Show Redneck You Care!
	Many thanks to the donors & buyers in COA's online sale to support treatment scholarships! The watch, bicycle, home theater system & treadmill have now been sold. The newest item is an afternoon with COA Director of Interventions Tom Redneck Clark. This is a man who has done so much for so many...now is your chance to show him how much you care! Check it out and if it's in your heart, enter a bid.  To go to Red's auction on eBay, click here. To donate an item for the auction, contactCityofAngelsNJ@hotmail.com. This sale is being held to support Walk With the Angels, a major fundraiser for COA. Walk With the Angels will be held on September 14, 2014 in Mercer County Park to will support continued  scholarships for recovery.  The goal is to raise $50,000 and 100% of that will be used to send people to treatment for addiction and/or get them into sober living or medical care.     * COA is a service organization: all COA services are completely free of charge and everyone who works for COA is a volunteer. That means we can be completely objective and impartial, recommending the best options for our clients, based upon their individual situations. For help with a drug problem, call COA at 609-910-4942 or visit us online atwww.cityofangelsnj.org.

	Come On Out to a Ballgame!
	Looking for something fun - and free! - to do this summer? Come on out to a ballgame! City of Angels has its own baseball team and plays local games. All the men are in recovery. It's a fun, low key afternoon.  For the schedule, click here.  To read a recent article in the Trentonian about the team - and their uniforms, which come directly from the Anaheim Angels (!) - click here.

	Tuesday Night Rosary Group
	Prayer is Powerful!  Come join us as we pray for our City of Angels family and all who have been touched by addiction. Tuesday nights at 6:00 pm at the Dwier Center (392 Church Street, Groveville, NJ). All are welcome, and we take prayer intentions!

	On COARR
	Let's Talk About Recovery! With 10 original shows, COARR plays Recovery Talk 24/7/365....past shows are available online atwww.coaradio.com/pastshows.html and in each show's online archive.  Tune in thru the smartphone app (free in the iphone/droid stores) or on www.coaradio.com to hear what's playing now.....        Listen to past COARR shows any time: For "Women & Addiction" with Terri Thomas, click here. For "Hope Fiend" with Minister Rich Mollica, click here. For "Emotional Sobriety" with Andy Finley MFT, click here. For "Journey Thru the 12 Steps with the Life Recovery Bible," click here. For "Share Your Scars" with Vicki, click here. For "Wings Over Water: Creativity in Recovery" with recovery musician Kathy Moser,  click here. For "Laughter & Recovery" with stand up comic Wil B. Kleen, click here. For "Relationships in Recovery" with Alexa, click here. For "Saving Lives" with COA Director of Interventions Tom Redneck Clark, click here. For "Nar-Anon Families of Addiction Information Line" click here .

PRO-ACT PHILLY RECOVERY WALK - September 20,2014  CLICK BANNER TO REGISTER CLICK BANNER TO REGISTER

Free Community Seminar Presented by Livengrin's Family Services Department Monday, July 14, 2014, from 6-8 pm Topic: What's Love Got to Do With It? Understanding Co-Dependency By Yvonne Kaye, PhD, MSC Livengrin Counseling Center -- Oxford Valley 195 Bristol-Oxford Valley Road Langhorne, PA 19047 Seating is limited. These sessions often fill up, so please register as soon as possible. To register for the sessions or for more information, call Dana Cohen, Family Therapist -- 215.638.5200 x162 Ample free parking!

JULY 11 Chp 56 v 11 TWELVE STEPPING WITH STRENGTH FROM THE PSALMS

I trust in God , so why should I be afraid ? What can mere mortals do to me ?

STEP 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God .

That is the kind of confidence I got in my recovery . Notice I said confidence not cockiness . We still have to be careful ,I know folks who have relapsed after 30 years. There are people in your life will do anything to see you fail and I guess there motivation would be jealousy . There is nothing to worry or fear as long as God has control and your living the steps daily . 

Romans 8 : 28 - And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose.

