Saturday, February 9, 2013

"Wet" and Wild: PCP's Horror Show | The Fix

"Wet" and Wild: PCP's Horror Show | The Fix

Fewer Teens Receiving Substance Abuse Prevention Messages From Media

The percentage of teenagers who receive substanced abuse prevention messages from the media in the past year dropped from 83.2 percent in 2002, to 75.1 percent in 2011, according to a new government report.
Teens also received fewer school-based prevention messages, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found. Such messages reached 78.8 percent of teens in 2002, and 74.5 percent in 2011. An estimated 40 percent of teens did not talk with their parents in the past year about the dangers of substance abuse, Newswise reports.
A recent SAMHSA report found teen attitudes about the risk of substances such as alcohol and marijuana have changed in recent years. From 2002 to 2011, the percentage of teens who perceived great risk from heavy drinking increased from 38.2 percent to 40.7 percent. During that same time, there was a drop in binge drinking among teens, from 10.7 percent to 7.4 percent.
The report found the percentage of teens who perceived great risk from marijuana use once or twice a week dropped, from 54.6 percent in 2007, to 44.8 percent in 2011. Teens’ rate of past-month marijuana use increased during that time, from 6.7 percent to 7.9 percent.
“To prevent substance abuse among our adolescents, our young people have to know the facts about the real risks of substance abuse, and we’re not doing a very good job of that right now,” SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde said in a news release. “It is time for all of us – the public health community, parents, teachers, caregivers, and peers – to double our efforts in educating our youth about substance use and engaging them in meaningful conversations about these issues, so that they can make safe and healthy decisions when offered alcohol or drugs.”

Relatives of Painkiller Overdose Patients Speak at FDA Hearing

Relatives of patients who overdosed on painkillers told federal regulators Thursday they want changes on the labels of narcotic painkillers, The Wall Street Journal reports. Pain patients concerned such action could limit their access to the medications spoke against the proposed changes.
They spoke at a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hearing on the use of opioids in the treatment of chronic pain. The FDA said it wants to gather scientific evidence on issues including diagnosis and understanding of patient pain, understanding and adhering to the labels of pain-treating products, limiting opioid prescriptions and use, and abuse and misuse of opioid medicines.
The FDA is considering a petition by Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, a group of doctors and pain specialists, to include a recommended upper daily dose on the medications’ label, and to limit opioid treatment to 90 days, the article notes. The doctors’ group is also recommending that opioids be indicated for severe pain, not moderate pain, except in cancer patients.
Last month, a FDA advisory panel voted to strengthen restrictions on hydrocodone combination drugs, such as Vicodin. The panel recommended the FDA make the drugs more difficult to prescribe. If the FDA accepts the panel’s recommendation, it will be sent to the Department of Health and Human Services, which will make the final decision.

Illegal Street Sales of Take-Home Doses of Methadone on the Rise

Illegal street sales of take-home doses of liquid methadone, prescribed to treat opioid addiction, are on the rise, according to law enforcement officials in Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.
The diverted methadone has been tracked to clinics operated by CRC Health Corp., the article notes. CRC, owned by Bain Capital Partners, is the largest U.S. provider of methadone treatment, according to Bloomberg. Last year it operated 57 clinics in 15 states, Bloomberg reports.
Former employees say the company’s clinics are chronically understaffed, which makes it easier for take-home methadone to be abused. Former counselors say their heavy workload did not allow them to adequately counsel patients.
The clinics provide take-home packages, some with just one dose, and others containing as many as 30 doses. Police and prosecutors say in the small towns where the company has clinics, methadone has surfaced in criminal cases.
CRC Chief Executive Officer R. Andrew Eckert said take-home dosing can help keep patients on methadone, and off illegal drugs, by not making them come to the clinic every day for treatment. “Our mission is to help these individuals, but sadly, we cannot report 100 percent success,” he said. “No treatment provider can.”
Philip Herschman, Chief Clinical Officer of CRC, told Bloomberg the company follows specific and rigid state and federal rules when it decides which patients may obtain take-home doses. The company conducts spot-checks, in which it calls back patients to clinics, to account for their take-home bottles, he said. If a patient tests positive for any illicit substances, take-home doses are suspended immediately, he added.
State regulatory records show this is not always true. The records also indicate CRC’s clinics have not met staffing standards on more than 50 occasions.

