The Wall Street Journal recently ran a commentary arguing that "Not Everything is Healthcare." Health insurers like UnitedHealthcare, Centene and Humana have devoted billions of dollars in the past decade to building new “affordable housing.” They’re also spending heavily on nutrition programs and local community resources. No, the insurance industry hasn’t suddenly begun emphasizing philanthropy over profit. Rather, it … Continue reading SDOH and Recovery Capital: Of Course Everything Isn’t Healthcare
Tag: Mental Health
Revisiting the Work of William White: Sick Systems in Treatment Interview with John DuCane 1989
“I was recruited by the field to address a shadow side of the organizational life of addiction treatment programs. As I responded to these calls, it became quickly apparent that something far more universal was afoot than the aberration of organizational life of addiction programs” – William White, Recovery Rising pg. 233 In 1989, John … Continue reading Revisiting the Work of William White: Sick Systems in Treatment Interview with John DuCane 1989
Addiction care system under threat and more vulnerable due to low institutional trust
The last few months have been pretty distressing for those of us who care about people with addiction, their access to treatment, as well as the welfare of their families and communities. There are credible threats to cut Medicaid funding, which is estimated to fund 30-40% of all substance use disorder treatment in the US. … Continue reading Addiction care system under threat and more vulnerable due to low institutional trust
Codependency A Helpful Concept Turned Toxic: A Lesson from Our Own History
A few weeks ago on February 27th, Melody Beattie died at age 76. For those who may not know the name, she was an author and wrote a best-selling book called Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself. It may be hard for readers in our current era to … Continue reading Codependency A Helpful Concept Turned Toxic: A Lesson from Our Own History
Follow the science . . .
I'm reposting this to supplement Monday's post on retiring the concept of "deaths of despair." Zeynep Tufecki's analysis of the damage to public trust from misleading public health messaging during the pandemic reminded me of this post. She describes problems of omission, misrepresentation of confidence levels in information, a desire to be a counterforce to … Continue reading Follow the science . . .
Recovery Languaging: Moving from Normalizing Healing to Normalizing Use & Pathology
For well over a decade, significant focus of effort within the recovery community and across our service space has focused on changing how we talk about substance use conditions and those who experience them. As noted in the 2014 paper Language, Substance Use Disorders, and Policy: The Need to Reach Consensus on an “Addiction-ary” our … Continue reading Recovery Languaging: Moving from Normalizing Healing to Normalizing Use & Pathology
Medicaid: The Backbone of Behavioral Health—And What Happens If We Break It
If you care about access to substance use disorder (SUD) and mental health treatment in America, you care about Medicaid—even if you don’t know it yet. Medicaid is the largest single payer for behavioral health services in the country, covering about 24% of all mental health and SUD treatment costs. It’s a lifeline for people … Continue reading Medicaid: The Backbone of Behavioral Health—And What Happens If We Break It
More on “The Historical Essence of Addiction Counseling”
Yesterday, Bill Stauffer revisited William White's article, The Historical Essence of Addiction Counseling. I won't re-summarize the article, but I want to focus on one particular theme If AOD problems could be solved by physically unraveling the person-drug relationship, only physicians and nurses trained in the mechanics of detoxification would be needed to address these … Continue reading More on “The Historical Essence of Addiction Counseling”
Revisiting the Work of William White: The Historical Essence of Addiction Counseling (2004)
“What the addiction counselor knows that other service professionals do not is the very soul of the addicted—their terrifying fear of insanity, the shame of their wretchedness, their guilt over drug-induced sins of omission and commission, their desperate struggle to sustain their personhood, their need to avoid the psychological and social taint of addiction, and … Continue reading Revisiting the Work of William White: The Historical Essence of Addiction Counseling (2004)
What does SAMHSA do?
What does SAMHSA do, and should I care if their staff are fired in significant numbers? It's my impression that most probationary SAMHSA employees have been fired. Terminations started there because terminating probationary employees is easy procedurally. Permanent employees require a process to justify Reductions in Force (RIF) to move ahead with termination. Some people … Continue reading What does SAMHSA do?
Recovery Review 