brought to you by the us department of health and human services. [music] well my passion is really advocacy around treatment and recovery issues. i've had the, the wonderful career over the past 16, 17 years, of being a direct service provider, being a treatment and recovery advocate, to heading up a large advocacy organization to actually working inside right now. and my primary purpose is to make sure that to make sure that the next person, that person that's still out there using now, when they do have this aha moment, that the system is ready to welcome them and to embrace them and support them as they begin their journey on recovery. what recovery has brought to me is an ability to take it to the next level. and, and be vocal about it, not be ashamed, you know, not hide behind a wall because you're afraid that oh well, god they're going to know but i'm a recovering addict. well i like to say that i'm in long-term recovery as opposed to an addict or an alcoholic because there's more positive sounding because people still run with, well addict, o

brought to you by the us department of health and human services. they tell me i was there but i don't remember. i don't know where i really was. i do not know what i had for breakfast. i do not know who won the game. i don't recognize this man. if you or someone you know is struggling with a drug or alcohol problem, there is a solution: recovery. call 1-800-662-help for information and for hope. through treatment my life's a whole lot brighter now. brought to you by the us department of health and human services. [music] language is such an important part of communicating with people what addiction, mental health disorders and recovery is all about. a lot of people have stereotypes about what these, what these disorders are all about and they're not accurate. and so using language can really help people understand what those disorders are about, what they mean, and how people are living successfully in recovery today. [music] our stories have power was the training that was developed by faces and voices of recovery in conjunction with funding from s

of using prescription and over-the-counter medications properly. joining us in our panel today are dr. h. westley clark, director, center for substance abuse treatment, substance abuse and mental health services administration, u.s. department of health and human services, rockville, maryland; dr. timothy condon, deputy director, national institute on drug abuse, national institutes of health, u.s. department of health and human services, rockville, maryland; dr. barbara krantz, chief executive officer and medical director, hanley center, west palm beach, florida; beverly gmerek, prescription drug abuse prevention program coordinator, peer assistance services inc., denver, colorado. dr. clark, how prevalent is prescription drug misuse in the united states? well, we estimate that there are approximately 15 million people who misuse prescription drugs in the united states, and that gives us an estimated 2.5 million new initiates per year, or, if you think about it, that's about 7,000 new initiates a day. and within that, do one age group uses it more than others? what is the distribution among the age groups? well, i think the most important thing to keep in mind is that prescription drug abuse affects the entire age range. we might see some pea

and recovery field. joining us in our panel today are dr. h. westley clark, director, center for substance abuse treatment, substance abuse and mental health services administration, u.s. department of health and human services, rockville, maryland. marco e. jacome, chief executive officer, healthcare alternative systems incorporated, chicago, illinois. john de miranda, president and ceo, stepping stone, san diego, california. william lossiah-bratt, board of directors, southeastern regional representative, faces and voices of recovery, cherokee, north carolina. dr. clark, why should we be concerned about ethnic and racial differences within the addiction and recovery field, as well as other differences? well, one of the things that we want to make sure is that people who have substance use problems are able to recover and that materials that we use can assist them in that process. and so, you know, there are differences associated with cultural values and beliefs, starting from how one physiologically responds to a particular substance misuse to how certain substances are used in a cultural context. so if we're going to facilitate recovery, we need to understand the language, the beliefs, the social

department of health and human services. [music] our program is multifaceted. it incorporates both group treatment and individual treatment for asian and pacific islanders who are struggling with chemical dependency. we use incentives to keep people motivated in treatment and we use both sort of informal and formal interventions. i like the diversity of the clientele that we get here at team 360. regardless of ethnicity, each of their stories is so different from the next. but for some reason, when they come into group, they support each other and they know how to- there's just this warmth and this support, even though they are so different. it's just a very comfortable place to be at and i think there's a lot of open-minded individuals. so like if i come in, they are not going to be like look at that drug addict. just like the opposite, they are like out here willing to help you out. the challenge and the rewards of what i do in recovery is that i get to see individuals really improve their lives, not only in their recovery, but focus on their everyday stressors, and they are able to cope with it in a much better improved way. our program is based on the matrix model intervention, which uses cognitive b

department of health and human services. [music] hi, i'm michele monroe with the road to recovery and we're here today in maryland getting some opinions on what people think about different languages used in the substance abuse and mental health arena. if i said that somebody had a drug and alcohol addiction what would you think that that means? i think the person has a... a certainly health issue problem that needs to be, needs to be attended to. i would think of people struggling in difficult circumstances... with certain underlying issues that, that lead them to feel that they need to use those things as an outlet. i think of a illness, i think of a sickness that's hard to overcome. and i think that the person needs support, as much support as possible. i think about people who needs help and they need to find help as soon as possible. so what if i said alcohol and drug problem? what do you feel about that? it's a problem that needs to be fixed, that's what i start thinking, you know, and you need to fix it, you need to find a way to fix it. if there needs to be out there more programs for these people, more resources where they can get to as soon as possible, you know, where they c