Recovery Advocacy News, Issues and Musings (June 2023)
Curation with occasional commentary by Jeremiah Gardner
NOTE: This was published for the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s monthly Recovery Advocacy Update. If you’d like to receive our advocacy emails, subscribe today.
📕 READ: Hazelden Betty Ford DEI Director Andrew Williams reflects on Juneteenth. Andrew also recently received an honorary doctorate in public service from DePauw University. Read about the moment, in his words.
📕 READ: Pro Bowl tight end and recovery advocate Darren Waller is now a New York Giant, and he is changing his number to 12 for a specific reason.
📕 READ: My №1 childhood icon Michael J. Fox says sobriety after Parkinson’s diagnosis was ‘a knife fight in a closet.’
📕 READ: Author Sam Quinones says America’s approach to addiction has gone off the rails, and that fentanyl and meth have made rethinking jail essential.
🎉 CONGRATS: Hooray for Mark Sanders and all of the outstanding 2023 America Honors Recovery winners honored at the Faces & Voices of Recovery leadership summit in Washington, D.C. Mark founded the Online Museum of African American Addictions, Treatment and Recovery, which earned the 2023 Innovations in Recovery Award. His website is an incredibly rich and important resource with info you won’t find in any other one place. Check it out!
📕 READ: Wonderful tribute in the New York Times to Hazelden Betty Ford board member Mary Pattiz, who recently passed away.
📺 WATCH or 🔊 LISTEN: Hazelden Betty Ford recovery ambassador and senior outreach manager Carrie Bates, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, joined legendary sports producer Geoff Mason other ABC Sports veterans for a conversation about addiction, sports, stigma and the powerful potential and reality of recovery.
📕 READ: We definitely need more recovery. U.S. drug overdose deaths topped 109,000 in the past year.
📺 WATCH: Hazelden Betty Ford CEO Dr. Joe Lee appeared on MSNBC to discuss fentanyl’s role in the overdose crisis.
📕 READ: More troubling data — U.S. suicide and homicide death rates among youth and young adults reach 20-year high.
📕 READ: According to the latest Gallup poll, U.S. depression rates also have suddenly reached an all-time high — both lifetime (29%) and current rates (17.8%).
🔊 LISTEN: Former Hazelden Betty Ford CEO Mark Mishek was interviewed a couple of years ago for a podcast series that just now came out on public radio. In episode 4 of The 13th Step, Mark helps explain how/why unethical behavior can and has happened in the past in industries serving people with substance use disorders.
📕 READ: Just a quarter of residential addiction treatment centers for teenagers offer buprenorphine for opioid use disorder. That needs to change. For reference: Hazelden Betty Ford’s center for adolescents, young adults and their families in Plymouth, Minnesota, has offered buprenorphine and other medications for over a decade.
📕 READ: The state of Minnesota is pumping $200 million over the next four years into fighting the substance use crisis. It also became the first state to fully decriminalize possession of drug paraphernalia.
📺 WATCH or 🔊 LISTEN: Your curator spent 45 min with singer-songwriter Elizabeth Edwards talking about recovery, music, advocacy, and the missions of Hazelden Betty Ford (where I work), Dissonance (where I volunteer) and Faces & Voices of Recovery (where we both volunteer).
📕 READ: Great profile of recovery advocate and paramedic-turned-nurse Nathan Koranda, who is answering the call and responding to mental health and addiction needs in his local community and abroad.
📕 READ: For the first time, opioid settlement payouts to localities have been made public.
📕 READ: Six years sober, she was still reported for child abuse for taking addiction medication. Is it time to change the rules? YES!
📕 READ: A new report by the U.S. Surgeon General warns that social media poses a “profound risk of harm” to the mental health of children and teens. For the adolescents we serve at our national youth care center in Plymouth, Hazelden Betty Ford has established a treatment environment that aligns with the Surgeon General’s caution, free from the trappings of social media and digital devices — focused instead on nurturing mental health and building healthy, authentic social connections with peers.
📕 READ: Despite being new to the peer recovery space, Refocus Recovery in Minnesota has quickly become the leading recipient of state Medicaid dollars going toward peer addiction recovery support, raising questions among other peer recovery service providers and potentially for the field more broadly.
📕 READ: In related news, SAMHSA published national model standards for substance use, mental health and family peer worker certifications. Read more.
📺 WATCH: Mobilize Recovery founder Ryan Hampton gave an inspiring talk at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing’s annual conference: “When you give a hopeless man a Dollar.”
📕 READ: As Gen Z’s alcohol consumption drops, so does a key revenue stream. Good news — time to stock more N/A!
📕 READ: New TV shows and comedy specials like “John Mulaney: Baby J” explore what happens after you get sober.
📕 READ: More and more studies are showing that when you get into recovery, your brain heals.
📕 READ: Americans are drinking less beer but more wine and hard liquor.
📕 READ: The National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism recently proposed a new addition to the addiction vernacular: “preaddiction.” The idea is that the word will help identify and intervene on harmful substance use earlier and more effectively. But this clinical psychologist says an admirable goal but an idea with “potentially disastrous consequences.”
📕 READ: Fentanyl has taken a record toll on the Army.
📕 READ: Meet the new CDC director.
📕 READ: A new Texas law will allow prosecutors to seek a murder charge in connection with fentanyl-related deaths. As heartbreaking as such deaths are, we should all be concerned about the unintended consequences of laws like this.
📕 READ: Did scientists accidentally invent an anti-addiction drug? People taking Ozempic for weight loss say they have also stopped drinking, smoking, shopping, and even nail biting.
📕 READ: Alcohol is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in Canada — and one senator says Ottawa needs to step up to meet the challenge.
📕 READ: Ireland makes history with mandatory health warning labels on alcohol.
📺 WATCH: Wouldn’t it be great if there were a Recovery Cafe on every corner? Check out the trailer for a new documentary about the transformative impact of the Recovery Cafe in Seattle, a film that debuted on June 6 at the Faces & Voices of Recovery annual summit.
📕 READ: If you’re interested in mental health or human services and have a deep-rooted passion for helping others, you may wonder whether a master’s degree in counseling is worth it. The simple answer: it’s almost definitely a resounding yes, experts told Fortune.
📕 READ: Alcohol misuse is an often overlooked risk factor for gun violence, researchers say. Here’s what they say needs to change to prevent shootings.
📕 READ: A wrist-worn sensor that gathers data on alcohol use in a less obtrusive manner than current methods could one day pave the way for real-time interventions, among other benefits, according to a team of researchers.
📕 READ: The shortage of behavioral health workers is exacerbating the mental health crisis, and some patients say even when they find help their insurance may not cover needed treatment or services.
📕 READ: Spiderman actor Tom Holland says he has been sober for over a year.
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Jeremiah Gardner is director of communications and public affairs for the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.
