samhsa is-one of our priorities is recovery, and so our goal is to promote recovery though mobilizing all of the relevant agencies to involve the consumer and people in recovery in that effort, to make sure that families are educated and that treatment services are available and that we are working with child welfare, criminal justice, as well as primary care so that people have access to services. we want a recovery-oriented environment and that also includes housing, employment, as well as the health care that i mentioned. it's very important to connect recovery and recovery support services to the dimensions of a person's life which would include a home, having a purpose, living in a community and, in fact, having relationships and something to occupy them in a normal meaningful way. so recovery and recovery support services is a construct that samhsa proposes and uses in order to think about the individual living in a community with the appropriate kinds of supports and services that they need in order to make their life a quality one. they tell me i was there, but i don't remembe

and in policy weight, samhsa has been very proactive in providing grants to states to do sbirt. a lot of private insurers are now covering it because work through a number of administrations to put it into health insurance and a billing code and in health care you don't exist until you have a billing code. so, i think, it's one of the more exciting things that's happening in health care at the moment. which truly brings up a challenge talking about billing codes in terms of recovery services. have they achieved the-in some states, i believe they do have a billing code, correct joe? right and we're just fortunate that these are those great times that managed care has jumped on board and we are fortunate to have two billing codes to do peer services. in fact, to do peer recovery coaching and to do peer support groups. the other thing to how it connects to the sbirt is that sbirt is the screening piece and right now we are actually in training to see how can we do that early intervention and screening in the emergency rooms in the hospital for folks that's coming in with drug and a

well, we're worried in the drug and alcohol side and grateful for the efforts going on between samhsa legal action center. we've got a patient population that doesn't want somebody to know they are using an illicit drug. we are kind of grateful that this is moving slowly with careful consideration of each wave. our folks sometimes don't come to help because they are afraid somebody will find out they have a problem, so this has to be handled with extraordinary sensitivity. it's the same thing with the mental health consumer community. there's actually a large division because some people really do see the benefit of having a single healthcare record that contains all the needed information. but there's also a lot of history behind the mental health consumer movement that has left a lot of people very bitter and not trusting of the system. so we actually, we have many different names that we call ourselves as people who receive mental health services. some of us choose to call ourselves consumers of mental health services, some call themselves survivors. and generally when they use the

under the new health care reform, the affordable care act, and some changes that are underway at samhsa there will be more support for financing sober housing, and we'll be able to see maybe an improvement of that system for these people. we've been, we also want to keep in mind, though, that samhsa, the va, working with hud, pursuing permanent supportive housing as an integral part of treatment strategy, it becomes then the services associated with the housing. what sober living housing offers is an environment. permanent supportive housing, however, may be not be as focused initially on recovery, and so we need to facilitate those services in those settings. because vouchers are being handed out by hud and these programs are being facilitated, but we do need to make sure that there's sufficient services available to address the psychological and-and the substance-related issues that a person may experience. and how do people gain access to that information in order for them to go and basically, i wouldn't say demand, but really negotiate for those types of services, barbara? well, the

well, samhsa has eight strategic initiatives. we are focusing on everything from prevention right straight through to several different populations. we are looking at trauma and justice issues. we are looking at the military, because the military right now and the military families are really using the services that we have and are showing signs of both mental illness issues around depression and anxiety and suicide as well as addiction. and we know a little bit more about addiction, but we are really learning now some of the other areas of mental health. we're also focusing in on health electronics, technology so that we can start to speak to each other across all systems. so the doctors, physical doctors can talk to your psychiatrist. and we can ... and therapists can talk to other therapists, not only in the united states but across the world where there has been some other advances. and we're doing several other issues. we are looking at the recovery, which i know that you... this is why we are all here, to look further into

we have a saying in samhsa, which is, "behavioral health is essential to overall health." and that is our goal, is to help our country understand: by looking at and treating and preventing and intervening into behavioral health, substance abuse, and mental health issues, we will save our country a lot of money and a lot of health. and dr. greene, it really goes beyond the treatment of mental illnesses and alcohol and drug use disorders, correct? i mean, there are other complicating factors of individuals that have those problems that then develop or may already be in the dna of the person that has those problems and then the problems are exacerbated, like diabetes, cardiovascular issues, is that correct? yes, the patients who have a mental health disorder may have other chronic illnesses and, as such, when they don't take care of their mental health, they may not take care of their overall body's health, too. other things may get ignored, and whenever you ignore a problem and let it fester, you can imagine that the cost to health care becomes triple that which you could ha

for a copy of this program or other programs in the road to recovery series, call samhsa at 1-800-662help or order online at recoverymonth.gov and click multimedia. every september national recovery month provides an opportunity for communities like yours to raise awareness of substance use and mental health problems to highlight the effectiveness of treatment and that people can and do recover. in order to help you 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 recovery issues, visit the recovery month web site at www.recoverymonth.gov or call 1-800-662-help. [music] >> thank you for your patience. i m leader pelosi's district rector in san francisco. i've been with the for about nine years, and we are excited to put on this forum today to help people learn