Ken Seeley
Founder at Intervention911
Calling All Treatment Professionals ,
Intervention 911 is excited to announce two upcoming events:
Our next Intervention Training will be held in
Delray Beach Florida January 30-Febuary 1st 2014
We are proud to announce that this training has been approved by the Pennsylvania Certification Board and attendees will receive 28 CE hours specific to intervention that will qualify for the 80 CE hours required for the new Certified Intervention Professional (CIP).
Don’t miss the opportunity to be grandfathered in (NO TEST REQUIRED) and secure your CIP prior to April 1, 2014.
For more information please see the link below
http://thetreatmentcommunity.com/training/interventionist/
________________________________________________________________________
Our Next Treatment Center Seminar
will be held at The Hardrock Hotel Palm Springs California
February 7- 8 Working With Difficult Clients
Sponsored by: Alere & Sovereign Health
This two-day seminar gives you the opportunity to reach out and explain to your colleagues what you do and what your facility is about – to meet, dine and socialize with like-minded professionals to learn from each other and – to grow our outreach together to reach more of those in need then just doing it alone.
For more information please see the link below
http://thetreatmentcommunity.com/training/treatment-centers/
For further information on attending any of our events please email Chelsea@intervention911.com
Just a sneak peek at what we have going on in 2014:
Treatment Center Seminar 2014
Feb 7-8: Working With Difficult Clients
May 2-3: Dissecting The Family Systems
Aug 1-2: Aftercare: How Long & Best Practices
Nov 7-8: Marketing Strategies For A Changing Landscape
Intervention Training 2014
March 25-28: Atlanta
June 20-22: San Francisco
July 30- Aug 1: (TBD) Nashville- Memphis- DC
October 17-19: Palm Springs
Reply to Ken
TIP You can respond to this message by replying to this email
Saturday, December 7, 2013
December 7 v 2 v 3 POWER IN THE PROVERB
Obey my commands and live!
Guard my instructions as you guard your own eyes.[a]
Tie them on your fingers as a reminder.
Write them deep within your heart.
STEP 11 :Sought through prayer and meditation on God's word to increase our Fellowship with Him, praying continually for the knowledge of His will for us and the power of His might to
accomplish it.
Living sober and sane is His will for us.We were created with the ability to choose.What GOD seeks is a personal relationship with us HIS children.My choices kept me far from HIM because my choices were wrong and sinful. Some people rebel against their heavenly father like they do with their earthly father.That does not make us bad kids , it makes us human .GOD wants a real relationship with us and step eleven helps us develop that. GOD has dreams for your future and wants you to reach your maximum potential. That's why the Proverb is so important .GOD is not telling you what to do ,but showing what to do in order to reach your maximum potential. Next time you walk pass a cemetery take a moment to think that each one of those stones is a story . How many never made it to step eleven and are forever separated from HIM. GOD loves us so much not only did HE give us HIS only SON to die for us ,HE wrote us a one thousand page plus instruction manual ,now that's love.
For more of POWER IN THE PROVERB and other great recovery news ,events and free resources.
Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opoid Dependence
By John R. Knight MD and Melissa M. Weiksnar | December 6, 2013 | 9 Comments | Filed in Addiction, Healthcare & Prescription Drugs
Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid dependence is a science-based and proven-effective option for teens and young adults. It should be administered with age appropriate psychosocial therapy and drug testing. Unfortunately, it has been subject to controversy and stigma. Yet the neuroscience of addiction and cravings helps explain why MAT, when properly used and overseen, can be truly life saving for adolescents, young adults, and their families. I see it working all the time. When kids come into treatment, their lives are just chaotic. Parents are desperate — they don’t know what to do or where to turn. The most important thing is to bring stability into the situation, and the best way to do that is with medication.
The scientific evidence is incontrovertible: addiction is a brain disease – and can be especially severe when substance abuse starts early in life. Since the brain continues to grow and develop through the twenties, it’s very vulnerable to the effects of any exogenous substance. Early drug use makes almost permanent changes to both the structure and function of the brain, which has profound implications for the rest of a person’s life.
A parent bringing their child into treatment wants to maximize the chance that the child can abstain from the drug so the brain can heal and preclude the lifelong struggles of adult addiction. Scientific studies show that psychosocial treatments alone (i.e. without medication) show relatively poor results. Part of the reason has to do with cravings. Here’s why.
