(Originally posted August 14, 2022) I recently stumbled on this educational page about stigma from the National Harm Reduction Coalition. It's well done and illuminates the assumptions and goals for their stigma reduction efforts. They frame responding to drug use as a choice between liberation and stigma, with harm reduction as the path to liberation. … Continue reading Addiction, Stigma, and Liberation
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.
Multiple pathways as a disruptor: from what to what?
"Multiple pathways to recovery" has been popularized by the new recovery advocacy movement (NRAM) and Recovery Oriented Systems of Care (ROSC), but the concept has been around since at least 1944. The September 1944 issue of Alcoholics Anonymous' Grapevine published an article by Philip Wylie, describing his solo recovery supported by psychologists and reading. Bill … Continue reading Multiple pathways as a disruptor: from what to what?
Am I in recovery?
A recent paper on collegiate recovery experiences highlights an important dynamic in recovery advocacy, recovery science, and recovery policy. I've commented a lot on the conceptual boundaries of recovery in the blog -- the relationship between addiction (or SUD or other compulsive behaviors) and recovery; whether recovery is a process, a direction, or an outcome; … Continue reading Am I in recovery?
Partnering in pursuit of truth and recovery
Bill Stauffer recently shared Bill White's keynote from this week's Consortium on Addiction Recovery Science. It's a great speech and there's a lot to absorb. I'm sure more will be said about it on this blog. White frames recovery research as emerging from a gaping hole in professional/clinical and scientific/research knowledge related to recovery. To … Continue reading Partnering in pursuit of truth and recovery
Unclaimed
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4y2o9uoa2q Of course, all of these people didn't have addiction. But, for the ones that did, this really pulls at my heart. So sad -- their deaths and the ways they die. Overdose prevention, rightly, gets a lot of attention. I wonder how many were offered a pathway to recovery with treatment of adequate intensity, … Continue reading Unclaimed
“these things take courage, and they encourage each other”
Read Spotted Newt book shop, Hazard, KY When Bill White called for an overhaul of our treatment models (Recovery Management) and our treatment systems (Recovery Oriented Systems of Care), there was an emphasis on community organization and "hope-based interventions" to reduce stigma by making recovery more visible and voluntarily attract more people into treatment and … Continue reading “these things take courage, and they encourage each other”
Drug “poisoning” or “overdose”?
The NY Times has an article on the debate between characterizing drug deaths, fentanyl deaths in particular, as poisonings or overdoses. Much of the argument focuses on destigmatizing drug-related deaths. “If I tell someone that my child overdosed, they assume he was a junkie strung out on drugs,” said Stefanie Turner, a co-founder of Texas Against … Continue reading Drug “poisoning” or “overdose”?
A War on Recovery?
STAT ran an article this week that seemed to conflate treatment, recovery, and mutual aid groups: The recovery group Narcotics Anonymous — perhaps the country’s largest provider of addiction treatment Lev Facher. (2024, March 5). How the U.S. is sabotaging its best tools to prevent deaths in the opioid epidemic. Retrieved March 7, 2024, from … Continue reading A War on Recovery?
The pendulum swings again. We can do better.
Oregon's legislature voted, by large margins, to roll back its move toward full decriminalization of drug possession, public consumption, and selling drugs. Now, San Francisco voters approve a ballot measure allowing drug testing recipients of public assistance and making assistance contingent on participation in treatment. And, it wasn't close. One way to think about responses … Continue reading The pendulum swings again. We can do better.
Better than well recovery, attraction, coercion, and the elephant in the room
The elephant in the room Nicholas Kristof shares his experience attending a graduation ceremony for Women in Recovery, a program for court-involved women in Oklahoma. As I watched the graduation, my imagination soared: What if everyone with a drug problem who was caught up in the criminal justice system had access to a comprehensive and … Continue reading Better than well recovery, attraction, coercion, and the elephant in the room
Recovery Review 