Treatment promo research results

From the treatmentgap.org website:

Most Americans know someone personally who is addicted to alcohol or drugs and they are worried about access people have to affordable treatment. And, most people support including treatment in national health care reform. These opinions are shared across the board—regardless of race, age, income and geographic location.

Results of a new national poll conducted by Lake Research Partners for the Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap initiative confirm what we suspected: Most Americans know someone personally who is addicted to alcohol or drugs and they are worried about access people have to affordable treatment. And, most people support including treatment in national health care reform. These opinions are shared across the board—regardless of race, age, income and geographic location.

Among the key findings of the national poll, conducted by Lake Research Partners:

• Three-quarters of Americans (76%) know someone personally who has been addicted to alcohol or drugs. Personal experience with addiction spans all demographic groups.

• Half of Americans (49%) do not think they would be able to afford the costs of treatment if they or a family member needed it. This concern about affordability is highest among Americans with incomes under $50,000 (67% say they would not be able to afford treatment).

• Three-quarters (75%) of Americans are concerned that people who are addicted to alcohol or drugs may not be able to get treatment because they lack insurance coverage or cannot afford it.

• Nearly three-quarters (73%) support including alcohol and drug addition treatment as part of national health care reform to make it more accessible and affordable. This support cuts across all demographic groups.

• Two-thirds of Americans (68%) also support increasing federal and state funding for alcohol and drug prevention, treatment, and recovery services.

The finding that three quarters of Americans know someone personally who has been addicted to alcohol or drugs confirms what many recovering people find through personal experience: when you broach the subject, practically every person you talk to has a story about someone who is or was addicted.

Not researched in this study, which was funded by treatment industry interests, is how many Americans know someone for whom addiction treatment did not work. The industry not only has an affordability gap, it has a credibility gap.

They laughed at him

A little while ago, a gentleman -- let's call him "Guy" -- phoned to say that he had just read my book and wanted to start a LifeRing meeting. Guy said he is more than 20 years clean and sober in AA, and is one of the better known AA speakers in his region.

He happened to go to his favorite recovery bookstore, and this title, Empowering Your Sober Self, "jumped out at me." He bought it and over the next 24 hours read it straight through. He said he had been reading recovery literature for nearly 30 years and nothing had resonated with him enough to pick up the phone and call the author, until this book.

He said he liked AA enormously but after more than 20 years, he felt it was always the same thing, and it wasn't going anywhere, and he wanted the challenge of moving forward. The LifeRing concept really spoke to him.

He wanted to start a LifeRing meeting in his area, and he outlined a plan to go speak with some head people at a number of treatment programs with which he was familiar, having often spoken there, in order to get a room and referrals. Of course, I encouraged him, but at the same time I cautioned him that his enthusiasm might not be shared by some of his AA friends.

And so it was. At the first program where he spoke with the chief, he was told that the facility's board of directors was unlikely to go with anything other than 12 step.

He then took the book to his home group, and presented a share about the "A" and the "S" -- the addict self and the sober self. He said, "They laughed at me." They agreed about the "A" but they couldn't wrap their minds around the concept that there was an "S" -- a sober self -- inside the alcoholic's head. His talk met with sarcasm and ridicule.

It reminds me of Gandhi's famous saying:

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."

To his everlasting credit, Guy wasn't intimidated. He's going to speak to other treatment professionals. I shared with him that a number of senior people in 12-step programs have been expressing interest in the LifeRing option. He's now reading How Was Your Week in order to prepare for the convenor role. He's making plans to come visit Northern California in September so he can see LifeRing meetings first hand.

A Reader Writes With More Reading

One of the readers of this blog was kind enough to email me with the following information, which I pass on as received:

mr. nicolaus,

i'm a regular reader (& sometime commenter) of your "new recovery" blog. i'm writing to draw your attention to a few items i think might be of interest to you:

1 - the april/may 2009 issue of "Free Inquiry" magazine ran a great piece by Steven Mohr entitled "Exposing The Myth of Alcoholics Anonymous"; "Free Inquiry" is the first American publication to take AA head-on in a long, long time & the article is thorough & even-handed (unfortunately, you have to pick up a hard copy as the contents aren't available online)

2 - Dr. Harriet Hall (www.sciencebasedmedicine.org, www.skepdoc.info) ran a blog post on the above article & gave an MD's view of the article & the organization (http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=490); i thought that might be of interest as well

3 - at my request, Dr. Hall visited & commented on a blog post at www.mentalhelp.net (http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=weblog&id=700&wlid=5&cn=14); the "editorial comment" to her post was -- putting it mildly -- elusive & openly condescending to any lay critique of AA; again, i was hoping this might be of interest of to you & that you might want to lend your voice to the discussion.

in any case, i thank you for your time & wish you all the best with your book. i'll be visiting the blog & www.unhooked.com regularly.

warmest regards,

peter [Name withheld]

donewithaa.wordpress.com