Subject: SMART Recovery News & Views Digest

Mental Wellness For All

Podcast

Inform, Educate, Advocate...Repeat!

The Greater Cleveland Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI GC) has spent years providing education and advocacy on behalf of individuals and families affected by mental health conditions. Increasingly, substance use disorders co-occur in many persons, making treatment more complex.

In this podcast NAMI GC Executive Director Katie Jenkins (above L) and Hispanic Outreach and Education Coordinator Monica Olivera (above R) discuss their work to bring mental health issues to parity with other kinds of physical illnesses in terms of acceptance and treatment.

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Podcast

We're All Recovering From Something

Killian Noe (below L) and Dr. Ruby Takushi (below R) co-founded the first Recovery Cafe in Seattle in 2004, envisioning a healing space for people who have experienced trauma like homelessness, substance use disorder, addiction, and other mental health challenges. Today there are more than 60 cafes that work together as part of the Recovery Cafe Network across the U.S. and Canada.

In this podcast Killian and Ruby describe the early days of their movement and how cafes have grown into places of authentic connection and transformed lives.

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Guest Blog

The Urge Jar Tool

By SMART Volunteer Stefan Neff.

My therapist shared a great tool with me called an Urge Jar which is a simple yet effective technique that can help you break bad habits or form new ones. It works by creating a physical or virtual jar to hold your urges or cravings at bay. This technique has gotten me out of many sticky jams in the past...

[From SAMHSA's Gains Center Newsletter]

Peer support and mutual aid groups for substance misuse have a long history of helping people achieve and maintain recovery. Historically, peer-based recovery support provided an accessible alternative to the oftentimes exclusionary, stigmatizing, or unavailable treatment for alcohol use disorder in professional systems of care.[1] While medical and behavioral health treatment has drastically improved, models of peer-based support continue to be valuable assets in the recovery field...

Webinar Recording

In case you missed the lecture by the originator of Motivational Interviewing, here's your chance to watch the recording of Dr. William Miller. He is a strong advocate for providing addiction care to the masses.