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Saturday, July 19, 2014
By Karl Benzio, MD
Friday, July 18, 2014
Private Drug-Sniffing Dog Businesses Becoming More Popular Among Parents
July 17th, 2014/
A growing number of parents are hiring private dog-sniffing businesses to find out if their teens are using illegal substances, NPR reports. The dogs are also being requested by schools, businesses, landlords and halfway houses.
One such business, Discreet Intervention, is run by Tom Robichaud, a former dog trainer. Robichaud, based in Massachusetts, attended classes along with his dog, Ben, at LaFollette K9 Training Center in Missouri, which trains police dogs. He says the fledgling industry could use more regulation to protect parents.
“A lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon. Anyone can buy a dog in a pound, and [parents] wouldn’t even know if it’s a drug dog,” he said. Robichaud knows firsthand how destructive drugs can be. His brother died of an overdose, the article notes. “Every time I go into a house, I see those parents like my parents, [and] what they went through,” he said. “It just destroyed my family.” He says in order for parents to help their children, they need to know whether they are using drugs.
Privacy experts are concerned about the trend. Jay Stanley of the American Civil Liberties Union says he thinks drug-sniffing dogs cross a line. He points out dogs can sniff out more than illegal drugs, and can invade people’s privacy. “There’s a fundamental principle here that we don’t intrude in that way on people’s homes,” he said. “And I don’t think we want to go down the road to allowing open season for neighbors to spy on each other.”
It is unclear whether evidence from privately trained dogs can hold up in court, some prosecutors say. They note there is no official national accreditation standard or license for private drug-sniffing dogs, or for their trainers.
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| To our friends and supporters, You may have noticed some changes since visiting drugfree.org in the past few weeks. We are thrilled to launch not only a newly revamped website, but also a new name: Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. With our new name, we're communicating more directly why we exist, and that's to reduce teen substance abuse and support families impacted by addiction. Through our revamped website, our toll-free telephone helpline (1-855-DRUGFREE) and all of our communications, we are committed to being the place where you and your family find answers.
We hope you’ll take some time to browse the new drugfree.org. There, you’ll find the same informative, science-based resources you've come to rely upon as well as many new features – including a brand new interactive online community where you can post memorials, chat with experts, talk to others on forums and more.
 - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act on the Pennsylvania recovery community. The survey takes a few minutes and can be accessed by 
the Pennsylvania Recovery Community about the complex issues of healthcare reform and its positive effects on access to treatment and recovery support.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Faith Worship Center of Schuylkill County, PA is starting the Hope Initiative this month. Please click the above link for more info.
It is a program designed to serve the community and educate those affected by addictions and to support the families of those addicted.
The program will bring together local resources such as counselors, local/state/federal government agencies, financial resources, etc. and provide non-profit help and guidance.
This program has already sparked the interest of local TV, radio, and newspapers as well as a church in West Virginia that contacted Faith for more info.
The goal is to design a program that can be a model for other churches and organizations to offer help for the hurting in every community.
Instead of offering ridicule, lets help those in need.
HOPEatfaithchurch.com
The Hope Initiative is a new ministry of Faith Church. We noticed a need in our community and we are responding to it. Please join us to learn more information, help us or get help.
JULY 17 Chp 62 v 11 v 12 TWELVE STEPPING WITH STRENGTH FROM THE PSALMS
God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.
STEP 10- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it .
What goes around comes around ! Karma ,or as I like to put it you reap what you sow . Fourteen years sober and some of the stuff I did in the past still comes back to bite me on the butt . Whatever you dish out according too the Psalm will come back to you .Step ten is so important because it will prevent you a lot of trouble down the road. Owning your crap and taking responsibility for your mistakes is called maturity and it is a must for any successful recovery . It will not be easy though , I still struggle with doing and saying the right things.
Ephesians 4:22 ;24 To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness
By Joseph Dickerson
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Commentary: Parity and the Path to Change the Treatment of Substance Use Disorders
July 16th, 2014/
The Treatment Research Institute recently welcomed The Honorable Patrick J. Kennedy, one of the major architects of parity legislation, and a tireless advocate for improving substance abuse care through better policy, to our hometown of Philadelphia. His important insight about how the Parity Law will transform substance abuse and mental healthcare is certainly worth talking about some more.
Recent legislative changes in the healthcare organization and financing through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Parity Act will end the past 40 years of separate and unequal resources for the treatment of substance use disorders. This legislation, combined with new knowledge from basic, clinical and health services research over the past two decades, has set the stage for a new public health-oriented approach to managing substance use disorders with the same insurance options, healthcare teams, clinical goals and clinical methods presently used to manage other, similar chronic illnesses such as diabetes, asthma or chronic pain.
