Like most things in life, recovery is never a simple, straightforward process. View Post While science suggests that addiction is a chronic illness, much of our thinking — and even the system designed to provide treatment and recovery support — is geared to provide episodic acute care. On March 19, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing published two important new papers: Demystifying Relapse: A Recurrence of Symptoms and Demystifying Relapse: Rethinking Return to Treatment are intended to help people throughout the field of substance use treatment and care reexamine what we do and how we d ..read more

Making the decision to attend a conference isn’t an easy one. From booking your travel and hotel to spending time away from family and work, there’s a lot to consider. And then there’s the event itself: How do you know which is the right one for you? How can you be sure the curriculum offers the knowledge you need to grow professionally? To help you determine if NatCon24 — our conference taking place in St. Louis from April 15-17 — is a good educational fit, here are four things to consider: We’re hosting the most sought-after speakers. Few conferences can say they’re bringing Former First La ..read more

The substance use and mental health treatment and care field has undergone a massive transformation over the past few years and shows no signs of slowing down. We’re all racing to keep up — whether it is with demand, regulations or advancements in technology. While it may seem daunting, these changes present new opportunities. In a few weeks, I will join thousands of hard-working National Council for Mental Wellbeing members and many others throughout our field at NatCon24 in St. Louis, April 15-17, to talk about those opportunities, because they illustrate how so many of you are shaping the f ..read more

Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) stand at the forefront of effective interventions for combating the opioid crisis. Despite the consensus on their importance, MOUD remains underutilized, presenting a significant gap in the standard healthcare services available for individuals with substance use disorders (SUD). Buprenorphine, along with methadone and naltrexone, constitutes the trio of FDA-approved medications that have shown efficacy in treating opioid use disorder (OUD). These medications play a pivotal role in reducing withdrawal symptoms, enhancing retention in treatment program ..read more

The National Council sat down with MTM Services senior integrated healthcare consultant David Swann, to take a look back at 2023. What’s one thing in the mental health and substance use field that you think deserved more attention in 2023? With many organizations becoming Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) and others receiving alternative payment methods in exchange for outcomes and results, our attention should be on providing observable and measurable results in the care that we deliver. This change to results will incentivize providers to pursue the most rapid and effect ..read more

I remember touring the high school I hoped to attend and hearing the principal talk about the fact that the school would be opening a computer lab students would have access to. Sounds cool, right? But the reality was not as fun – we had to learn to write code in Basic. It was so boring and did not prove to be very helpful. What a bummer. I promise you that is not what we are talking about here! If you have been paying attention, you may have noticed things are changing a lot right now in society and in health care with the rapid improvement of technology designed to help us humans make better ..read more

Eliminating disparities and promoting health equity is central to increasing access to care for all. To help achieve this, we partnered with Morehouse School of Medicine’s African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (AABH-CoE), an initiative funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that’s helping the field transform behavioral health services for Black and African Americans (B/AA). The National Council’s Terence Fitzgerald, PhD, EdM, MSW, a member of the support team, told us more about the partnership. What inspired this important collaborat ..read more

Since 1975, Youth Advocate Programs (YAP) has been delivering effective and equitable alternatives to youth incarceration, congregate child welfare, behavioral health and intellectual disabilities placements in communities across the country. We checked in with Gary Ivory, president and CEO of YAP, to learn how the National Council member organization is helping justice, child welfare, public safety and other government partners achieve racial equity in their service delivery and outcomes. Tell us a little bit about your organization. How are you helping young people thrive? YAP is the leading ..read more

Black History Month is certainly a time to celebrate Black history and achievement. It’s also an opportunity to acknowledge the health disparities and health inequity so many Black Americans continue to face. Whether people are seeking primary care or mental health and substance use treatment and care, access remains a massive hurdle for Black Americans. Treatment for substance use disorders provides a stark example. On Jan. 7, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the latest data on overdose deaths — about 106,000 overdose deaths occurred during the 12-month period ending in ..read more

Let’s reflect on how complicated substance use disorder (SUD) is, and even more so, the complexities of agreeing on solutions to SUD. This complexity is not just medical; it is deeply embedded in the ways our society perceives and reacts to SUDs and their treatment. The lack of consensus around definitions of success and desired outcomes in solving SUD highlights the complex, multifaceted nature of addiction. This blog post describes the four, often conflicting, ideological categories that many of our current solutions to SUD fall into, and how each of these ideologies determines our measures ..read more