New Recovery

ALL ADDICTS ARE DIFFERENT — NOW THERE'S A TREATMENT THAT IS TOO

As a professional experienced with alcohol and drug addiction, you know those struggling with this debilitating disease face a long journey towards sobriety – one that requires a customized, leading-edge recovery program with a personalized approach. Unfortunately, there are few programs today that go above and beyond the standardized treatment formula to improve the odds for long-term sobriety. That's why Enterhealth, a premier alcohol and drug addiction recovery center, with its proven therapeutic approaches, neurology, technology, and leading anti-addiction medications, is earning a reputation as the better way to recover.

Here are just a few reasons why Enterhealth stands out from more traditional alcohol and drug addiction treatment programs. To learn more on how Enterhealth can help you and your clients, call 800.388.4601 or visit us at enterhealth.com.

Reason 1: Neuro therapy. In order to help clients overcome physical trauma to the brain caused by addiction, Enterhealth utilizes neurological therapy techniques. This integration of state-of-the-art diagnostics of the brain with clinical therapies involves an MRI to assess any damage caused to the brain by alcohol and/or drug use, an EEG to assess risk level of seizure, and a written neuro-psych test to check for cognitive brain function loss. The results of this evaluation support a personalized treatment plan.

Reason 2: Anti-addiction medications. Rather than rely on talk therapy alone, Enterhealth offers clients access to the latest, most effective anti-addiction medications such as Suboxone, Campral, and Vivitrol. This can help not only repair damage to the brain caused by alcohol and drug use, but also reduce cravings, providing them the opportunity to more fully participate and benefit from treatment.

Reason 3: Length of stay. In contrast to most residential treatment facilities that offer a typical length of stay of 28-30 days, Enterhealth recommends a customized length of stay based on the client's unique needs and recovery progress. This better ensures the client has the tools they need to continue sobriety post residential treatment.

Reason 4: Dual diagnosis. The Enterhealth facility is designed to diagnosis and treat both the addiction as well as other mental health disorders – which in most cases is what creates the desire for alcohol or drugs in the first place. By treating the mental disorder in tandem, typically with personalized, private therapy, the odds for relapse are greatly reduced.

Reason 5: Wellness emphasis. Enterhealth's personalized wellness program includes individual time with a trainer as well as a dietician to address physical and dietary patterns that are recommended for balance and healthy living.

Reason 6: Balance of group & private therapy. The Enterhealth facility is limited to 16 clients, offering an industry-low therapist-to-client ratio of 1:3. This intimate setting allows more focus to be placed on individualized, one-on-one therapy, while also supporting a menu of both small and large group therapies.

Reason 7: Post Residential Support. As your clients transitioned back to your care from the residential addiction treatment program, Enterhealth’s online Life Care program can assist them in continued recovery through access of Enterhealth's online recovery tools 24 hours a day from anywhere in the world.

We invite you to schedule a tour and meet our team. To learn more about what makes Enterhealth a better way to recovery and how it can help your clients, call 800.388.4601 or visit us at www.enterhealth.com

JOIN TOGETHER MERGES INTO CASA

NEW YORK, N.Y., January 15, 2009 – The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University announced today that Join Togethertm will be merged into CASA and David L. Rosenbloom, Ph.D., will become the President and Chief Executive Officer of CASA on May 1, 2009, succeeding Joseph A. Califano, Jr., the former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare who founded CASA in 1992 and has been its Chairman and President since that time. Califano will continue to serve as CASA chairman.

“Naming David Rosenbloom CASA’s new president is the result of more than two years of work by the Board which involved an analysis of CASA’s first 16 years, discussions with 100 individuals and institutions about CASA achievements and potential, the needs of the substance abuse field, and an intensive search involving a number of qualified candidates. The Board and I are convinced that David Rosenbloom is the individual best suited to move CASA forward and increase its influence and activities,” said Califano. “Merging Join Together into CASA will greatly strengthen CASA’s ability to inform the American people of the economic and social costs of substance abuse and its impact on their lives, make CASA’s research findings and recommendations widely available to those working on the front lines to prevent and treat substance abuse and addiction, and significantly expand our nationwide advocacy capacity. The combination of CASA and Join Together will produce a total far greater than the sum of the parts.”

Rosenbloom, 64, has been Director of Join Togethertm since he founded it in 1991. He is a Professor of Public Health at the Boston University School of Public Health. For eight years, from 1973 to 1985, he was Commissioner of the Department Health and Hospitals for the city of Boston and CEO of Boston City Hospital. For several years after that he was president and CEO of Health Data Institute, a company that pioneered the clinical analysis of medical claims data and developed managed care techniques. He received his BA from Colgate University in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1970.