Commentary: Hazelden Responds to America’s Opioid Epidemic

Too many people are hooked. Too many are dying. The problem is too big to ignore.
Over the past decade, America has experienced a rampant rise in the number of people addicted to prescription painkillers, heroin and other opioids. We truly face an epidemic.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the death toll from prescription painkillers has increased from 3,000 overdose deaths in 1999 to 15,500 in 2009. The CDC also reported almost 500,000 opioid-related emergency room visits in 2009, and found that about 12 million Americans reported nonmedical use of prescription opioids in 2010.
At Hazelden, we are on the front line of this crisis, which is hitting youth particularly hard. At our youth facility in Plymouth, Minn., opioid addiction increased from 15 percent of patients in 2001 to 41 percent in 2011.
The problem deserves a vigorous response. That’s why Hazelden has introduced a new treatment protocol specifically for opioid-dependent patients.
The new protocol builds on our traditional care in two ways: by weaving the specific features and challenges of opioid addiction into all aspects of treatment, and by incorporating certain medications. We now assess opioid-dependent patients to determine the need for medication assistance. Some patients get none, particularly those who refuse it or whose addiction is less severe. Some receive buprenorphine/naloxone. Others utilize extended-release naltrexone. In all cases, medication is adjunct to, and never a substitute for, our usual evidence-based approach, which includes: psychological and psychiatric care; Twelve Step-based individual and group therapy; lectures; and a focus on peer, family and recovery community support for additional structure and accountability. All of those care components, in turn, now have an opioid emphasis. For example, we provide opioid-specific groups, lectures and individual therapy to our opioid-dependent patients.
Buprenorphine — an opioid itself — is a partial agonist, meaning its effect is significantly less than the full agonists to which so many are addicted, such as morphine, Vicodin® and heroin. It’s a safe and proven means of helping people recover from their opioid of choice on the way to complete abstinence. Taken daily, buprenorphine inhibits craving, improves treatment retention, reduces relapse and improves support group attendance. Naltrexone, our other available medication, is an opioid antagonist. Injected once a month, it blocks the brain’s opioid receptors, eliminating the ability for opioids to produce intoxication or reward.
The adjunctive medication assistance helps address this population’s hypersensitivity to physical and psychic pain, which puts them at higher risk of leaving treatment early, relapsing and accidentally overdosing. While abstinence remains the ultimate goal, medication helps to ensure patients stay in treatment long enough to acquire new information, establish new relationships and become solidly involved in recovery.
Research shows medication-assisted treatment is both effective and safe. As such, it has been endorsed by health regulators and policy advocates throughout America. In our view, medication taken to treat the disease of addiction is not unlike pain medication given to post-surgery patients: if used as directed, under the care of a physician and not as a means of intoxication, it greatly assists in recovery.
One of Hazelden’s values is to “remain open to innovation.” Another is to “continue a commitment to Twelve Step fellowship.” This new program reflects those values and, as a response to the opioid epidemic, offers additional hope, healing and health to those who need it.
Marvin D. Seppala, MD
Marvin D. Seppala, MD, is Chief Medical Officer at Hazelden, and an adjunct Assistant Professor at the Hazelden Graduate School of Addiction Studies. His responsibilities include overseeing all interdisciplinary clinical practices at Hazelden, maintaining and improving standards, and supporting growth strategies for Hazelden’s residential and nonresidential addiction treatment programs. Dr. Seppala obtained his M.D. at Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minnesota, and served his residency in psychiatry and a fellowship in addiction at University of Minnesota Hospitals in Minneapolis. He is author of Clinician’s Guide to the Twelve Step Principles, and Prescription Painkillers: History, Pharmacology and Treatment, and a co-author of When Painkillers Become Dangerous, and Pain-Free Living for Drug-Free People.

Friday, February 8, 2013

NAADAC Institute Education Update


Don't miss these great opportunities to earn CEs, advance your professional life and enhance your practice through live seminars, independent study or online!

