Advocacy is defined as the public support or recommendation of a particular cause or policy.
We advocate for the long term recovery support needed for those in the most critical form of substance abuse, addiction. On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 (Public Law 116-94), which allocated FY 2020 funding for the Recovery Hosing Program. The statutue provides that the grant funds shall be treated as Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds under Title 1 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974
We advocate for giving victims in recovery from addiction access to the sober environment NEEDED to live happier, healthier lives. Although housing is important to everyone, it is critical to people needing the proper amount of time to heal from addiction through abstinence. Those in recovery from alcohol and drugs need the peer support and safe, sober, and structured living environment to survive. We need all voices to be heard in our demand for the funding and policy changes needed to make the Farm a reality and a beacon of light in the survival for those with the greatest need. We look forward to educating presentations in 2024 to challenge the idea that medication assisted treatments should not be the end of the process but a bridge along the way to living sober and abstinent lives.
Abstinence is instrumental in healing the neurological impacts of addiction. In conjunction with sustained abstinence is the need for a strong support system especially in the first 3 years of sobriety. During this period, the need for learning and building the skills that facilitate growth and healing are imperative. The need to be part of a community is essential to the emotional needs such as the need to be valued, productive, trusted, and loved by self and family. We believe the Farm model provides the best chance for reaching long term abstinence.
In our country, long term support is given for the treatment of cancer, a life threatening disease. The five year mark is used to determine success. During that 5 year period, the patient will have all modern therapies available that have proven to be successful and will be given the best chance of recovery possible. Why aren't we offering victims of addiction the same? Is it because they aren't worthy of spending the money? Is it because we choose to believe that the insurance and pharmaceutical companies have the best alternative?
Now envision the treatment for opiate addiction. This is also a life threatening disease. A five year abstinence is also used to determine success. Current treatments dictate that you receive the medicated treatment buprenorphine along with group and individual counseling to reduce the likelihood of relapse and death from overdose. The medications received are pharmaceutical-grade opioids which help to manage your addiction and ensure the quality of the drug.
We know that 85% of the people who stay in recovery for a period of five years stay in recovery for the rest of their lives. We need to do better.
Although persons in recovery are protected under federal fair housing law, unfounded fears fueled by stigma result in widespread housing discrimination at the state and local level.
These are the people who do not have much time left before their addiction takes their life.. These are the people for whom the medication assisted treatments will not or did not work. These are people who at this point, have lost everything they have owned to the disease of addiction. These are people who have lost their friends, family, children, jobs, transportation, and homes. Many of these people have been incarcerated for their disease. These are people who live in fear, shame, guilt, despair and loss of self on a daily basis. Their world consists of one thing: survival. But the disease has damaged their brain to believe that survival is getting the addictive substance, no matter how, much like the desparate need for food or water to one who is starving to death or dying of thirst.
We advocate for the victims of addiction
who, because of a difference in their DNA, are part of the estimated 10% who become victim of the most severe type of substance abuse, addiction. I imagine this is what life was like in the leper colonies. Thought to be disturbed, unclean, cursed, unloved and shamed, they were shunned and treated like animals. But they were people, not animals. Inside the sick, worn out and damaged body is a child who is afraid, who feels unloved with a self loathing for what he or she has become or done. We need to stop blaming them for their addiction and support in their recovery process. We strongly believe that someone who has suffered brain damage from addiction overdoses be assigned a "navigator", someone to help him or her (and his or her family) try to "navigate" through the services and options available until such a time that the person is stabilized, most likely through medication and counseling. A mandatory assigning of a personal navigator would be a great relief to the family and a big step in the journey. It's easy to tell if someone has suffered brain damage, he or she loses short term memory, repeating the same thing over and over. He or she may get very mean, or even violent. We advocate for a navigator to guide both the patient and the family unit at this point.
We advocate for families of persons suffering the disease of addiction.
The families of people in substance abuse are traumatized on a daily basis. They get to watch while their son, daughter, sister, brother, parent, grandparent disappear into this dangerous and dark world. They have little support. They research and listen to recovery "experts" that might have answers. Each member of the family may have a different idea of how to "fix" the problem. Most friends will avoid the issue entirely by not talking about it. They too struggle with how to help their friend. If one thing is certain, it is that there are no "absolute" answers. Each case of addiction is different and the only thing that they have in common is that each case is different. Medical professionals are under hipaa laws and cannot discuss your child's disease with you if they are 18 or older, even if it has been shown that the family dynamic is one of the best opportunities for help and support. But they need guidance from the outside. To lose someone you love because you don't know how to help or because you have no support is cruel inhumanity. Families are left on their own to research a miracle therapy that will fix their child but there are many different ideas out there. What to do while you watch your child die a slow and painful death? Anything you can to get through the day. We advocate that family counseling be available to all going through this. Not group therapy sessions but real intervention therapy on a personal level. The families live in crisis when the dynamic includes addiction and yet no support is offered to them other than outside support groups (if you can find them.) Even if you can find them, most families will not seek help outside - remember they are living in a traumatic situation. It is important that their be help tat will come to the family.
We advocate that more money be put into more useful and productive research be done.
We are putting so much money into harm reduction without keeping actual data that can be analyzed. We know that medication assisted treatments save lives. That's logical. But for how long do they work? Do the statisics of less deaths factor in the number that have already been lost. What percentage of people successfully use medication? Do we know the long term effects of medication treatments. What are the statistics of the number of people who can successfully taper off medication to live a healthy life in sobriety and for how long can they sustain recovery?
Research tends to be led and funded by the insurance and pharmaceutical companies who would quite naturally skew testing and statistical collection to fit their most profitable end result. We need more unbiased research from our government. Our own government has a bias to find the cheapest answer possible to show results. We need to join in solidarity to get the answers to all of our questions.