By Joseph Dickerson

Like us on Facebook                        www.RecoveryWalks.org                       Follow us on Twitter Why Do We Walk? Every meeting of our Recovery Walk Planning Committee begins with the question, "Why Do We Walk?" Here's a sampling of the answers, in no particular order: To provide hope to those who have lost hope To show that recovery is real and is happening now Because life in recovery is fun For loved ones, family and friends still suffering To break the stereotype and end discrimination To enjoy the spirit of community and unity To instigate acceptance, advocacy, awareness, unity To be the new face and voice of recovery To end the stigma associated with our community To give voice to those who have lost their battle Want to share with us the reason you walk? Send an email to Marita here. Please join us onSeptember 20 in Penn's Landing. The gates open at 7 am and the Walk begins at 9 amthrough historic Philadelphia. Registration is free by clicking here. And if you can't attend the Walk but wish to join us in spirit, please make a donation here.  You, too, could be a Recovery Walk Sponsor  Your organization could benefit in many ways by being a Sponsor of PRO-ACT Recovery Walks! 2014. Would you like a booth at the walk where you can hand out literature, interact with 20,000 attendees, and hang your own banner? You can do that--click here to learn the opportunities and benefits of several levels of sponsorship. But you must submit your Sponsorship Agreement by AUGUST 1.Go here for sponsorship information. Many thanks to our Top Walk Sponsors!   National Recovery Night at the Baseball Game Phillies vs. Miami Marlins Friday, September 12, 7:05 pm Tickets are going fast! Click here to order your tickets for our two alcohol-free sections. Tickets are only $20 each (which includes a donation to support PRO-ACT services).  Helpful Tips  In the interest of everyone's health, no smoking is permitted during the Recovery Walk or inside Penn's Landing.  To learn about ordering customized team t-shirts, click here. There are two additional Team Captains Kick-Off Meetings scheduled. Click here. If someone needs a hard-copy Registration Form, print one for them from here. The deadline for sponsorship is August 1--get information here.  To donate to the Walk, click here. To volunteer to help us with the Walk, click here. To print a flyer for the Walk that you can post, click here.  To find out what to do with donations you collected, click here. Walk in the Honor Guard  Will you have 10 or more years of Recovery by September 20? You are among a very special group of people who make up the Honor Guard. When you register, please go to the question, "Will you walk with the Honor Guard?" Select "Yes" in the box and then give your number of years in recovery. Help us raise the years represented into the thousands. Honor Guard members are honored with a purple sash and a button on which they write their number of consecutive years in recovery. It is a symbol of hope and proof that recovery is possible and it's happening NOW. The growing Honor Guard leads the walk and then separates to cheer the rest of the walkers on their way. It serves as the embodiment of the message we send---long-term recovery is real! Register to walk, lead a team, or join a team  PRO-ACT RECOVERY WALKS! Saturday, September 20, 2014  Penn's Landing, Philadelphia Registration begins 7:00 am; Walk begins 9:00 am Click here to see the video from last year

White House Drug Control Strategy Emphasizes Opioid Addiction

/BY JOIN TOGETHER STAFF

July 10th, 2014/

The White House 2014 National Drug Control Strategy, released Wednesday, emphasizes the nation’s growing problem of opioid addiction, according to The Christian Science Monitor.

The plan calls for increased access to the opioid overdose medication naloxone. “The widespread use of naloxone in the hands of law enforcement, firefighters and emergency medical personnel will save lives. It can also serve as a critical intervention point to get people into treatment and on the path to recovery,” Michael Botticelli, Acting Director of National Drug Control Policy, said in a White House blog post.

The strategy does not change the Obama Administration’s stance on marijuana. Among the challenges the nation faces, according to the policy statement, are “the declining perceptions of harm – and associated increases in use – of marijuana among young people. These challenges have gained prominence with the passage of state ballot initiatives in 2012 legalizing marijuana in the states of Colorado and Washington.”

The policy “rejects the notion that we can arrest and incarcerate our way out of the nation’s drug problem,” Botticelli said. “Instead, it builds on decades of research demonstrating that while law enforcement should always remain a vital piece to protecting public safety, addiction is a brain disorder—one that can be prevented and treated, and from which people recover.”

The White House called for reforms to the criminal justice system that provide alternatives to incarceration, and effective interventions to get people the treatment they need. “The plan we released today calls on healthcare providers to prevent and treat addictive disorders just like they would treat any other chronic disorder, like diabetes or heart disease,” Botticelli noted. “It calls on law enforcement, courts, and doctors to collaborate with each other to treat addiction as a public health issue, not a crime.”