Defining Addiction Recovery

Wednesday, February 13, 2013
3pm - 4pm EST (2 CST/1 MST/12 PST)

More Information & Registration
The word "recovery" is often used, but what does it really mean?  This webinar will highlight the emergence of recovery as an organizing paradigm for addiction treatment, outline the challenges in defining recovery and related concepts, review samples of work to date to define recovery, and discuss areas of emerging consensus and continued contention in defining recovery.
Upcoming Recovery-Oriented Webinars:
 
What Does Science Say? Reviewing Recovery Research
Thursday, February 28, 2013

12 - 1:30pm EST (11 C/10 M/9 P)
More Information & Registration


Defining Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care (ROSC)
Wednesday, March 13, 2013

3 - 4pm EST (2 C/1 M/12 P)


The History of Recovery in the United States and the Addiction Profession
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
12 - 1:30pm EST (11 C/10 M/9 P)
More Information & Registration


The Role of Peer Recovery Support Specialists (PRSS) in the Addiction Profession
Tuesday, April 23, 2013 
12 - 1:30pm EST (11 C/10 M/9 P)
Including Family & Community in the Recovery Process
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
3pm - 5pm EST (2 C/1 M/12 P)


Exploring Techniques to Support Long-Term Addiction Recovery for Clients & Families
Thursday, May 23, 2013
12pm - 2pm EST (11 C/10 M/9 P)


Collaborating with Other Professions, Professionals & Communities
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
3pm - 4pm EST (2 C/1 M/12 P)


www.naadac.org/education/webinars
Presenter: William (“Bill”) White is a Senior Research Consultant at Chestnut Health Systems, past-chair of the board of Recovery Communities United and a volunteer consultant to Faces and Voices of Recovery.  He has a Master’s degree in Addiction Studies from Goddard College and has worked full time in the addictions field since 1969 as a streetworker, counselor, clinical director, trainer and researcher.   Bill has authored or co-authored more than 400 articles, monographs, research reports and book chapters and 16 books.  His book, Slaying the Dragon - The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America, received the McGovern Family Foundation Award for the best book on addiction recovery.
Price:
Education is FREE to all professionals
 
CE Credit: 
Members of NAADAC receive 1 CE for FREE after successfully passing an online CE Quiz.  Non-members of NAADAC receive 1 CE for $15.
 
On Demand:
Watch previously recorded NAADAC webinars for free and gain CE credit. This webinar will be recorded and posted to our website:
 
Unavailable for the live event?
Continue to register for the event and do not attend. You will automatically receive links to the archived webinar, PowerPoint slides, CE Quiz and more after the webinar.
 
Become a member of NAADAC to earn free CE credit for all NAADAC webinars & online courses (over 75 CEs): www.naadac.org/join
Every two years, different regions have the opportunity to select the leaders who will represent them and help determine the direction of the association. NAADAC is now accepting nominations for four Regional Vice President (RVP) positions.  Learn more
Featured NAADAC Approved Education Provider
TN Affiliate Training

Join the Southeast Tennessee Association for Addiction Professionals (SETAADAC) for its 3rd Annual Continuing Education Conference on Friday, February 8, 2013 from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM (EST).  This all day event in Chattanooga, Tenn,  includes a networking breakfast and 6 hours of continuing education. Lunch will be provided and free on-site parking is available.
Learn more
 
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NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals
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Drinking and Drugs in Video Games | The Fix

Drinking and Drugs in Video Games | The Fix

Study Links Lower Drinking Age With Increased Risk of Binge Drinking

The ability to legally buy alcohol before age 21 is associated with an increased risk of binge drinking later in life, a new study suggests. The study included more than 39,000 people who started drinking in the 1970s, when some states allowed people as young as 18 to purchase alcohol.
People who lived in states with lower minimum drinking ages were not more likely to consume more alcohol overall, or to drink more frequently, compared with those in states with a legal drinking age of 21. However, when they did consume alcohol, they were more likely to drink heavily, Science Daily reports.
“It wasn’t just that lower minimum drinking ages had a negative impact on people when they were young,” lead author Andrew D. Plunk, PhD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said in a news release. “Even decades later, the ability to legally purchase alcohol before age 21 was associated with more frequent binge drinking.”
Plunk found the effect of the minimum legal drinking age was greatest among men who did not attend college. “Binge drinking on college campuses is a very serious problem,” he said. “But it’s also important not to completely forget about young people who aren’t on college campuses. In our study, they had the greatest risk of suffering the long-term consequences linked to lower drinking ages.”
Even decades later, men who grew up in states with a legal drinking age less than 21 were 19 percent more likely to binge drink more than once a month. Among those who did not attend college, the risk of binge drinking more than once a month rose by 31 percent.
The study appears in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

From The Partnership of Drugfree.org


Dear Joseph,
Thank you. The stories that have been posted on The Hope Share are giving others hope. A precious thing, when it comes to addiction.