When a person takes a drug, the brain feels an enormous “high” in the reward system. It then implants a memory in the limbic system — the “lizard brain” — where memories of pleasures such as food and sex are stored. Anything having to do with procuring or using the drug becomes part of the memory and can produce a craving years later, even if a person hasn’t used the drug. The “trigger” could be a happy event, sadness, or seeing a syringe or some white powder or smelling an alcohol wipe. All of a sudden that memory flooding in generates an enormous craving to use the drug again.
One of the medications used in treatment, buprenorphine, is a partial agonist of the brain’s opiate receptors: when it “locks in”, it both eliminates cravings and blocks the “high” should someone inject heroin or take an opioid painkiller. As a partial agonist, buprenorphine has advantages over methadone, a full agonist, whose side-effects can include sleepiness, shallow breathing, or even death.
Studies suggest that over 60 percent of people on buprenorphine therapy have very positive outcomes. In our highly-structured program at Boston Children’s Hospital about a third of the children remain completely free from any alcohol and drug use. About another third remain free from opioid use but they might have an occasional slip on alcohol or marijuana. (We tend to not approve of that behavior and keep working with them). And the remaining third, particularly early on, will try opioids once or twice. But even after those early slips they show dramatic improvement over time.
In my 30-plus years as a pediatrician, I’ve always believed that the best treatment occurs in the least restrictive environment. Therefore our clinical program is outpatient-based. These children are living at home, and their parents are an integral part of the treatment team. We empower parents to supervise the prescription-taking, and both adolescents and parents participate in a 13-week education and support group.
As far as stigma, it breaks my heart when kids hear that “You’re not really clean and sober. Buprenorphine is just a substitute addiction.” I tell them, “Listen, you’re on replacement therapy. It does not make you high. It stabilizes your brain cells until they can recover. Please give it a year. Then we can talk about tapering off. OK?”
My advice to parents and teens is: check out medication in a reputable program. It could make the big difference in helping your child turn the corner and find sobriety. Over time medication can be tapered down. Does it always work? No. Are there accounts of abuse and unscrupulous practices? Unfortunately yes, and they must be investigated. But these negatives don’t negate MAT’s lifesaving value in helping treat the disease of addiction.
If someone says, “Well your child isn’t really clean,” walk away because those people just don’t know. The folks disseminating this misinformation are really doing a disservice because if we dissuade families from using this life-saving therapy we’re going to lose kids. We have to remember the tragedies: when kids are taken off or deprived of this medication they can die. And we don’t have any teens to spare. Not one. I’m not willing to see any more needless deaths.
John R. Knight, MD with Melissa M. Weiksnar
John Knight, MD, is a leading pediatrician at Harvard Medical School, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of adolescent substance abuse. He is the Director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research at Children’s Hospital Boston, and a nationally recognized advocate for families’ involvement in adolescent addiction treatment.
Melissa Weiksnar is a Program Coordinator at the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research (CeASAR) at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is a also a writer, speaker, and advocate for substance abuse prevention and treatment. She earned an S.B. in Economics from MIT and an MBA from Harvard.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Anders Brun and colleagues, Neuroimaging Research Center, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA. ©Copyright Anders Brun/McLean Hospital 2013. All rights reserved.
Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid dependence is a science-based and proven-effective option for teens and young adults. It should be administered with age appropriate psychosocial therapy and drug testing. Unfortunately, it has been subject to controversy and stigma. Yet the neuroscience of addiction and cravings helps explain why MAT, when properly used and overseen, can be truly life saving for adolescents, young adults, and their families. I see it working all the time. When kids come into treatment, their lives are just chaotic. Parents are desperate — they don’t know what to do or where to turn. The most important thing is to bring stability into the situation, and the best way to do that is with medication.
The scientific evidence is incontrovertible: addiction is a brain disease – and can be especially severe when substance abuse starts early in life. Since the brain continues to grow and develop through the twenties, it’s very vulnerable to the effects of any exogenous substance. Early drug use makes almost permanent changes to both the structure and function of the brain, which has profound implications for the rest of a person’s life.
A parent bringing their child into treatment wants to maximize the chance that the child can abstain from the drug so the brain can heal and preclude the lifelong struggles of adult addiction. Scientific studies show that psychosocial treatments alone (i.e. without medication) show relatively poor results. Part of the reason has to do with cravings. Here’s why.
