recovery works. they are employed, have families, pay taxes, vote, and volunteer in their community. e are americans who have reclaimed their lives and are now giving back. this is the very spirit and nature of recovery month. the efforts of thousands of individuals throughout the country yielded more than 900 events nationwide supporting the 2010 theme: "join the voices for recovery: now more than ever." recovery month promotes the benefits of substance use and mental health disorder treatment and recovery- for individuals, their families, and their communities. it recognizes the contributions of treatment providers and promotes the message that behavioral health is an essential component of health services, that prevention works, and that treatment is effective. people can and do recover. this year's recovery month theme is "now more than ever"- it reminds us of how much has been accomplished in these very exciting and challenging months, but how much we need to focus on a wide range of issues. our principle focus on recovery month is celebrating recovery. some of you today are cele

every september, national alcohol and drug addiction recovery month provides an opportunity for communities like yours to raise awareness of alcohol and drug use disorders and highlight the effectiveness of treatment. in order to help your organization plan events and activities in commemoration of this year's recovery month observance, the free recovery month kit offers ideas, materials, and

every september, national alcohol and drug addiction recovery month provides an opportunity for communities like yours to raise awareness of alcohol and drug use disorders and highlight the effectiveness of treatment. in order to help your organization plan events and activities in commemoration of this year's recovery month observance, the free recovery month kit offers ideas, materials, and tools for planning, organizing, and realizing an event or outreach campaign that matches your goals and resources. to obtain your copy of this year's recovery month kit and gain access to other free publications and materials related to addiction treatment and recovery issues, visit the recovery month web site at www.recoverymonth.gov or call 1-800-662-help. it's important that everyone become involved, because addiction is our nation's number one health problem and treatment is our best tool to address it. (music)

within the native american communities, in order for recovery to really take hold, because alcohol as an addiction is real prevalent among our people, the community has to heal from within. you can have an army of sources coming from the outside, but unless the community is vested in it and heals itself, whatever you do will be moot. and i think increasingly, going back to national alcohol and drug addiction recovery month, the fact that individuals are more increasingly coming forward and telling their stories and talking about their own recovery- i think- and paying back, as you were saying, they can not only be used to help people create a peer support, but also to create a sense within that community block to help prevent other folks from having to deal with this issue. role models have to come from the community. it's not for a super star, it has to be seen as real, your neighbor, your father, your uncle. and it's so crucial because sometimes we think the role model should be the basketball star and they are so untouchable that they can't relate it. but if we create these role mo

recovery? and if you have a role, what role do you think you would need to play? i've been taught that that the whole family as well as the community plays a role in your recovery, so. i think you really have to love them and help them through it and don't prosecute them and make them think that they're doing something wrong and, and give them support. if the person is open to letting you help them, just really being there to support them, you know, give them that emotional support that they need. i do have a role, i think people whose, you know, seeking for help, they do need support from others because obviously they cannot cope by themselves with the issues they may have. so i guess my role will be like just be there and supportive and try to be a friend and understand what they are going through. i'd probably just want to like speak into their life as much as possible and try to encourage them that i think realization for them is the most important to realize that they have an addiction problem and then to go about trying to help them through recovery and being as supportive as possible in the process. do you think recovery is

recovery. joining us in our panel today are: daphne baille, director of communications, treatment alternatives for safe communities, tasc incorporated, chicago, illinois. dr. john kelly, associate professor in psychiatry, massachusetts general hospital, harvard medical school, boston, massachusetts. lureen mcneil, director, bureau of recovery services, new york state office of alcoholism and substance abuse services, new york, new york. carlos hardy, director of public affairs, baltimore substance abuse systems, incorporated, baltimore, maryland. john, what role does language play in forming public opinion on addiction and mental health issues? i think language plays a critical role in the way that, after all, it's the, it conveys the meaning of, of what we're trying to express. and so i think it plays a very important role and we should think carefully about the terms that we use because of that. so, why does some language impede the understanding, lureen, of, of our field and the way we refer to people? well i think particularly now that we have this new recovery framework, people are holdin

talk to us a little bit about the recovery community support programs, because in some states we do have a cadre of individuals who are in recovery who basically provide each other with the support networks, and-which are very effective. you know, i think this is-this came in some ways out of an aa model years ago where the assumption was that it was up to the individuals themselves and government really couldn't help this or paid programming really couldn't help this. and i think what we understand is that, while that is absolutely critical, that sometimes the people who are trying to help each other need a little support themselves. so things i talked about earlier, some transportation assistance, just supporting each other and families, and just having opportunities to socialize in ways that are positive, so there's a whole lot about this program that allows a little more flexibility than we normally would put into a program, which tends to like to fund counseling and detox and things of that nature. so this is more the life issues and supporting people who are in recovery who are try

and, but i think this is about the recovery community as a whole. we're trying to put a positive face on recovery, not a negative face on addiction. and there's the big difference between addiction and recovery and to portray addiction is necessary. but it's also more necessary to portray a correct event on how recovery is in people's lives. and that's what i talked about the anonymity issue is we need more people, successful people in recovery standing up and saying, "i'm in recovery and i'm proud of it." what about the family and friends of people in recovery? they're in recovery too, right? so recovery month isn't just about the addict or the alcoholic. it's also about people who've been impacted by alcoholism or drug addiction. it's really everyone that is affected by this issue that needs to really get engaged with the media or online and really have a voice, correct doug? yeah. i think social support is obviously part of what we're talking about here. i mean, you know, we know from studies of lots of public health programs that delivering a mes