You can keep this chain of hope going. Please add a comment to someone’s story today to remind others that they are not alone. A few words of encouragement – an “I understand” or “I know what you’re going through” can go a long way, inspiring others to keep working on their recovery.

Launching The Hope Share has been a labor of love for me. We wanted to create a place where people everywhere could share their stories and feel supported. Where together, we could dispel the stigma of addiction and provide hope to those suffering.

Please comment on a story today and offer inspiration to someone. 

 

Because of you, we are changing lives. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Sincerely,

Kristi Rowe  
Director 
The Partnership at Drugfree.org

P.S. If you’ve submitted your story but don’t see it yet on The Hope Share, please be patient. We’ve been inundated with stories, and I promise it will be published soon! In the meantime, please comment on someone's story and give them hope.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Apple 32GB White 5th Generation iPod Touch - MD720LL/A (Google Affiliate Ad)
Sharing Your Story

By Doug Fields
Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations...
Matthew 28:19a
If we really want to live life differently and to accelerate spiritual growth, we must learn to care for other people’s spiritual condition.

When I use the word care, I’m referring to something deeper than simply being nice. Nice is nice. I appreciate it when someone opens the door for me or pulls out my chair. But caring for others involves something much more than being nice. I want to challenge you to learn to care for someone’s spiritual condition, to care about his connection with God, to care enough to make sure she knows about the good news of forgiveness and eternal life.

I know it’s not popular these days to talk about evangelism. Many Christians don’t even like that word anymore. But, I’m not asking you to do anything fanatical. In fact, if it’s easier for you, I want you to put aside the word evangelism if there’s too much negative baggage connected to it.

Instead, I’m inviting you to fall increasingly in love with God. That’s the plan. Fall in love with all His majesty and glory and goodness. Get to know the Savior as never before. When that happens, Scripture says that the love of Christ will compel you (2 Corinthians 5:14). When we know God intimately, that gives us a new power to care for the spiritual condition of others. Then, as God gives you opportunity, simply share your transformational story with others, where they can be exposed to an option that can move them from stuck to starting anew, with a Power that is greater than their own.

The important thing to remember is that people are hurting and can benefit from hearing of your experiences with Jesus. People in pain need to hear that they’re not alone and that someone else has made it out from underneath the pile. People who are lonely need to hear about how you’ve found community. People who live without a relationship with God need to hear that life is so much better when they discover it’s not all about them—it’s about God. People who are caught in a lifestyle of sin and darkness need to hear the story of someone who lived there and found the light.

Sharing personal stories about Jesus reveals the power of God. You don’t have to be a perfect Christian, have everything together, or know all of the answers. God invites you to be in the process—and perhaps, along the way, help someone else get a fresh start. When that happens, hold on…you’re in for a spiritual growth ride of your life.
Friday February 15th 2013
8PM-11PM - Rockers In Recovery All Star Band- "The Dry Dock Fundraiser
"  

Venue:Lyman Hall High School Auditorium, 70 Pond Hill Road Wallingford,
CT 06492
"Call 203-626-5560

For Tickets"

Sponsors for the night
AAC
and our friend Andrew Kowalczyk 

Media Sponsor
 
   


Rockers In Recovery "Back From Hell Tour"

Friday February 15th 2013 8PM-11PM - Rockers In Recovery All Star Band- "The Dry Dock Fundraiser "

Sponsors of the night American Addiction Centers and our friend Andrew Kowalczyk
Venue:Lyman Hall High School Auditorium, 70 Pond Hill Road Wallingford, CT 06492 203-626-5560

Featuring: Rockers In Recovery All Star Band and Special Guests SELFISH STEAM...

                    RIR ALL STAR BAND
RIR All Star Band - Mark Stein(Vanilla Fudge), Liberty Devitto(Billy Joel) ,Christine Ohlman(Saturday Night Live Band), Ricky Byrd(Joan Jett and the Blackhearts),Kasim Sulton(Todd Rundgren and Blue Oyster Cult), Richie Supa (Aerosmith and Richie Sambora)
Tickets Go On Sale Now Call 203-626-5560

100% of Ticket Sales and Meet and Greet Donated To "The Dry Dock"

$20.00 General Admission

$50.00 VIP Meet and Greet

Meet and Greet February 15, 2013 6PM EST:

$50.00 VIP Rockers In Recovery All Star Band Meet and Greet at The Dry Dock Club 68-1/2 Quinnipiac Ave Wallingford, CT 09492

THE DRY DOCK IS A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION
PROVIDING A SAFE AND SOBER ENVIRONMENT TO THE COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE, WITH PARTICULAR EMPHASIS ON THE RECOVERY COMMUNITY.





