engaged in public policy in the recovery arena for most of those years. He is also an adjunct professor of Social Work at Misericordia University in Dallas Pennsylvania. He holds a Bachelors in Social work degree from Cedar Crest College and a Masters Degree from Kutztown University.
William Stauffer has initiated numerous workforce expansion initiatives for persons in recovery. A major focus of his work has been aimed at moving our entire SUD care system towards a five-year care paradigm to dramatically expand the numbers of Americans in Recovery while saving lives, resources, and communities. Mr. Stauffer has been a staunch advocate for strong SUD Patient Privacy Protections at both the state and federal levels for many years. He ran a recovery house taskforce for the Pennsylvania that helped inform PA Act 59 of 2017. In 2018, he testified in front of the US Senate Special Committee on Aging on the opioid epidemic and older adults, and in 2019, he conducted a hearing with the PA House Human Services Committee to expand recovery opportunities for young people.
He is co-chair of the public policy committee for Faces & Voices of Recovery and the 2019 recipient of the Vernon Johnson Award Individual Recovery Advocate of the year. Mr. Stauffer was also the 2002 Recipient of the Lecie G. Machell prize in Social Work and, prior to taking the position of executive director of PRO-A , received Pennsylvania Recovery Organization Alliances award of the Recovery Advocate of the year, in 2008.
Fostering Big Tent Recovery
Recovery Movement Ahead: Embracing Kindred Groups While Retaining Focus on Our Common Purpose
Have been listening and reflecting as of late on where the recovery movement has come from and where we are headed next. We have faced and endured many challenges, both internal and external to the movement. We have done so by remaining focused on our common purpose. Basic tenants of recovery such as tolerance, humility … Continue reading Recovery Movement Ahead: Embracing Kindred Groups While Retaining Focus on Our Common Purpose
On Improving Recovery Engagement In the Context of Increased Social Isolation and Loneliness
I recently attended a webinar on loneliness and the COVID-19 Pandemic by the Coalition to End Social Isolation and Loneliness. The physical health and mortality facets of social isolation are jaw dropping. We need to focus more of our resources on recognition of social isolation as a health determinant in respect to substance use conditions … Continue reading On Improving Recovery Engagement In the Context of Increased Social Isolation and Loneliness
WE NEED MORE RECOVERY CUSTODIANS AND FEWER RECOVERY ROCK STARS (BILL STAUFFER AND BILL WHITE)
Definition of Custodian – a person who has responsibility for or looks after something. We are in a critical stage of the recovery movement in America, and we need to think carefully on what direction we go as a community and what we do to ensure that we expand recovery opportunities for the next generation. … Continue reading WE NEED MORE RECOVERY CUSTODIANS AND FEWER RECOVERY ROCK STARS (BILL STAUFFER AND BILL WHITE)
The Digitalization of Recovery: Supporting those Left Behind (Bill Stauffer and Bill White)
Recent essays predicted the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the future of addiction recovery and celebrated the resilience of communities of recovery as they transitioned from face-to-face to online recovery support meetings. This brief article calls attention to those potentially left behind in this transition to digital support and explores the ethical and effective … Continue reading The Digitalization of Recovery: Supporting those Left Behind (Bill Stauffer and Bill White)
Redesigning Addiction and Recovery Services in a COVID-19 World
It is abundantly clear that COVID-19 will result in fundamental changes in how societies around the world function. We can all sense this demarcation of a fundamental change in our own lives and communities. It will take years to fully understand all of the ramifications of how this will impact our lives and all of … Continue reading Redesigning Addiction and Recovery Services in a COVID-19 World
On Implicit Bias and Institutionalized Exclusion
Nothing about us without us means inclusion in policy decisions impacting the recovery community, not just having a token recovering person sitting in the room to say that we were included. The COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis is a good example of this dynamic. In talking to recovery community organizations across the country, I am hearing vast … Continue reading On Implicit Bias and Institutionalized Exclusion
Ten Assurances for Conducting Effective, Safe and Ethically Run Virtual Recovery Support Services
Over the last few weeks, there has been an expansive and dramatic shift to the provision of Substance Use Disorder services onto digital platforms as we move into the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Recovery community and treatment organizations would be well served to develop these services in a manner that supports safe, effective and individualized care. … Continue reading Ten Assurances for Conducting Effective, Safe and Ethically Run Virtual Recovery Support Services
Let’s focus the recovery community on hope, connection, and purpose
In recent weeks I have been less focused on the science of recovery and more on the social connectedness elements of recovery. I hope that my colleagues writing here on this blog with me are ok with the direction I am taking as of late. I am focused here simply because I think that there … Continue reading Let’s focus the recovery community on hope, connection, and purpose
