A Rally for Recovery

Agency takes fight against alcohol and drug addiction to the streets

David Ehrlich, President, The Track Group, Inc.

http://www.recoverymonth.gov

Everyone pays the devastating costs of drug and alcohol abuse in the United States. Addiction can cost individuals their jobs, their families, and their health. Communities pay dearly through law enforcement, welfare, justice and health care costs. And the total federal cost of the disease is a staggering $294 billion per year.

The good news is that for every $1 invested in addiction treatment, there is an estimated savings of at least $12 in reduced costs to government and health care organizations, according to the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. CSAT was created in 1992 as a means to address those costs and to improve the lives of individuals affected by addiction.

The center works with state governments and other groups to improve access to treatment, but since 1998 it also has spearheaded a more grassroots approach to the problem: National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.

A broad outreach

The campaign for Recovery Month, observed in September, brings together more than 100 partner organizations and draws on a vast army of local volunteers. The emphasis is on how families and communities are affected by the disease ─ and how those families and communities can help overcome it, said Ivette Torres, CSAT’s associate director for consumer affairs.

The campaign provides television and radio public service announcements, produces a Webcast, hosts online “ask the expert” forums, and distributes kits to volunteers who want to host and publicize their own Recovery Month events, such as health fairs and fun runs.

“We find every single way possible to have synergy with the new technology,” Torres said, adding that the latest effort is to make segments of the campaign’s Webcasts available on iPods.

The campaign spotlights the experiences of people who are recovering from drug and alcohol abuse, using their survival stories as a starting point to guide other addicts to help.

“We wanted to emphasize the role that people in recovery could play in advancing the issues: that addiction is a disease, that you could in fact recover from it,” Torres said. The personal stories “serve as a perfect entree to learning more about substance abuse.”

Passion drives results

The campaign’s growth has been impressive. More sponsors and events have been added every year, and more than 1 million people attended events in 2005. In addition, 125 proclamations were issued declaring September 2005 as National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.

The award-winning Web site has grown, too. Torres said the average visitor to the site stays 24 to 26 minutes, and as a result of that traffic, 26,000 people call the campaign’s help line each month.

Torres said the campaign owes its success to the legions of volunteers who run community events, to the dozens of partners who attend four planning meetings a year, and to the drug and alcohol abuse survivors who have been willing to share their experiences.

“The momentum and the passion of the people planning it is incredible,” she said. “If you went to a Recovery Month event, you would be so moved by the people telling their stories.”

Coordinating such a wide-ranging campaign takes passion, too - “an extreme, acute case of absolute unabashed passion for the issue at hand,” Torres said. “I think everybody in the field of addiction has that kind of passion.”

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