RIR All Star Band/Special Guest LaLa Brooks
RIR All Star Band/Special Guest LaLa Brooks

RIR All Star Band with Guest Michael Des Barres
RIR All Star Band with Guest Michael Des Barres


"ROCKERS IN RECOVERY UNPLUGGED"
"Delightful, interesting, thought, feeling  provoking...Music " - Very Moving JOHN GIORDANO, Ph.D. (hon.), CCJS, MAC, CAP

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Meet the Addiction Predators

From handlers of addicted celebrities to garden-variety "sober coaches," the addiction treatment world can be a rat's nest of opportunists, charlatans—and worse. 

Art: Danny Jock
“If you try to get rid of me, she’ll be dead and I’ll piss on her grave… You’d better learn that I control everything,” threatened Sam Lutfi, Britney Spears’ self-proclaimed former-manager, according to Through the Storm, Lynne Spears’ memoir. Spears alleges that Lutfi acted as a jealous predator and jeopardized her daughter’s health and safety by grinding up and mixing her medication. Lutfi subsequently filed a lawsuit against the pop star’s parents, claiming libel, breach-of-contract, and defamation. He hoped to appeal to the jurors’ sympathetic side by arguing that the release of the book left him depressed, suicidal, and overwhelmed with death threats. The case was dismissed in early November.
The extraordinary circumstances of Britney’s life hardly represent the norm, but Lutfi’s behavior indicates a disturbing trend in the lurid overlap between celebrity and addiction. Whether we’re rapidly detoxing addicted patients on cable TV, announcing Lindsay Lohan’s latest rehab-stint in the tabloids, or awarding a book deal to Cat Marnell, our popular culture has turned a particularly voyeuristic lens onto the disease of addiction. Troubled celebrities are no longer heroes in the vein of Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, or even gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. The public's interest in the escapades of Hollywood’s latest party girl has grown into, for some, a lucrative obsession. And as a consequence, the sensationalist behavior of damaged celebrities has become a target—even an investment—for some. Call them the addiction predators. 
Take, for instance, David Weintraub, a TV talent agent who has alchemized troubled stars into skyrocketing ratings, spinoff shows, and a multimillion dollar management/production company. For starters, he channeled his addled clients—Guns n' Roses drummer Steven Adler, porn star Mary Carey, fallen Miss Teen USA Keri Ann Peniche, and many more—onto Dr. Drew Pinsky's demented showcase for addiction in action, VH1’s Celebrity Rehab. The series follows the treatment and transformation of a cast of famous addicts, but as anyone in recovery knows, the sudden surge of income and exposure that results from the appearances can seriously complicate the recovery process.
“Very often, business overrides the treatment, and that’s where we've gone today. Treatment has lost some value because people want to make money instead of helping others get clean and sober."
“There’s nothing quick f..... fixable about sobriety,” says Recovery Life Skills Coach Lisa Neumann—who makes it clear that she has not worked with celebrities. Treatment professionals at large have raised concerns about the extreme transformations depicted on Celebrity Rehab after just one month of treatment. For Derek Salazar, Maintenance Counselor at Recovery Solutions of Santa Ana, the shortening of treatment in general is concerning. “Very often, business overrides the treatment and that’s where we have gone today," she says. "It’s sad to say that treatment has lost some value because people want to make money instead of helping others get clean and sober. When I got sober I spent 22 months in Phoenix House and it saved my life.”
New, controversial service roles have emerged within recovery communities to complement acute care. Along with hit dramas like CBS’ Elementary, celebrities like Owen Wilson and Robert Downey Jr. have commercialized these peer recovery support services by hiring sober companions to keep an eye on them for anywhere between $750-1,500 per day. Because of the excessive costs some peer recovery support specialists demand, these services have gained a reputation as the newest accessory of the troubled elite. But Neumann has a different take. “If you can pay $100 per hour to have someone follow you around your house, do it," she says. "But if you’re considering giving up addiction, it’s not time for a recovery coach. You need to be done considering giving up addiction for it to be cost and time effective.”
It’s not that Neumann, the author of Sober Identity: Tools for Reprogramming the Addicted Mind, wants to leave perpetual relapsers at the door; she’s just not interested in wasting anyone’s time: “I won’t work with someone until they get sober. I’m here for a phone call, a meeting, an assignment, or an e-mail. But I’m not going to charge you for that.” 
Unlike much of the substance abuse treatment industry, recovery coaching is a non-clinical, non-professional service provided by people who are experientially credentialed. While many coaches receive some kind of formal training, it's their first hand knowledge that provides the foundation for their expertise. With other service providers like recovery residence managers and sober companions, recovery coaches constitute a growing niche within the treatment industry known as peer recovery support specialists, or peer workers. But the peculiar nature of the professional non-professional is raising some concerns—and plenty of confusion. 