When a person takes a drug, the brain feels an enormous “high” in the reward system. It then implants a memory in the limbic system — the “lizard brain” — where memories of pleasures such as food and sex are stored. Anything having to do with procuring or using the drug becomes part of the memory and can produce a craving years later, even if a person hasn’t used the drug. The “trigger” could be a happy event, sadness, or seeing a syringe or some white powder or smelling an alcohol wipe. All of a sudden that memory flooding in generates an enormous craving to use the drug again.
One of the medications used in treatment, buprenorphine, is a partial agonist of the brain’s opiate receptors: when it “locks in”, it both eliminates cravings and blocks the “high” should someone inject heroin or take an opioid painkiller. As a partial agonist, buprenorphine has advantages over methadone, a full agonist, whose side-effects can include sleepiness, shallow breathing, or even death.
Studies suggest that over 60 percent of people on buprenorphine therapy have very positive outcomes. In our highly-structured program at Boston Children’s Hospital about a third of the children remain completely free from any alcohol and drug use. About another third remain free from opioid use but they might have an occasional slip on alcohol or marijuana. (We tend to not approve of that behavior and keep working with them). And the remaining third, particularly early on, will try opioids once or twice. But even after those early slips they show dramatic improvement over time.
In my 30-plus years as a pediatrician, I’ve always believed that the best treatment occurs in the least restrictive environment. Therefore our clinical program is outpatient-based. These children are living at home, and their parents are an integral part of the treatment team. We empower parents to supervise the prescription-taking, and both adolescents and parents participate in a 13-week education and support group.
As far as stigma, it breaks my heart when kids hear that “You’re not really clean and sober. Buprenorphine is just a substitute addiction.” I tell them, “Listen, you’re on replacement therapy. It does not make you high. It stabilizes your brain cells until they can recover. Please give it a year. Then we can talk about tapering off. OK?”
My advice to parents and teens is: check out medication in a reputable program. It could make the big difference in helping your child turn the corner and find sobriety. Over time medication can be tapered down. Does it always work? No. Are there accounts of abuse and unscrupulous practices? Unfortunately yes, and they must be investigated. But these negatives don’t negate MAT’s lifesaving value in helping treat the disease of addiction.
If someone says, “Well your child isn’t really clean,” walk away because those people just don’t know. The folks disseminating this misinformation are really doing a disservice because if we dissuade families from using this life-saving therapy we’re going to lose kids. We have to remember the tragedies: when kids are taken off or deprived of this medication they can die. And we don’t have any teens to spare. Not one. I’m not willing to see any more needless deaths.
John R. Knight, MD with Melissa M. Weiksnar
John Knight, MD, is a leading pediatrician at Harvard Medical School, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of adolescent substance abuse. He is the Director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research at Children’s Hospital Boston, and a nationally recognized advocate for families’ involvement in adolescent addiction treatment.
Melissa Weiksnar is a Program Coordinator at the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research (CeASAR) at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is a also a writer, speaker, and advocate for substance abuse prevention and treatment. She earned an S.B. in Economics from MIT and an MBA from Harvard.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Anders Brun and colleagues, Neuroimaging Research Center, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA. ©Copyright Anders Brun/McLean Hospital 2013. All rights reserved.
Celebrating a Sober Holiday Season Together
RSVP Today for Free Family Seminar
Free Family Seminar
Tuesday, December 10, 6-8 pm
This holiday season brings natural questions about staying sober and how loved ones can support sobriety.
Find help and ideas with us.
6-8 PM at Livengrin's Shanahan Hall
4833 Hulmeville Road, Bensalem, PA 19020
Free Parking
To view and print the Seminar flyer, click here
To register, call 215-638-5200, ext. 162
or email dcohen@livengrin.org
To learn about other upcoming Livengrin events, please visit ourcalendar page.
2014 Family Seminars will be Offered Monthly
**Seminars moved to Oxford Valley Counseling Center**
195 Bristol-Oxford Valley Road, Langhorne
Mon., Jan 13: Importance of Self-Care: Take Time for You
Mon., Feb 10: Stages of Dependency
Mon., Mar 10: Dealing with Grief and Loss
Learn More at:
Livengrin Website
Support the Foundation
During its 47 years of service, more than 120,000 people have come to Livengrin to learn how to be healthy, sober and a part of their families, work and communities again. You can play a role in a person's success story - make a contribution, volunteer, and tell someone about the help and hope to be found at Livengrin. There's information, guidance and much more to learn throughout our website.
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