“Progress in addiction prevention and treatment is essential in order to reform America’s health care system and address most other critical social problems facing the nation. Combining the resources of CASA and Join Together creates the critical mass needed to focus the attention of our nation and its leaders on the need for effective prevention and treatment policies to achieve such progress. It blends the formidable research of CASA and the public and policy attention that CASA has attracted with the unique web based education and advocacy and tools of Join Together. I am excited by the opportunity to combine and lead these talented teams and work with Joe Califano,” said Rosenbloom.

Join Togethertm is the leading provider of news, information and continuing education on tobacco, alcohol and illegal, prescription and performance enhancing drugs to policy makers, community leaders, parents, and front line prevention and treatment practitioners; all free of charge to more than 50,000 subscribers and 7,000 daily users of its website http://www.jointogether.org/. Its advocacy campaigns promote adoption of prevention and treatment policies and practices that research has shown to be effective.

“CASA is the premier think/action tank in the field with the brightest group of professionals ever assembled under one roof to research and combat substance abuse and addiction. David has the right experience, talent and creativity to enhance this national asset. We are fortunate that he has accepted this challenge,” said Califano. “I look forward to working with him.”

CASA is the only national organization that brings together under one roof all the professional disciplines needed to study and combat all types of substance abuse as they affect all aspects of society. CASA and its staff of more than 50 professionals has issued 66 reports and white papers, published one book, conducted demonstration programs focused on children, families and schools at 224 sites in 87 cities and counties in 34 states plus Washington, DC and two Native American tribal reservations, held 17 conferences attended by professionals and others from 49 states, and has been evaluating the effectiveness of drug and alcohol treatment in a variety of programs and drug courts. CASA is the creator of the nationwide initiative Family Day—A Day to Eat Dinner With Your Childrentm –the fourth Monday in September—the 28th in 2009—that promotes parental engagement as a simple and effective way to reduce children’s risk of smoking, drinking and using illegal drugs. In May 2007, CASA’s Chairman Joseph A. Califano, Jr., called for a fundamental shift in the nation’s attitude about substance abuse and addiction with publication of his book, HIGH SOCIETY: How Substance Abuse Ravages America and What To Do About It. For more information visit http://www.casacolumbia.org/.
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source: http://www.casacolumbia.org

States Unleash New Ignition Lock Laws

Starting this month, drivers convicted of driving while intoxicated in at least six new states will face a hi-tech hurdle to repeat offenses: ignition interlocks. After a high profile national campaign, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and other organizations convinced several state legislatures to pass laws mandating the dashboard installation of small ignition interlock device activated by a breathalyzer.

“It’s amazingly inconvenient, “ David Malham of the Illinois MADD group told Associated Press. “But the flip side of the inconvenience is death.”

Will high technology really help keep drunk drivers off the streets and highways? Malham, quoted in the Chicago Tribune, insisted that “it’s not about changing human nature, it’s about science interfering and preventing reckless behavior.” Maltham also said he is looking forward to technology that will be able to sniff a car’s interior, scan the eyes of drivers, and test sweat on the steering wheel before allowing the driver to turn the key.

In addition to Illinois, states that passed laws requiring the use of ignition locks for drunken driving convictions of varying degrees include Nebraska, Colorado, Washington, and Alaska. Other states with similar but unevenly enforced laws on the books include South Carolina, Arizona, New Mexico, and Louisiana.

Illinois is attempting to work around the program’s most obvious flaws—the convicted drinker could drive someone else’s car, or get someone else to blow into the breath-monitoring device—by instituting heavy penalties for non-compliance if the driver is caught cheating.

Lined up in opposition to ignition lock legislation, thus far, is the American Beverage Institute, a lobby group for restaurant owners. In the AP article, the Institute’s Sarah Longwell objected to the fact that states might decide to apply the laws to people other than repeat offenders—to anyone who, on any given night, blows a 0.08 or a 0.10, the common denominators of alcohol intoxication in most states.

Sounding a bit more like the National Rifle Association (NRA) than perhaps it intended, the Beverage Institute offered a dire vision of a slippery slope: “We foresee a country in which you’re no longer able to have a glass of wine, drink a beer at a ball game or enjoy a champagne toast at a wedding. There will be a de facto zero tolerance policy imposed on people by their cars.”

My modest prediction: A tangle of state lawsuits and questions over civil liberties, the more so since many of the laws are first-pass efforts and subject to interpretation.

source: Addiction Inbox