Editor’s note: This September, Audacious Ideas features a special month-long series in conjunction with National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. We’ve asked four individuals to share their ideas about addiction issues and the failed war on drugs. Pat Taylor is the first in our series.
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On Saturday September 12, over 70,000 Americans Rallied for Recovery! at walks, rallies, picnics and other events in 90 communities across the country. People in or seeking long-term recovery from addiction, their families and friends came together as part of a growing movement that is calling for new public attitudes and policies that will expand opportunities for recovery.
Rally for Recovery! and other public events are taking on a new meaning with the growth of an organized recovery community. For too long a great majority of the over 20 million Americans in long-term recovery and their allies have been silent about their experiences and successes.
Times are changing. In addition to the wonderful music, food and festivities that are the hallmark of recovery celebrations, growing numbers feature elected and public officials, celebrities, law enforcement officers, educators and other supporters. There are opportunities to participate in our nation’s civic life through voter registration; contact Congress about pending health reform legislation; and take action on critical local issues. Speakers represent the many pathways to recovery and join with family members to stand up for the elimination of policies that discriminate against people seeking or in recovery.
As we work to make Recovery Voices Count in our communities during the 20th annual Recovery Month observances, it’s time to raise the national profile of the solution. We have a new federal administration that is committed to improving our country’s drug policies. In one of his first statements as Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske made a welcome call for abandoning the divisive “war on drugs” rhetoric.
What will take its place? It’s time for a high-profile Presidential Commission on Addiction Recovery and a fully-funded Office of Recovery at the Office of National Drug Control Policy that will chart a new direction in public and private attitudes and policies. It’s time to demonstrate our commitment to ensure that all Americans have the right to recover from addiction.
Thanks for helping raise the awareness that addiction is conquerable and that recovery transforms lives.
This is a tremendous development for all of us, both in the trenches for those who still suffer, & those of us who have had a ‘rocket ship ride’ & been professionally trained! Now, it’s time for all professional helpers, from techs, LCDCs, & nurses to social workers, psychologists, addictionologists & psychiatrists, to read, study, & be prepared to offer the Continuum of Recovery to which Bill White refers. (See http://www.ireta.org/attc/} This range of options includes everything from Moderation Managenment to SOS to Smart Recovery to the 16 Steos (Kasl) to AA to Celebrate Recovery, & many other approaches designed to first, do no hsrm, & second, to recognize that one size does not fit all, which will hopefully lead to more & more treatment centers offering parallel paths, based on client self determination, locus of control, & willingness to practice in life the essence of the famous quote from Herbert Spencer: Check at the door any “Contempt Prioe to Investigation” that all of us develop as we complete our years of education & internship. Then we can offer REAL individualization of treatment plans!
Great idea Pat. I would love to see a United Nations of Faces and Voices of Recovery to ensure the whole world has the right to recovery!!
Great idea and needed way to move forward with change in the country. We are still trying to fight the battle of the drug wars instead of supporting the battle against addiction. A “…high-profile Presidential Commission on Addiction Recovery and a fully-funded Office of Recovery at the Office of National Drug Control Policy that will chart a new direction in public and private attitudes and policies” is an important step forward. The time for change in our attitude about addiction is now. The time for Recovery is now. I’m committed to helping us find the way.
Pat,
We must and we will win this fight to ensure that all people in this wonderful country of ours have access to effective treatment and that the stigma and discrimination that exists no longer stands in the way!
The strides our movement has made in the last several years thanks to Faces and Voices of Recovery and many other organizations like the one I am so involved in- Methadone Support Org- amazes me! We have all successfully brought this issue out into the open and highlighted the possiblity and miracle of recovery as well as the inadequacies that exist in the current prevention and treatment areas.
I staunchly support your efforts to continue to work toward a goal where addiction treatment is as routinely accessible as any other treatment is!
Sharon Dembinski, MS,RNP
Methadone Support Org
Director of Quality and Clinical Services
MedMark Services, Inc
Pat,
Your vision and foresight once again astounds me. Revolutionary, logical, and altogether achievable. We need more people like you at the forefront of the recovery movements. i look forward to playing my part in all of this, and I will look to you to lead me to it.
God Bless