Studies Used to Approve ADHD Drugs Did Not Address Long-Term Safety

/BY JOIN TOGETHER STAFF

July 10th, 2014/

Studies used to approve drugs to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) did not address long-term safety, according to new research.

Drug manufacturer clinical trials conducted for drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall showed they alleviated ADHD symptoms, but few were designed to look at the drugs’ long-term safety, The Boston Globe reports. The Boston Children’s Hospital researchers say this doesn’t mean the drugs are unsafe.

The investigators looked at 32 clinical trials on the 20 ADHD drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Only five of the studies focused on drug safety. Each drug was given to an average of 75 patients before receiving FDA approval. The studies lasted an average of just four weeks. The FDA asked for six follow-up safety studies to look at long-term safety risks, but only two were conducted.

An expert group on drug development, the International Conference on Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use, recommends that drugs intended for chronic use in non-life-threatening conditions (such as ADHD) should be tested in a minimum of 300 to 600 patients for at least six months, in 100 patients for at least one year, and in 1,500 patients total before receiving approval.

The findings appear in the journal PLOS One.

“This is a wake-up call for what’s lacking in the drug approval process and what we want to see in the future,” said study co-author Dr. Kenneth Mandl. “Our findings are particularly troubling since these drugs are so widely used and used for years, not weeks.”

Approximately 11 percent of children ages 4 to 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 6 percent of children in this age group take ADHD medication.

Harvard-Affiliated Hospital Will Screen All Patients for Alcohol and Drug Use

/BY JOIN TOGETHER STAFF

July 10th, 2014/

Massachusetts General Hospital, affiliated with Harvard Medical School in Boston, has announced it will screen all patients for alcohol and illegal drug use starting this fall.

All patients will be asked a series of four questions related to drinking and drugs, The Boston Globe reports. If the answers reveal a possible addiction, a special addiction team can be called to do a “bedside intervention” and arrange for treatment. While many hospitals screen patients for substance use when they come into the ER, Mass. General will screen all patients, whether they are coming in for a routine procedure or being treated in the emergency room.

The screening is part of its plan to improve addiction treatment, the article notes. Almost one-fourth of patients nationwide who visit hospitals for routine medical problems have active substance use disorders, according to the newspaper. Dealing with substance abuse in traditional medical settings can help hospitals better coordinate care and lower costs. The Affordable Care Act is pushing hospitals and doctors to reach both these goals.

Dr. Sarah Wakeman, Medical Director for Substance Use Disorders at Mass. General’s Center for Community Health Improvement, said the hospital wants to shift the culture to make it easier for people to access care for addiction. Being in the hospital is “a reachable moment,’’ when social workers and psychiatrists can bring treatment to the patient at the bedside, she said.

July 10 Chp 84 v 11 TWELVE STEPPING WITH STRENGTH FROM THE PSALMS

For the Lord God is our sun and our shield.

He gives us grace and glory.

The Lord will withhold no good thing

from those who do what is right.

Step 11- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out .

Keep moving forward ! What a promise from the Psalm , God will not withhold anything good . I discovered from steps 11 and 12 the more we do for others the more fulfilling our lives become . Now that I have found myself it is not about me anymore . It is all about you ! Yes you the one reading this and if their is anything I can do to help you with your recovery all you gotta do is reach out .

Acts 20:35

 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
By Joseph Dickerson

Recovery High Schools Show Promise, But Face Challenges

/BY CELIA VIMONT

July 9th, 2014/

High schools designed to support students in recovery from substance use disorders show promise in helping students sustain their abstinence, but face a number of challenges, according to experts.

Recovery schools offer an alternative to students who have left their high school to deal with substance abuse issues. If they return to their regular high school after treatment, they often find that getting thrown back in with old friends quickly leads to relapse. Around the country, a small number of recovery high schools offer a safe and sober alternative for students struggling to avoid falling back into old harmful routines.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is funding a five-year study, now in its fourth year, to compare the outcomes of students attending recovery high schools with those who return to a regular high school environment after substance abuse treatment. Dr. Ken Winters, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota Medical School, who is one of the investigators in the trial, spoke about it at the recent annual meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence.