For Bill White, Senior Research Consultant at The Lighthouse Institute, a division of Chestnut Health Systems, “There are numerous misconceptions of the recovery coach role, mostly due to the wide variations in role responsibilities to which the title is being applied, whether it's peer/professional, paid/volunteer, full/part time. And there's a wide variety of organizational settings in which coaches and other recovery support specialists are now working. It'll take several more years before this role is clearly defined and evaluated in terms of its influence on long-term recovery outcomes.” 
White, who has served in the addictions field for 40 years, adds that this ambiguity parallels that present during the early history of the addiction counselor. But for now, with no accreditation system, recovery coaches have little to distinguish themselves from one another besides their sobriety date—and their social media presence.
Recovery coaching may have emerged as a form of service work done between close members of indigenous recovery communities, but today, private coaches need effective marketing and outreach strategies to compete with larger companies. For Neumann, the importance of online marketing was unexpected. “If McDonalds cut their advertising budget,” she says, “they wouldn’t have any customers left—but not me. I don’t want to spend money on advertising. My work should speak for itself.”
Her marketing scheme is completely against the traditional approach of the 21st century: fewer advertising dollars are necessary to keep an existing client than to find a new one. “I don’t want you to be here if you’re not catching on,” she explains. “I’m not doing my job if you still need me every week after a year.” 
 With companies advertising recovering coaching as a sort of “catch-all” solution for all of the addicts who hate AA and prefer not to take time away from work to check back into treatment after they have been kicked out, Neumann’s message of hard work and personal integrity is not a very competitive one. Companies like Sober Champion aren’t afraid to play up the job’s celebrity reputation, using references to filming schedules and socioeconomic status to lure clients in: “For those who can afford one, a Sober Coach or a Sober Companion is an outstanding addition to any post-acute treatment program.”
While the research of peer-based work is highly limited, studies of the essential services provided by recovery coaches suggest that it is a potentially promising practice as an adjunct to treatment. Leaders in the field also acknowledge the significance of the peer-relationship. According to Michael Walsh, the President and CEO of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP), “Done well, I believe sober coaching can be the difference between compliance with an aftercare plan and non-compliance and the longer someone is engaged in aftercare the better their chance at sustaining recovery.” But without a uniform accreditation system, there is little accountability to quality assurance, ethical practice, or peer integrity. 
In 2010, the need for greater organizational hierarchy came to a head, so Faces and Voices of Recovery began to establish a national accreditation system.
“Accreditation, not certification,” clarifies Tom Hill, Director of Programs at Faces and Voices. “Most people use the two interchangeably.” The distinction is important, he explains, because accrediting recovery communities, organizations, and programs will allow Faces and Voices to take a comprehensive approach to a range of issues rather than attempting a piecemeal solution by credentialing or licensing individual people. By providing a framework for effective oversight, management, and accountability, the system will work in tandem with current efforts to license individual workers.
A large part of the initiative’s value, which is scheduled to be ready in time for 2014’s Affordable Care Act, is its research potential, which could allow the peer recovery support services industry to achieve higher quality assurance and increased confidence from both the public and the field. But prior to tackling large-scale issues of access, accountability, infrastructure, and public confidence, Faces and Voices must address one of the most fundamental and controversial issues facing peer workers today: role definition and clarification. 
While providing coaching services as a part of his career as an interventionist, Walsh encountered perhaps the most common ethical concern with peer workers: whether recovery coaches are getting paid to sponsor newcomers. “I had a sponsor say that [recovery coaches and other peer workers are just paid sponsors] to me,” he says. “After a few months of watching me work with families who might not have otherwise continued to engage a professional, he told me he understood.” 
