I was recently invited to give a talk on recovery housing research and found myself wondering where the term “social model” came from. I found this account, which claims it was coined by a book published in 1973, Recovery from Alcoholism: A Social Treatment Model. That book’s principal author, Bob O’Briant, would go on to … Continue reading What a Radical 1970s Program Got Right about Treating Addiction
Author: Justin Bell
Justin Bell, PhD, is a psychologist and a person in recovery. His research work focuses on the peer recovery support workforce and creating better working conditions for people with lived experience. Justin has led studies on the challenges peers face on the job, from burnout to role clarity, and was the lead evaluator on the first low-barrier recovery housing program in Chicago. Beyond academia, Justin works directly with organizations that support or employ peers through speaking engagements and workshops.
Physicians Should Help ‘Prescribe’ Recovery Support
The AMA's recent report on substance use treatment doesn't acknowledge recovery. This glaring omission misses the potential for doctors to support recovery activities through "social prescribing" - as researcher Justin Bell describes.
When We Expect Peers to be “Magical Saviors”: A 50-Year-Old Problem Revisited
The peer recovery specialist owes a great deal to the therapeutic community, or TC. As much as the recovery movement has distanced itself from the blight of Synanon, Synanon and its TC offshoots were once considered the future of addiction treatment and looked to as a source of solutions by scientists and practitioners. Seeking to … Continue reading When We Expect Peers to be “Magical Saviors”: A 50-Year-Old Problem Revisited
The Morphine Maintenance Movement
Men line up outside the doors of the New York Narcotic Clinic in 1919 Between 1919 and 1923, clinics provided legal access to narcotics to treat addiction In 1923, Oscar Dowling brought a serious charge against a doctor in Shreveport, Louisiana. Like a headline we'd recognize today, he claimed the doctor prescribed, “indiscriminately … of … Continue reading The Morphine Maintenance Movement
We Lack a United Voice in the Recovery Movement
"With the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back” – Hunter S. Thompson" Collection of 2000s recovery advocacy ephemera. (Credit: Illinois Addiction Studies Archive) This week I am attending the annual conference of the National Alliance on Recovery Residences (NARR). NARR is … Continue reading We Lack a United Voice in the Recovery Movement