“The school setting is natural for promoting continuing care for these students,” Winters said. “Promising indications are that recovery schools have been shown to be quite effective in promoting abstinence, or at least very improved outcomes, for teens following formal substance abuse treatment.”

Preliminary data from the current NIDA study, which have enrolled so far about 185 students, showed those who were enrolled in recovery high schools reported significant improvement in terms of frequency and use of substances, Winters noted.

A descriptive study of recovery high schools conducted in 2007 also showed promising results for student substance use and academic outcomes. The study found 80 percent of students reported doing better with alcohol/drug issues, 71 percent academically, 59 percent emotionally, and 57 percent with family issues.

Recovery schools vary widely in how they are run. Some are part of the public school system, while others are independent charter schools. While some schools allow students to stay for their entire high school career, others have a time limit. The first recovery high school was established in the late 1980s in Minnesota. Currently, the Association of Recovery Schools has 16 member high schools in 13 states. It is estimated that there are about 35 recovery high schools in the US.

Some schools, including several in Minnesota, have closed because of funding issues. “Some schools find it’s tough to survive if they depend solely on public dollars, or if they don’t have enough students,” Winters noted. “The schools need a rigorous team of professional counselors along with the teaching staff.” Public schools generally set funding levels based on how many students are in a given school in the fall, but recovery school students flow in and out throughout the year. “A lot of students come into these schools in the late fall or early winter,” he said.

Counseling, which can substantially add to costs, is especially important in recovery high schools because so many students have mental health issues in addition to substance use disorders, Winters observed. “Often with teens, drug use is secondary to other problems, so a well-trained staff is essential,” he said. “It’s not just about maintenance of abstinence.”

A recently published review of studies on recovery high schools revealed a number of challenges the schools face in addition to funding. The schools are small, and must accommodate students of different grade levels and preparation. Some students have missed a significant amount of school because of their substance use and treatment. With limited resources, some schools struggle to maintain adequate academic standards while providing treatment.

“We need favorable local or state laws and more flexible funding formulas,” Winters said. “It may be more feasible to put recovery high schools into existing public schools in a modified form so recovery services are provided a few hours a week. This could reduce overhead and accommodate school budgets more easily, while still providing some important continuing care services for young people.”

Winters also presented new data on college recovery programs from a study by Dr. Alexandre Laudet of the National Development and Research Institutes in New York. She studied almost 500 students in about 30 college recovery programs around the country. The programs varied widely. Some are very structured, providing many services, including living quarters with counselors assigned to students, while others have less extensive recovery services.

Laudet found almost half of students said having a recovery program available was somewhat or very important in their decision to attend or return to college. Most said having a college recovery program was very or moderately helpful to them. As with high school students in recovery, many of the college students in the survey were dealing with co-occurring mental health problems.

“There’s a growing interest in college recovery programs; colleges can more easily fit them into their budget than high schools,” Winters said. “Colleges can provide specialized housing, and have a lot of health services on campus. There is clearly a need for these programs, because college can be a tough environment to stay sober in.”

Underage Drinkers’ Favorite Alcohol Brands are Heavily Advertised in Magazines

/BY JOIN TOGETHER STAFF

July 9th, 2014/

The top alcohol brands consumed by underage drinkers are the same ones most heavily advertised in magazines read by those under age 21, a new study finds. The researchers say their findings suggest alcohol ads can encourage young people to drink, HealthDay reports.

The study also indicates the alcohol industry’s voluntary advertising standards are insufficient, the researchers add. “All of the ads in our study were in complete compliance with the industry’s self-regulatory guidelines,” lead researcher Craig Ross, of Virtual Media Resources in Natick, Massachusetts, said in a journal news release.

The guidelines suggest that alcohol ads should be restricted to magazines with less than 30 percent of readers who are younger than 21. Ross called for stricter standards, including limiting ads to magazines where fewer than 15 percent of readers are under 21.

The study analyzed alcohol ads that ran in U.S. magazines in 2011. The researchers found the top 25 alcohol brands consumed by underage drinkers were advertised more heavily in publications read by young people than 308 other brands less popular with young drinkers. The most popular brands were five to nine times more likely to heavily expose 18- to 20-year-olds to their magazine ads, compared with other brands.