gets off or could potentially be doing more harm than good, one of the great things about the recovery community and the treatment community is they're willing to pick up the phone and say, let's sit down and talk about, you know, what the implications of this show are and how it might be impacting people in recovery and how they feel about themselves and how they interact with society. and, quite frankly, every time that i've seen that happen, the writers, they've been open to the conversation. they may not change the storyline. they definitely don't go back and revise what has happened, but they're open. we set up the conversation and i would say most of the times we've come out with a more productive approach to the storyline in the future. ron, as a person in recovery, do you watch with that eagle eye and do you take action and would you encourage other people in recovery to do that, as mark has noted? yes. i do watch with an eagle eye. we were just speaking about a storyline where it's always about picking up that next drink or taking that next drug after getting clean or sober in treatment

things that we are trying to fund, and it's like the recovery-oriented systems of care or the recovery communities, because we're trying to look at things like when people are first in recovery, trying to do things, to do what james talks about- something as simple as transportation may be one of the biggest issues or just how to fill out resumes or how to-you know, just some very basic stuff like that. so we're trying to put the right kinds of dollars out, we're trying to put the right kinds of materials out, we're trying to make all of that available and then-and then get the concept of recovery in part through the way that we collect data and say this is what we're trying to get to. we frankly also try to support people in recovery. i think you're heard, and maybe we haven't said it explicitly, but people, the mutual support approach is as much as anything, is most important. when people have other people around them who are going through this, who have experienced it, who've gotten through it, and who can say hey, james, hey, pam, hey, tom, you know, you're screwing up, you need to shift. if i

and they will aid us and aid you in your recovery. >> so, building that communities and building the trust and i go back to saying, it helps in post disaster recovery. the trust is so important i can't stress to you. if broadmoore was not organized before the storm i'm sure different fractions could have broken out in the community that would have prevented us from coming together as one unit being actively engaged prekatrina helped. it discourages fragmentations and encourages community. it you see new leadership but you can try your best today to get more people involved, knock on doors, have social events. i was lynching to liz mc gill saying they are building social capacity and having parties and some laughed but that's how you build community. it's coming together. if there is no other way because we are more than bricks and mortars we are people and social. you want to encourage this new leadership. this is one of the things that after the storm when i held the first general meeting in broadmoore in january of 2006. we had over 600 people show up in prekatrina i had 75. we embr

and they will aid us and aid you in your recovery. >> so, building that communities and building the trust and i go back to saying, it helps in post disaster recovery. the trust is so important i can't stress to you. if broadmoore was not organized before the storm i'm sure different fractions could have broken out in the community that would have prevented us from coming together as one unit being actively engaged prekatrina helped. it discourages

team trauma recovery using team work community. it's amazing what work they do for our young teens. >> i want to give mad props to george. i heard your story today. i have goose bumps, because i am so proud of you. jeff adachi helping you get there. go prosperous. i think the word that i have been using and i think it's true, it's integrity. if you go with passion. like jeff said in his speech, check yourself at the door and go forward and things will happen. don't try to solve the world a problems by yourself. in you can solve yours, you world will prosper and get better. thanks. so i run the trust clinic. i am one of the pediatricians. about 20 of us. there's a young man sitting here. i know you. from the general. her son is the tallest. i know this is about the schools. we want you to know, we are there at the general to help you. i help work with to 2 trauma surgions. i work in the team clinic. a lot of us know these kids. a lot of these kids are getting shots. 100 people almost got murdered last year. first graders are taking

you're still trying to facilitate the recovery, whether it's a gay, lesbian, bisexual individual, an american indian, alaska native, someone from the hispanic communitywhite from appalachia. you're still trying to facilitate recovery. so that is the one thing that we have in terms of cultural competence and we have to radiate out from that by bringing in all the other idioms and icons and beliefs associated with substance use, but we're trying to achieve that. so that gives us a good position to start from. very good. when we come back, i want to get more into really the specifics among groups of what the, basically, the approach should be for each one of these groups within the context of providing services. we'll be right back. well, i think treatment programs that recognize that language and cultural icons and support and cultural imagery play a critical role in how a person relates both psychologically and socially could position themselves to do a better job at reaching the person who is affected. so one size does not fit all, but the strategy is one of welcoming and incentivizing through environmental and social and psychological support. so wh

we talk about recovery and getting this community into it is absolutely crucial. without it, we can't turn the country around. >> in about a hour, congressman honda is set to deliver his remarks on technology, innovation and recovery. >>> many people woke up to ice on the windshield. one man says he has been waking up early to wipe the ice off his wife's car. redwood city, the fog made it difficult for at least one driver to spot a christmas tree in the middle of interstate 280, about 5:00 this morning. the acura hit the tree, rolled over and landed with its wheels up along the embankment. the highway patrol says that a person inside suffered minor injuries. >> checking out with our meteorologist mark tamayo with a look at the forecast to see if this fog will continue. >> the fog is still in the forecast for today and also into the weekend. it will have a big impact on our temperatures. it's still fairly chilly in a few area neighborhoods. looking at the map, a few activities in the region. we'll show you this up towards santa rosa and napa and fairfield, temperatu

the community determined that the restoration of our public library was vital to our recovery process. because it's a place where you share information, you get information and build community in the process. it's definitely one of our top priorities today. since then and through the will that will recovery that strategy i showed you earlier was forming partnerships. i'm happy to say today that the broadmoore community has been able to raise 2.3 million dollars privately, on our own to restore or library. it's now a top priority in the city. and we will hopefully see it renovated within the start the renovation in the next couple of months. again, the people raised that money. we wrote grants to bring our library back. [applause]. these are some of the things you can do should a disaster happen. we cannot depend on government we have to depend on ourselves. that's a part of the message here this afternoon. and security, just making sure that we are safe. and those quality of life issues i talked about earlier, we can do a lot of this planning today. so just learn from broadmoore we re