September is National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, and Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey is celebrating the month by “planting the seeds of hope” that prevention works, treatment is effective, and people do recover.
Support for recovery is available, both inpatient and outpatient, with affordable sliding fee scales at outpatient clinics like Lyon Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs (Call toll free 866-831-2774) and nearby inpatient facilities New Frontier Treatment Center in Fallon, www.churchillrecovery.org, and Bristlecone Family Resources in Reno (775) 954-1400.
Waiting lists at centers such as Lyon Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs for outpatient treatment, and at New Frontier for inpatient treatment, are normally short and both offer sliding fee scales. Christy McGill, director of Healthy Communities Coalition, stressed that “alcohol and drug treatment centers prioritize treatment for pregnant women and will move them to the front of any waiting lists.”
Why is it Important to Increase Prevention, Intervention and Treatment? Alcohol
and other drug addition is a serious health issue in the U.S. About 8 percent of the U.S. population, or at least 24,000,000, are struggling with serious addiction issues with alcohol or other drugs, according to Thomas McLellan, deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. To put that number into perspective, that’s roughly the number of people with diabetes, which is commonly understood as a public health epidemic.
Part of the key to reducing alcohol and other drug addiction is early screening and subsequent intervention with children who have suffered from trauma and other difficulties and become vulnerable to using drugs and alcohol as teens and adults in a misguided effort to lessen anxiety, depression, and hopelessness, according to researchers at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
What Is Healthy Communities? Healthy Communities Coalition includes partners
and members from education, health, mental health, justice, prevention and treatment organizations, among others, who work together to create an integrated community response to increase the health and well-being of Lyon and Storey communities.
A key part of the Coalition’s purpose is to create “prevention prepared communities” that interpret local data correctly in order to bring missing resources to the area and implement those resources efficiently. Some of the issues partners and members have worked on together recently that are related to preventing and/or treating alcohol and other drug addiction include:
— Improving access to inpatient and outpatient treatment for addiction and mental illness.
— Improving awareness of sexual assault recovery services for children and adults.
— Increasing suicide prevention.
— Increasing business education and compliance with alcohol laws.
— Increasing youth leadership in alcohol and other drug abuse prevention,
— Increasing availability of parenting classes and early childhood education workshops.
— Increasing youth employment and job training.
— Increasing community access to positive activities such as art and recreation,
— Improving access to rural mental health care.
— Improving access to student assistance services such as counseling.
— Increasing and communicating community support for military families.
— increasing access to Post Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury treatment for veterans.
— Creating opportunities for giving back (reciprocity) through volunteering and service learning.
— Developing prisoner re-entry plans.
— Participating in prescription drug, meth, alcohol and tobacco abuse prevention campaigns.
For more information about the Coalition, please see www.healthycomm.org. For more information about National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, please see www.recoverymonth.gov.