These changes are much needed. Contemporary addiction treatments are based upon outdated concepts about the nature of addiction and, in turn, the nature of the care needed to bring about recovery. Virtually all existing treatments for addiction are “programs” – every patient gets the same care, regardless of the type of addiction or the other medical and social problems that coexist with addiction. Because everyone gets the same care, there has been no need to evaluate other influences including medical, employment, drug, legal family and psychiatric problems that could affect the course of change and recovery. Insurance coverage that has been built to service programmatic care has always been time or session limited. The financial limitations on insurance coverage have restricted the range of treatment components (tests, medications, therapies, family support services, etc.) that could be provided within any treatment program. The interim goal of treatment for virtually all existing treatments – residential or outpatient – is “program completion” with traditional symptom and function outcomes (drug use, employment, health, etc.) typically measured 6 – 12 months following completion.
These traditional features of treatment design and financing are no longer legal. With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, care for addictions is now required to be similar in content, structure and patient burden as care for other chronic illnesses. This will be a very substantial change in the concept, type, amount and evaluation of addiction treatment.
We believe recovery is now an expectable outcome and a new standard for high quality addiction treatment.
Representative Kennedy discussed the importance of leveraging the current innovations in research, treatment, policy and public education to take advantage of every opportunity to change the way addiction and mental illness are perceived and cared for and to move toward a chronic care model of treatment for addiction.
The Treatment Research Institute is working on methods to offer individualized approaches to illness management for individuals suffering from alcohol and other addictions. The ultimate goal of these efforts will be sustained, patient-managed recovery – specifically, sobriety, personal health and good social function. Patients are transitioned through a system of care that is coordinated with all other aspects of their health to anticipate and intervene promptly to help patients prevent relapses, reduce emergency department visits and hospitalizations and subsequent poor health outcomes.
We also want to ensure that promises of the Affordable Care Act and Parity are fulfilled through effective implementation; and that a chronic care model can exist for addiction. Working with our partners at the Legal Action Center, the Parity Implementation Coalition and Truven Health, we are tracking and analyzing the impact of implementation; informing and educating purchasers, payers, and other stakeholders; and documenting the impact of successful prevention and early intervention programs. We are assisting states, counties and health plans to implement the ACA and Parity legislation in a cost-effective manner that maximizes outcomes for patients and providers. This is a core priority for our organization and for our field.
It is through the work of Patrick J. Kennedy and the efforts of many others that we are at a watershed moment in behavioral health. Public awareness about addiction and mental illness is growing thanks to outlets such Join Together. We are starting to see the legislative advances bring us closer to integrated care, and the research base is expanding so that we can better address the social and biological determinants of these disorders. Like no other time in our history, we have an enormous opportunity to significantly impact the way in which these illnesses are perceived and managed in our society.
We look forward to sharing more details about these projects in the months ahead. In the meantime, we invite you to watch Patrick J. Kennedy’s presentation here. If you are interested in learning more about our efforts, please check out the Parity Tracking Initiative document and other impact projects on our website.
Mady Chalk and Abigail Woodworth
Mady Chalk, Ph.D., MSW, has more than 30 years of experience in addiction and mental health treatment, policy and research. In the federal government she was Director of the Division for Services Improvement in the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment in SAMHSA, and was Director of its Office of Managed Care. Chalk is an expert in the organization and financing of treatment systems in both the public and private sectors – and in the policies that govern treatment delivery, including strategies for quality and performance improvement. She was an architect of the Target Cities and the State-wide Screening, Brief Interventions and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) programs. With the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as a partner, Chalk provided Federal support for the development of the Network for Improvement of Addiction Treatment, the first national initiative to promote better treatment access and broader service availability through implementation of best practices. She was also responsible for linking the Addiction Technology Transfer Centers with NIDA and creating the Blending Program to foster dissemination and adoption of evidence based practices in the treatment field. Prior to moving to the Washington, DC area, Dr. Chalk was a clinician and clinical administrator at Yale University School of Medicine for 15 years.
Abigail Woodworth, Vice President for Strategy and Public Affairs supports TRI’s overall strategic growth, including creation of partnerships and alliances that enhance mission value, the communications and public outreach efforts of the organization, and its products and services. Ms. Woodworth has extensive experience managing organizational development within non-profit and public health organizations. From 2004 until her appointment at TRI, she occupied senior management positions at the University of Pennsylvania as well as Johns Hopkins, developing and directing external relations efforts for mental health and substance abuse programs. In addition, she has served as co-chair of the Public Policy Committee for the National Network of Depression Centers, representing 20 leading academic Departments of Psychiatry. Prior to her work in mental health and substance abuse, Ms. Woodworth founded and ran a non-profit community arts center in West Philadelphia. She earned both her BA in Psychology and her MS in Social Policy from the University of Pennsylvania.
Study: Counseling Via Telephone Could Cut Prescription Painkiller Use
July 16th, 2014/
A new study finds people with chronic pain who received counseling from a nurse over the phone were able to reduce their dose of pain medication. The researchers say the findings suggest “telecare” could reduce the risk of prescription drug abuse and accidental overdoses.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, included 250 veterans with chronic pain. Half of the veterans received traditional pain care from their primary physician, and half received counseling from nurses via telephone and internet,NBC Los Angeles reports. The nurses’ goal was to reduce patients’ pain medication doses, and in some cases to have them stop taking painkillers altogether, the article notes.
