Conquering Grounds Café
Saturday Night March 9, 2013

At Christian Life Center, 3100 Galloway Rd Bensalem, Pa 19020
In The Edge Building
Doors open at 6:30 Event starts at 7pm
Appearing
Latin Worship Band " Sandro El Siete"
plus Special Guest Holy Hip-Hop Psalmist "Virtuous"
This is a FREE event and open to everyone. There will be hot and cold beverages and goodies to eat, all free of charge. Come out and join us for a great night of music and fellowship.
Bob Sofronski, Chairman/Director
Christian Life Prison and Recovery Ministries, Inc.
PO BOX 1624
Southampton, PA 18966
215-833-2512
Fax # 267-988-4629
www.CLPRM.org

www.recoverywalks.org

Recovery Walks! 2013 Is on September 21

THE PHILLIES vs. ATLANTA BRAVES

Friday Evening, September 6, 2013!



National Recovery Night at the Baseball Game
6:00 pm Gathering - 7:05 pm Game Time
Citizens Bank Park
North Pattison Avenue, Philadelphia

Enjoy a fun Phillies night of baseball with about 500 other fans in recovery! Watch the Philliestake on the Atlanta Braves at home without everyone around you drinking beer! For the 8th consecutive year, PRO-ACT will participate in this annual baseball game, developed to gain national visibility for recovery in celebration of SAMHSA's National Recovery Month of September. Attendees in these sections are requested not to consume or purchase alcohol. Parking is $15--get a group together and car pool--or take SEPTA.


To Order Tickets and Pay Online

Tickets are $20 each, $4 of which funds PRO-ACT services

It's easy and secure!

Just click HERE

Organize your friends and team members and enjoy a night out!

First come, first served--don't wait too long

And Look Who's Throwing Out the First Pitch

Jackie Ferrer of Recovery Walks! 2012

Jackie won this Prize by being Captain of Team Ricky Ferrer

who walked last year and raised the most donations for PRO-ACT


They walked in honor of Jackie's brother, Ricky





www.councilsepa.org

Alcohol Therapy May Improve Domestic Violence Problems in the Short Term

Alcohol Therapy May Improve Domestic Violence Problems in the Short Term
By Join Together Staff | February 28, 2013 | Leave a comment | Filed in Alcohol, Research & Treatment

Male heavy drinkers arrested for domestic violence, who participate in a therapy session devoted to alcohol, were less aggressive toward their partners in the months after the counseling, according to a new study.

Men arrested for domestic violence generally are referred by the court to group education sessions that don’t always address alcohol use, even though a high percentage of domestic violence involves drinking, Reuters reports.

Previous research has found these programs are particularly ineffective for men involved in domestic violence who have drinking problems, according to researchers of the new study from the University of Tennessee. They studied 252 men who were arrested for violence against an intimate partner, and who reported binge drinking—having five or more drinks on one occasion—at least once a month.

All of the men attended court-mandated domestic violence education programs that consisted of 20 two-hour sessions of group education. Half of the men also attended a 90-minute individual substance abuse session with a therapist.

Participants completed a survey about their behavior at three, six and 12 months after the program ended. The researchers also gathered police reports related to the study participants. On average, all of the men in the study reported lower violence levels after one year. The men who received the extra alcohol counseling session had greater short-term improvement in violence and alcohol consumption, compared with men who did not receive the individual alcohol counseling, the researchers report in the journal Addiction.

Men who received alcohol counseling were less physically aggressive toward their partners at the three-month mark, and less psychologically aggressive at six months. They also drank less per day at three months, and drank less often at six months. However, after one year, the levels of physical and psychological aggression in both groups were similar.

Lead researcher Gregory Stuart told Reuters he thinks the results of this study are a promising start toward improving batterer programs. “The goal is to gently lead them to the conclusion that potentially stopping the use of alcohol and drugs is a good idea,” he said.- See more at: http://www.drugfree.org/join-together/alcohol/alcohol-therapy-may-improve-domestic-violence-problems-in-the-short-term?utm_source=Join+Together+Daily&utm_campaign=93e5b11d7c-JT_Daily_News_Youth_Involved_in_AA_Related&utm_medium=email#sthash.ZO46LARo.dpuf

Affordable Care Act to Provide Substance Abuse Treatment to Millions of New Patients                  By Celia Vimont | February 26, 2013 | 1 Comment | Filed in Addiction, Government, Healthcare, Insurance, Prevention & Treatment


The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will revolutionize the field of substance abuse treatment, according to A. Thomas McLellan, PhD, CEO and co-founder of the Treatment Research Institute.

“It will have more far-reaching positive consequences for substance abuse treatment than anything in my lifetime, including the discovery of methadone,” he said at the recent annual meeting of the New York Society of Addiction Medicine. “It will integrate substance abuse treatment into the rest of health care.”

