A colleague in the field (a professional addiction counselor of 30+ years) sent me an email and suggested I respond here on Recovery Review. It's a great topic with good questions. I'll place the questions in quotation marks as they were written and reply to each. The field of Substance Use Disorders and becoming a … Continue reading Question from the field: What makes an addiction counselor a “Master Craftsman”?

I assume the reader has heard the term “Recovery Oriented Systems of Care” and of the related clinical practices organized around what is called “Recovery Management.” Regardless, by way of review:  ROSC was a specific macro-system inter-agency networking concept.  RM was a micro-focused set of concepts and practices for services seated within and beneath ROSC.  … Continue reading “Recovery Oriented Systems of Care” and “Recovery Management” are slowly becoming “Using-Oriented Systems of Care” and “Using Management”

After screening for harmful alcohol use, researchers in a 2022 study1 examined differences based on age - with some interesting results.  The study examined… …data from 17,399 respondents who reported any alcohol consumption in the last year and were aged 18 and over from the 2016 National Drug Strategy Household Survey…” The authors said the … Continue reading The Impacts of Drinking: Quantity Versus Frequency by Age of Drinker

Very recent original research has found initial evidence that the paternal use of alcohol prior to conception produces physical defects and abnormalities that resemble those caused by maternal drinking during pregnancy.1  What kinds of abnormalities were found to be associated with paternal drinking prior to conception?  The study found alcohol-related fetal abnormalities of the brain … Continue reading The Effects of Paternal Alcohol Use Prior to Conception

Today is the 10 year anniversary of my organizational workplace making the switch to a tobacco-free campus. Prior to the change I was involved in organizing and leading our attempts to address tobacco smoking. After we made the switch to a tobacco-free campus, I looked back and realized those earlier efforts were like our organization … Continue reading Tobacco-free campus: 10 year anniversay and retrospective of the change

by Nena Butterfield, PhD, RN, BSN and Brian Coon, MA, LCAS, CCS, MAC This post was originally published at the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP) website Resources/Blog section on 01/12/2023. It is reposted here with permission. Initiating and cultivating a participant registry with maximized participation of the persons served requires intentional methodology and … Continue reading Using Recovery Management Practices and Principles to Improve Your SUD Outcome Call Purpose and Method

I watched an informational video about search patterns used by the Coast Guard and gained some thoughts I decided to share.  The video was just under 30 minutes long and you can find it right here if you’re interested.  As you read this article, see what you notice from outside our field that could serve … Continue reading 2022’s #2 post: Coast Guard Search and Rescue:  Lessons and Inspiration

I've been hearing a lot lately about the difficulties in San Francisco related to severe SUDs among people experiencing homelessness. And more pointedly, I've been hearing about the death rate by overdose among those living in what I understand to be housing for these people provided by the city. Simultaneously, I've heard reports about leaders … Continue reading What can San Francisco learn from Tehran?

The NIAAA (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) recently published a definition of recovery. Here's the recovery definition from that paper: Recovery is a process through which an individual pursues both remission from AUD and cessation from heavy drinking.  Recovery can also be considered an outcome such that an individual may be considered ‘recovered’ … Continue reading How Helpful is the 2022 Definition of Recovery from the NIAAA?

A few days ago Jason Schwartz published a very interesting piece on Recovery Review titled "Food addictive?" It's a brief and interesting read. In his post he embedded the 30 minute interview that inspired him to write that piece. The interview is well worth a listen. In short, Jason found the argument that food can … Continue reading Food addictive? A little more.