Yesterday's post on addiction counseling as community organization got me thinking about something I'd heard from a Scott Miller presentation. Miller argued that treatment outcomes are due to the following factors in the following proportions: 40%: client and extratherapeutic factors (such as ego strength, social support, etc.) 30%: therapeutic relationship (such as empathy, warmth, and … Continue reading Recovery Management extends therapeutic reach
Author: Jason Schwartz
I have been an addiction professional and social worker since 1994. I started blogging in 2005 as the Clinical Director at Dawn Farm. I currently serve as the Director of Social Work and Spiritual Care for a healthcare system. I've also served as the Director of Behavioral Health at another hospital. I'm also a lecturer at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Social Work.
Views expressed here are my own.
Keep in mind that the field, the contexts in which the field operates, and my views have changed over time.
Addiction Counseling as Community Organization
A few recent posts have put Bill White's paper on Addiction Counseling as Community Organization on my mind. First, was a post where I wondered if we were at risk for recovery capital becoming a proxy for class. I worried that this could lower expectations for people with lower socioeconomic status and be used as a justification … Continue reading Addiction Counseling as Community Organization
Should we lower the bar?
USA Today ran a story about problems in the monitoring of impaired physicians. Many states lack rules to ensure that medical facilities alert law enforcement or regulatory agencies if they catch employees abusing or diverting drugs, so those staffers often are turned loose to find new jobs without treatment or supervision. Disciplinary action for drug abuse … Continue reading Should we lower the bar?
Comic relief
Company unveils first age-verifying, pot vending machine http://t.co/q35RX2PXpZ #9newsmornings pic.twitter.com/8Vy6gpuNET — 9NEWS Denver (@9NEWS) April 13, 2014 Leave it to the Onion to make incisive commentary about the recently unveiled medical marijuana vending machines in Colorado: “Nothing legitimizes medicine like selling it from a vending machine.”
The latest on Phillip Seymour Hoffman
After all the speculation that Phillip Seymour Hoffman could have been saved if he had been placed on Suboxone, we have one more bit of information. Not only did he have the drug in his apartment, he had enough exposure to recommend it to a fellow addict. Sometime last year, he met Mr. Hoffman through … Continue reading The latest on Phillip Seymour Hoffman
Gratitude cultivates patience
A recent study suggests that gratitude fosters longer term thinking and patience. Traits that are undoubtedly helpful in recovery. My colleagues Ye Li, Jennifer Lerner, Leah Dickens, and I decided to test how the experience of gratitude effects discounting and financial impatience. We designed an experiment (now in press at the journal Psychological Science) that presented participants with a set of 27 questions, … Continue reading Gratitude cultivates patience
Embrace harm reduction?
DJ Mac challenges recovery-oriented providers to embrace harm reduction: Despite my focus on recovery I have a strong harm reduction ethos at my core. Sure, I challenge services to be recovery-orientated, but I firmly believe that the reverse needs to be true. Rehabs and other services with a recovery goal ought to have harm reduction … Continue reading Embrace harm reduction?
Collegiate Recovery – from the Dawn Farm Education Series
Collegiate Recovery Programs: Supporting Second Chances GOAL: To provide an overview of the need, purpose, history and present development of collegiate recovery programs locally and nationally. OBJECTIVES: Participants will: Get an overview of the challenges and obstacles students in recovery face on college campuses Learn about the theory and research that are at the foundation … Continue reading Collegiate Recovery – from the Dawn Farm Education Series
Running over depression
The Atlantic recently posted on the effectiveness of exercise to treat depression and the failure to integrate it into practice: Depression is the most common mental illness—affecting a staggering 25 percent of Americans—but a growing body of research suggests that one of its best cures is cheap and ubiquitous. In 1999, a randomized controlled trial showed that depressed adults … Continue reading Running over depression
The Big Book Turns 75
PBS has a nice write up on the 75th anniversary of the publishing of the AA's basic text. the "big book": April 10, 1939, marks the publication date of “Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism.” One of the best-selling books of all time (it has … Continue reading The Big Book Turns 75
Recovery Review 