A version of this post was originally published in October 2019. I like this twitter thread a lot. I'd like it more if that last tweet was a little different. I like the desire to understand patients' and recovering people's views on addiction and recovery. What I like less is that it sounds like this … Continue reading Power statements for addiction treatment
A version of this post was originally published in January 2018. [Cross-posted at williamwhitepapers.com] Addiction counseling has become an increasingly professional and pristine affair, and service relationships reflect a more detached process than in years gone by. And yet one worries about the loss of something precious in our current fixation on the technical mastery … Continue reading Love and Addiction Counseling (Bill White and Jason Schwartz)
A version of this post was originally published in November 2019. In recent years it's become more and more common to see advocates criticize treatment and mutual aid groups. These critics question the alleged orthodoxy and motives of treatment providers, but they do not engage in criticism of medication-assisted treatment (MAT). It appears that this … Continue reading Seeking more, not less, from MAT
A version of this post was originally published in June 2020. I've been thinking a lot about the convergence of several cultural trends: historically unprecedented access to information;the atomization of media and information sources;the tribalization of media and information sources;scientism as a cultural force that:lacks epistemic humility;is often dismissive of experiential knowledge;is often dismissive of … Continue reading Follow the science . . .
Forward: I first met Dona as she got PRO-A off the ground in those early years of the recovery movement here in Pennsylvania. PRO-A was one of the first statewide Recovery Community Organizations (RCOs) in the nation. I don’t even think I had heard of an RCO before I met Dona. She has had a … Continue reading Interview #6 Dona Dmitrovic – Reflections on the historic 2001 Recovery Summit in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the start of the New Recovery Advocacy Movement
Last week a book I had ordered dropped through the letterbox. It’s Adam Hill’s ‘Long Walk Out of the Woods’. He’s a doctor who developed an alcohol use disorder and recovered from it. The book about his journey is next on my reading list. The arrival of Adam’s book triggered thoughts of my own story and then … Continue reading Doctors, Nurses and Recovery
This post was originally published January 1, 2020. I'm not sure why, but I've been missing Roger Ebert recently. I've posted about him a few times before and commented on my appreciation that he was a film lover first and a film critic second. I think it's safe to say that social media has multiplied … Continue reading On advocacy and criticism
If you were asked to physically point to the location of a person’s addiction illness, where would you point? My answer might surprise you. Where would you point if you were asked? Have you ever thought of that question? I’ll share my answer to that question a little later in this essay. But first, try … Continue reading WHERE is Addiction?
It doesn't come up much here, but I am a social worker. Both of my degrees are in social work, I've taught social work for the last 17 years, I've served on NASW's Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Section, as well as NASW-Michigan's Legislative and Social Policy Committee and Ethics Committee. This blog focuses on … Continue reading In Praise of Service
Forward: Few people have had as much impact on the way we think about recovery advocacy in America as has Tom Hill. He has been generous of his time with so very many of us in our efforts to strengthen recovery community organizations across the nation. Tom mentored me in his prior role as Senior … Continue reading Interview #5 Tom Hill – Reflections on the Historic 2001 Recovery Summit in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the start of the New Recovery Advocacy Movement