The road to mutual understanding and role clarification may not be an easy one, as the debate between experiential authority and formal education has a long history in the field of addiction medicine. But for many addicts looking for peer recovery support services like overeater Erika Alvarez, empathy is a priority: “I was looking for someone I could trust, someone I admired and someone who could understand me fully (someone who had lived an addiction and overcame it). Basically someone who could really guide me effectively.”
Because addicts sometimes feel vulnerable to the power differential between themselves and addiction professionals, and the external accountability that controls the relationship, peer workers are often in the unique position to receive sensitive information from addicts in a way that professional, clinical treatment providers may not. But for Neumann, recovery coaches should work in collaboration, rather than in conflict, with the medical community. “I’m not trying to take anything away from the medical or the research community,” she explains. “That’s not my platform. My platform is about doing the work, and if you need medication or AA to do the work then go get it.”
Salazar, who has been working with addicts since 1995, agrees that there is a place for everybody in the field of addiction, as long as they are licensed and certified. But he has some concerns about the language we have attached to certain peer recovery support services: “I do believe this term ‘coaching’ is terminology used in a different manner so that there’s no need to get licensed and certified," he says. "If you’re just coaching and not treating or counseling, there’s less of a need to get licensing. It’s a manipulation of words.”
When your troubled past is the leading credential for your current career, it's hard not to see the need for an organizational hierarchy with national standards. Both Walsh and Salazar mentioned hearsay concerning inappropriate coach/client relationships. Just a few days before I saw her, Neumann encountered a recovery coach who was still drinking. Without more structure, peer workers who work in private practice in states without certification have little accountability to anything but the law. Efforts to accredit and systematize a service that developed from a mentor-mentee-like relationship must be approached cautiously, though.
“With opportunities also come challenges,” says Hill, expressing his concerns about the potential over-professionalization of the practice. “We’re trying to build systems that will ensure that the ‘peerness’ will stay in tact.” White echoed his sentiments, adding, “Professionalization efforts to date are mimicking other roles whose knowledge sets are based on pathology and intervention paradigms rather than a recovery program.”
White’s work suggests that we take great care in order to avoid over-commercializing the role of peer recovery support specialists. Professionalization efforts can inadvertently undermine the very essence of these services because people tend to detach from their communities when they learn to view themselves and their professional organizations as the source of their authority. Without the support of their recovery communities, and without the full acceptance of the interdisciplinary teams they work with, peer workers can encounter a lack of support for their own recovery. 
While the public’s infatuation with the peer recovery support specialist has almost exclusively centered on the extreme cost of celebrity recovery, Hill does not want us to forget that anyone can be taken advantage of. In fact, treatment centers have a history of financially exploiting those in recovery. “We don’t want peers to become exploited,” he explains. “We want them to be valued for their life experiences and what they bring to the table.”
This isn’t lost on Bill McAdam, an alcoholic who lost 17 years of sobriety with a shocking suicide attempt. “I had always been somewhat skeptical about paying someone to give me information I already knew," he says. "But there was this feeling that I got from Lisa [Neumann] that as much as she was in the coaching business she explained the Universal Law [of Compensation] about what she did and the value I had to apply to it,” he concluded, “Without a shadow of a doubt it’s the best money I have ever spent.”
For Neumann, who is trained and certified through the International Coaching Academy (ICA), experience will always be the greatest teacher; but with all the horror stories, hearsay, and confusion surrounding her profession, she’s looking forward to the clarity and legitimacy the Faces and Voices accreditation system will provide.
“I’m not here to dazzle you or convince you that sobriety is awesome,” she explains, “I’m here to walk you through whatever it is you say you want in your life, and if it doesn’t work I’ll give you your money back.”
Still, for the famous, the busy, and the wealthy, there are plenty of expensive “Motivators and Cheerleaders” available to follow you around and search your belongings.
Chelsea Carmona is a freelance writer whose work has been featured in The Washington Post, Al Jazeera English, The Christian Science Monitor, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Guardian. She works for The OpEd Project, a social venture founded to increase the range of voices and ideas we hear in the world. Follow her on Twitter: @CarmonaChelsea