in 1997, working with csat, a group of national and community-based organizations, government entities, and the recovery community, became the first planning partners. these partnerships are the driving force in the campaign, even today, and helps csat each year to determine the theme and messaging for the effort. in 1998, treatment works was renamed national alcohol and drug addiction recovery month. the observance was expanded to include the celebration of individuals and their families who have achieved recovery as well as those who serve in the field of prevention, treatment, and recovery. nineteen ninety-nine brought even more milestones. recovery month events held around the nation included recovery walks in connecticut and parents across the bridge, a labor day celebration in oregon. by 2000, the number of community events held in celebration of recovery month had doubled from the previous year and production began on the first full season of the road to recovery television program. nice job. you can recover from drug and alcohol addiction, the message today at recovery day in s

have sahmsa's center for mental health services participating in this year's activities along with csat and csap, as we call them. getting the message of recovery right is critical because people take action based on what they hear and see and, most importantly, what they experience. experience shapes our knowledge, our values, our attitudes, our beliefs, and our action. i have this wonderful job in which the drug problem is an equality opportunity problem. it doesn't really care about sex or race or ethnicity. and you know what? the drug problem doesn't care whether it has a "d" after it or an "r" after it or any other party affiliation. this is a national problem. we have to work much harder, and we should take this report that sahmsa did, should take this report for the wakeup call for which it is. wow, the national recovery month press conference here at the national press club- exciting, exciting opportunity. i'm very familiar with the press. believe it or not, i received a little press a few times in my active addiction. you laugh, but it's true. but i think the important thing is

clark, i know that in csat, for example, a lot of special population clients go to mainstream programs, to nonspecialized programs. what kind of success are we seeing with that? well, the issue of cultural competence is really the important discussion point here. we do find that programs that are run by american indians, alaska natives, for american indians, alaska natives or programs that target hispanics, run by hispanics, tend to produce better outcomes than programs that are not sensitive to those issues. so we use sort of a bias force paradigm. there are programs that are not run by the specific population group, but have modules that are targeted to the unique needs of that group. so they do not as well as the programs that are run by the specific population group, but they do better than programs that are general. so when we look at the outcomes of, say, a woman in a male program or a general program that doesn't have any gender specific programming, she doesn't do as well as the program that is targeted to, for women, run for women or a program that has gender-specific issues.

this program came from a federal grant that we receive, from csat and aaft. and what is done is assertive adolescent family treatment. each individual is unique. each individual needs a variety of services to help them on the road to recovery from the chronic relapsing disease of alcoholism and drug abuse and the chronic nature of mental illness. in addition, there are many other people affected by these illnesses who are in need of ongoing services as well. i've been doing this for 14 years and i finally found something that i can see the change, which is having the youth come in, having the families come in, putting them together and finding the things that they really value. i think that's the most important thing of our program. and also the environment that we sit in. when they come in, they feel accepted, they feel we're very warm, we speak spanish, we're bilingual because most of our clients are, you know, bilingual, so i think that they feel, they feel at home. awsome to see you today, before we begin our session, you know, can i offer you a snack or

well i believe very strongly that the work that, that csat has done and cathy nugent within one of our branches, with the addiction technology transfer centers, is beginning to do that quite a bit. i think that it is a very conscious effort at you know, we're, we're struggling internally and, and working at it. and so you know the process is, it's almost like eating an elephant, you know, how do you begin to eat an elephant, it's going to be one bite at a time. so we, we are beginning to make inroads into that area, particularly with the materials from, that are being developed within the attc. certainly the planning partners for recovery month, right daphne? yes indeed, that's been such a valuable group to move the conversation forward throughout the year, not just in september during recovery month, but throughout the year, to keep this issue elevated. so the question is, is what type of system is somebody coming into? i think it's a system that needs to be all encompassing, that can provide services wherever, whichever doorway the person chooses. and i'm, i'm just really grateful to