Telecare consisted of automated symptom monitoring and pain management counseling by a nurse care manager. Patients in the telecare group received interactive voice-recorded phone calls or online messages asking them about their pain, their reaction to medication and whether they wanted to speak with a nurse. They met with the nurse once in person, and then received phone counseling from the nurse throughout the study.
“Nearly twice as many that had the telecare intervention got better in terms of their pain over the course of the year,” said study co-author Dr. Kurt Kroenke of the Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis. “On the other hand, twice as many people in the control, usual care group got worse during the course of the year.”
HealthDay reports that after one year, more than half of the patients receiving telecare reported at least a 30 percent improvement in pain, compared with about one-quarter of those receiving usual care. Patients receiving telecare were about half as likely to experience an increase in pain after six months.
About three-quarters of patients receiving telecare rated their prescribed painkillers as good to excellent, compared with only half of patients in the usual care group.
Text Messages Can Help Reduce Young Adults’ Binge Drinking
July 16th, 2014/
Receiving text messages about binge drinking after visiting the emergency room can help young adults reduce their hazardous alcohol consumption by more than 50 percent, a new study suggests.
The study included 765 young adults seen in the emergency room, who had a history of hazardous drinking. The study participants were divided into thirds. One third received text messages for 12 weeks that prompted them to respond to questions about their drinking. They received texts in return that offered feedback on their answers, News-Medical.net reports. Another third received text messages asking about their drinking, but received no feedback. The remaining third received no text messages.
Participants who received both text message questions about their drinking and feedback said they decreased their binge drinking by 51 percent, and the number of drinks per day by 31 percent. Those who received only text messages or no text messages increased the number of days they engaged in binge drinking, which is defined as five or more drinks in one sitting for men and four or more drinks for women.
The study is published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
“Each day in the U.S., more than 50,000 adults ages 18 to 24 visit ERs and up to half have hazardous alcohol use patterns,” lead researcher Brian Suffoletto, M.D., of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, said in a news release. “More than a third of them report alcohol abuse or dependence. The emergency department provides a unique setting to screen young adults for drinking problems and to engage with them via their preferred mode of communication to reduce future use.”
A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found excessive alcohol use accounts for one in 10 deaths among working-age adults ages 20-64 years in the United States.
Almost 90,000 ER Visits Annually Due to Bad Reactions to Psychiatric Drugs
July 16th, 2014/
Almost 90,000 emergency room visits each year in the United States are due to adverse reactions to psychiatric medications, according to the Associated Press. The findings come from a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Anti-anxiety medications and sedatives were the drugs most likely to cause adverse reactions, the study found. Most of the ER visits were for side effects or accidental overdoses, the CDC researchers report in JAMA Psychiatry. Almost 20 percent of ER visits related to psychiatric medications resulted in hospitalization.
The sedative zolpidem tartrate, found in sleeping pills including Ambien, was involved in almost 12 percent of all visits to the emergency room, and one in five visits for older adults.
Last, year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved label changes for zolpidem products, because of the risk of next-morning impairment with these drugs. The FDA warned patients who take zolpidem extended-release (Ambien CR) not to drive or engage in other activities that require complete mental alertness the day after taking the drug, because drug levels can remain high enough the next day to impair these activities.
According to the CDC investigators, previous research found ER visits for adverse reactions to zolpidem rose 220 percent from 2005 to 2010. They advised doctors to recommend that patients try other insomnia treatments, such as developing better sleep habits and using behavior therapy, before trying zolpidem.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
JULY 15 Chp 91 v 11 TWELVE STEPPING WITH STRENGTH FROM THE PSALMS
For He shall give His Angels charge over you ,To keep you in all your ways .
STEP 11 Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Wow what a promise and a comfort to know that Gods army of angels are being dispatched on your behalf . Gods big book (Bible ) was written two thousand years ago and it is still the number one best seller in the world , I mention His book because its true and you can rely on Gods word . So when God says your not alone , and He will never leave you or forsake you , Hes not playing . Too think angels watching over us guarding our steps watching every move we make . Now if we could only get this truth and belief way deep down into our hearts then fear in our lives would be powerless . Most people say or believe we have a guardian angel but God says Angels .Plural meaning more than one a whole Army without number . So stop stressing so much when God tells you I got this He aint playing .
Matthew 18:10 “Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.”
Another word for Devil is Addiction !
By Joseph Dickerson
STEP 11 Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Wow what a promise and a comfort to know that Gods army of angels are being dispatched on your behalf . Gods big book (Bible ) was written two thousand years ago and it is still the number one best seller in the world , I mention His book because its true and you can rely on Gods word . So when God says your not alone , and He will never leave you or forsake you , Hes not playing . Too think angels watching over us guarding our steps watching every move we make . Now if we could only get this truth and belief way deep down into our hearts then fear in our lives would be powerless . Most people say or believe we have a guardian angel but God says Angels .Plural meaning more than one a whole Army without number . So stop stressing so much when God tells you I got this He aint playing .
Matthew 18:10 “Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.”
Another word for Devil is Addiction !
By Joseph Dickerson
Daily Quote
"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly
themselves, not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love
only the
reflection of ourselves we find in them." - Thomas Merton
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