Currently, just 2.3 million Americans receive any type of substance abuse treatment, which is less than one percent of the total population of people who are affected by the most serious of the substance use disorders—addiction, said Dr. McLellan, who is a former Deputy Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Most who receive treatment are severely affected, he said.

“If diabetes were treated like substance abuse, only people in the most advanced stages of illness would be covered, such as those who had already lost their vision or had severe kidney damage,” he said.


A. Thomas McLellan, PhD

Dr. McLellan reported that 23 million American adults suffer from substance abuse or dependence—about the same number of adults who have diabetes. An additional 60 million people engage in “medically harmful” substance use, such as a woman whose two daily glasses of wine fuels growth of her breast cancer. The new law will allow millions more people to receive treatment, including those whose substance abuse is just emerging.

Under the ACA, substance abuse treatment will also become part of primary care, and will be focused more on prevention. Substance abuse treatment will also be considered an “essential service,” meaning health plans are required to provide it. They must treat the full spectrum of the disorder, including people who are in the early stages of substance abuse. “There will be more prevention, early intervention and treatment options,” he said. “The result will be better, and less expensive, outcomes.”

By the end of 2014, under the ACA, coverage of substance use disorders is likely to be comparable to that of other chronic illnesses, such as hypertension, asthma and diabetes. Government insurers (Medicare and Medicaid) will cover physician visits (including screening, brief intervention, assessment, evaluation and medication), clinic visits, home health visits, family counseling, alcohol and drug testing, four maintenance and anti-craving medications, monitoring tests and smoking cessation.

Currently, federal benefits, such as Medicaid and Medicare, focus on inpatient services, like detox programs, but do not cover office visits for substance abuse treatments. In contrast, Medicaid covers 100 percent of diabetes-related physician visits, clinic visits and home health visits, as well as glucose tests, monitors and supplies, insulin and four other diabetes medications, foot and eye exams, and smoking cessation for diabetics. “These are all primary care prevention and management services, which are the most effective and cheapest way of managing illness,” he said.

The impact of these new rules will be quite substantial, since an estimated 65 percent of insured Americans are covered by Medicaid or Medicare, and the rest are covered by insurance companies that base their benefits structure on federal benefits, said Dr. McLellan.

As addiction becomes treated as a chronic illness, pharmaceutical companies will be much more interested in developing new medications, he added. “Immense markets are being created,” he said. “Until now, there have been about 13,000 treatment providers for substance use disorders, and less than half of those are doctors. Now, 550,000 primary care doctors, in addition to nurses who can prescribe medications, will be caring for these patients.”- See more at: http://www.drugfree.org/join-together/addiction/affordable-care-act-to-provide-substance-abuse-treatment-to-millions-of-new-patients?utm_source=Join+Together+Daily&utm_campaign=dff816eb3f-JT_Daily_News_13_House_Members&utm_medium=email#sthash.dtJLAnvi.dpuf

Study Links Substance Abuse, Chaotic Family Life to Violence Among Teens in Denver
By Join Together Staff | February 27, 2013 | Leave a comment | Filed in Community Related, Drugs, Prevention & Youth

A new study links substance abuse, early exposure to violence and chaotic family life, to teenage violence in one Denver neighborhood. The study, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is part of a five-year effort to classify risk factors that promote teen violence. The new results come from the first year of the project.

The study involves more than 800 door-to-door surveys and interviews with more than 2,000 students, The Denver Post reports. The researchers from the University of Colorado’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence found 23 percent of youths said they were involved in a violent act when they were 10 or 11, and 6 percent said they used drugs at that age. Participation in religious activities was found to be the greatest deterrent to teen violence, the study found.

Community leaders in the Montebello neighborhood of Denver plan to use the information from the surveys to create a community action plan that will target the risk factors, the article notes. Their goal is to reduce teen violence and problematic behaviors by 10 percent among children ages 10 to 17 in the neighborhood by 2016.

According to the university, the project aims to reduce rates of serious violent crime and gang-related violence, in addition to rates of drug and alcohol abuse, gang participation, fighting, and bullying or being bullied in schools.- See more at: http://www.drugfree.org/join-together/drugs/study-links-substance-abuse-chaotic-family-life-to-violence-among-teens-in-denver?utm_source=Join+Together+Daily&utm_campaign=e46fb0f8bb-JT_Daily_News_Parity_Act_Leads_to_&utm_medium=email#sthash.hRECvhKP.dpuf

CALENDAR LISTING:

“Expanding Your Recovery Toolkit” Workshop March 19 in Doylestown

Free monthly workshop series for individuals and families with a current or pastdrug/alcohol addiction issue. Next session meets Tuesday, March 19, 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at The Council of Southeast Pennsylvania, Inc., 252 W. Swamp Rd., Unit 12, Doylestown, Pa. Topics include prescription drug abuse, “Kyle: Rehabs, Jail and Sobriety” and a group discussion period. Refreshments. To register, call 215-345-6644 or email JSchwartz@councilsepa.org.