Tobacco-free campus: 10 year anniversay and retrospective of the change

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

Using Recovery Management Practices and Principles to Improve Your SUD Outcome Call Purpose and Method

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

2022’s #2 post: Coast Guard Search and Rescue:  Lessons and Inspiration

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

What can San Francisco learn from Tehran?

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?

How Helpful is the 2022 Definition of Recovery from the NIAAA?

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?

Comments on the Task of Interpreting

The major topic of this essay is “hermeneutics” as it applies to addiction counseling. Definition and aim What is “hermeneutics”? “Hermeneutics” can be defined as “the science of interpretation”.   It’s the knowledge about and methods for the task of interpreting.  Interpretive methods differ across different fields of thought.  Different hermeneutical methods are used to understand … Continue reading Comments on the Task of Interpreting

The Recovery Alliance Initiative – System Change

So far in this series I've... covered the origin and early evolution of the Recovery Alliance Initiative; provided a description of the expansion and clarification of our model and methods; outlined a recipe we uncovered of general similarities among effective sectors; and shared a variety of our concrete practical perspectives. In the previous post I … Continue reading The Recovery Alliance Initiative – System Change

The Recovery Alliance Initiative – Practical Perspectives

Earlier in this series I covered the origin and early evolution of the Recovery Alliance Initiative, provided a description of the expansion and clarification of our model and methods, and outlined a recipe we uncovered of general similarities among effective sectors.  I also described a stretch-goal for our field: attempting from the very start with … Continue reading The Recovery Alliance Initiative – Practical Perspectives

The Recovery Alliance Initiative – A Recipe We Uncovered

In the first two posts of this series, I initially described the origin and early evolution of what we call the Recovery Alliance Initiative.  Those posts were followed by one that described the expansion and clarification of our model and methods within the Alliance effort. In this post I’ll describe a by-product of our effort … Continue reading The Recovery Alliance Initiative – A Recipe We Uncovered