The findings are published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

“We can’t speak to what advertisers’ intentions are,” said study co-author David Jernigan, Director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “But we can say there is clear evidence that 18- to 20-year-olds are the most heavily exposed to these ads. That’s concerning, because that age group is at high risk of alcohol abuse and negative consequences from drinking.”

Heroin Addiction Treatment Should Include Inpatient and Outpatient Therapy

/BY JOIN TOGETHER STAFF

July 9th, 2014/

Treatment for heroin addiction is most effective if it includes both inpatient and outpatient therapy, according to a new study.

Researchers at Boston Medical Center compared two groups of patients addicted to heroin: those who started buprenorphine treatment while in the hospital and then were referred directly to an outpatient buprenorphine treatment program, and patients who took a tapered dose of buprenorphine in the hospital to help with withdrawal, but only received referral information about local community treatment programs. Buprenorphine is an opioid substitute used to treat opioid addiction. It helps curb opioid withdrawal symptoms.

The study found 37 percent of patients in the group directed to the buprenorphine treatment program reported no illicit drug use in the month after leaving the hospital, compared with just 9 percent of those who only received general referral information, according to HealthDay. Patients in the outpatient treatment group reported fewer days of illicit drug use, and less drug use overall during the six months after they left the hospital.

The study of 139 patients appears in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“Unfortunately, referral to substance abuse treatment after discharge is often a secondary concern of physicians caring for hospitalized patients,” lead researcher Dr. Jane Liebschutz said in a news release. “However, our results show that we can have a marked impact on patient’s addiction by addressing it during their hospitalization.”

Soldiers Almost Four Times More Likely Than Civilians to Use Prescription Painkillers

/BY JOIN TOGETHER STAFF

July 9th, 2014/

0

Soldiers are almost four times more likely than civilians to use prescription opioids to treat their pain, researchers at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research have found. Almost half of U.S. soldiers returning home report chronic pain.

Three months after returning home from Afghanistan or Iraq, about 44 percent of members of an Army infantry brigade said they suffered chronic pain. In contrast, the rate of chronic pain among civilians is about 26 percent, according to HealthDay.

The researchers report in JAMA Internal Medicine that about 15 percent of the soldiers reported using narcotic painkillers in the past month, compared with 4 percent of civilians.

The main source of chronic pain among returning soldiers appears to be combat injuries, the article notes. The researchers defined chronic pain as lasting 90 days or more. Soldiers with a combat injury are almost three times more likely to say they have chronic pain, and twice as likely to take a narcotic painkiller, as those without a combat injury.

The study found 48 percent of soldiers reporting chronic pain said it had lasted a year or longer, while 55 percent said they had daily or constant pain.

“War is really hard on the body,” said study author Lt. Cmdr. Robin Toblin. “People come home with a lot of injuries, and as you can imagine they experience a lot of pain. There seems to be a large unmet need of management, treatment and assessment of chronic pain.”

Soldiers who suffer from depression or post-traumatic stress disorder were twice as likely to report chronic pain, the study found. The findings come from confidential surveys completed by almost 2,600 soldiers.

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Tune in to hear Lighthouse Network's Karl Benzio, MD, on the air!   STATION: WEHA 88.7 FM (Pleasantville, NJ) DATE: Thursday, July 10 TIME: 9:30 a.m. ET PROGRAM: Hearing Hearts with Gloria Gay TOPIC: Shop-a-holics, Choc-a-holics, Alcoholics ONLINE: wehagospel887.com Check out other media interviews including TV appearances, radio programs, print features and articles here...

Lighthouse Network is a Christian-based, non-profit organization that offers an addiction and mental health counseling helpline providing treatment options and resources to equip people and organizations with the skills necessary to shine God's glory to the world, stand strong on a solid foundation in the storms of their own lives, and provide guidance and safety to others experiencing stormy times, thus impacting their lives, their families and the world. Lighthouse Network offers help through two main service choices: Lighthouse Life Change Helpline (1-844-LIFE-CHANGE, 1-844-543-3242), a 24-hour free, national crisis call center, where specialists (Care Guides) help callers understand and access customized treatment options. Life Growth and self-help training resources for daily life, including online and DVD series and training events to help individuals achieve their potential.   unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences Follow Us On Facebook Follow Us On Twitter Visit Our Website