mental and substance use disorders. joining us in our panel today are dr. h. wesley clark, director, center for substance abuse treatment, substance abuse and mental health services administrationu.s. department of health and human services, rockville, maryland; dr. thomas mclellan, director, center for substance abuse solutions, philadelphia, pennsylvania; dr. alexandre laudet, director, center for the study of addictions and recovery, national development and research institutes, incorporated, new york, new york; dr. candace peterson, associate scientist, evaluation shared service, university of wisconsin population health institute, madison, wisconsin. dr. clark, what does research to practice mean and what does it mean for a methodology or a practice to be evidence-based? research to practice is a concept that captures the evolvement in the research community with regard to various aspects of, in this case, substance abuse or mental health care in an effort to increase the ability to positively affect the individual who's affected by it. so, evidence-based, then, is mobilizing administrative, clinical, and research information to enhance the quality of care and the effectiv

and recovering from mental and substance use disorders within the context of the family. joining us in our panel today are frances harding, director, center for substance abuse prevention, substance abuse and mental health services administration department of health and human services, rockville, maryland. dr. nancy young, executive director, children and family futures, irvine, california. erica asselin, family support specialist and medication-assisted treatment advocate, fresh start, square one, holyoke, massachusetts. dr. kim sumner-mayer, senior advisor, phoenix house center on addiction and the family new york, new york. fran, what is the definition of family within our society currently? that's a very good question. family has changed, the definition. we used to think of family as two parents living in a house with two children and probably a pet or two. now, we have a wide variety of families. we have families that are one parent, single parent, being raised by friends, being raised by grandparents, relatives of all sorts. the good thing about that is it brings the ability of a lot of diversity, a lot of ethnic cultures are different, and i think that across america we have a lot better chance to have families describ

and recovery in behavioral health for individuals with a disability. joining us in our panel today are dr. h. westley clark, director, center of substance abuse treatment, substance abuse and mental health services administration, u.s. department of health and human services, rockville, maryland. john de miranda, executive director, national association on alcohol, drugs and disability inc. and president and chief executive officer, stepping stone of san diego, san diego, california. dr. barbara l. kornblau, j.d., disabilities attorney and professor, school of health professions and studies, university of michigan-flint, flint, michigan. ed hammett, consumer advocate, marbury, maryland. dr. clark, how many people in the united states have a disability? that number is not exactly clear, but we estimate roughly 53 million people have a disability, and it may be larger because, again, it turns on new classification schema. but at least 53 million. john, how do we define a disability? well, a disability is really kind of a legal and an administrative term. and in some quarters you might be considered disabled, but by another jurisdiction you might not be considered disabled. but i use the term, often, physical sen

clark, in addition to what ed has said, the substance abuse and mental health services administration and csat, through the attcs, and are there other resources where individuals can avail themselves of some information to help them with some of these issues? well, we get-we've got information on disabilities and substance use disorder. but there are other groups. barbara was talking about-bazelon center is one, and there's a disability- dredf, the disabilities rights educational fund, i think, but we'll-we'll provide you with that information. okay, and what do they do, barbara? they're advocates, and they have a lot of information on their web sites about people with disabilities and- and what your rights are and what kinds of things you can do. and why is it important for people to really begin to avail themselves of this information? are there steps that they can take? well, as i said earlier, there are no ada police. nobody is going to come out and tell people, you know, tell recovery centers this is what you have to do. it's really up to the person to become their own self-advoc

. >> the substance abuse and mental health services administration recently released their annual report and found that 22.5 million americans aged 12 and older use illicit drugs and rates remain stable since the last survey in 2010. marijuana continues to be the most commonly used drug. the latest 2011 national survey on drug use and health marks the 23rd national observance of national recovery month. >> already. good morning. doctor wesley clark, director of the center of behavior statistics and quality and substance use -- [inaudible] on behalf of samsha, i welcome you here. we have the observance of recovery month, and the theme this year is join the voices for recovery, it's worth it. indeed, as we look at favorable results depicted in the data today, we're making progress, but we have to remain vigilant as much needs to be done to provide quality services of those in need and promote prevention in the america. as samhas reflects over the past two decades, they would not have been possible without our colleagues in the field who contributed to the success of our 20 years of service