FAVOR Greenville Family Group – Doing it Right!

FAVOR Greenville Family Group

This last Monday at FAVOR Greenville our Family Group had 72 people in attendance.

We must be doing something right. I have been doing this type of family group for over 12 years. It predates FAVOR Greenville. I am so lifted up by the courage and the hope that these family members display in the face of overwhelming circumstances.

A Different Type of Monster

I have to say. Things have changed. You can sit back and say “addiction is addiction” but today addiction has dramatically transformed into a different type of monster.

Today’s addiction involves younger people and more dangerous drugs. In 2001 when I got into this process around 18,000 people died of an overdose. In 2017 it was 65,000.

The fear and anxiety that families face today is so pervasive.

You can say that “recovery is the same now as it was then” but 18 year-olds with a fully established heroin addiction were rare-very rare. I’m not saying non-existent…but very, very rare.

Is 65,000 Dead the New Normal

Let’s be clear. Our society is failing to address this issue. Maybe 65,000 dead per year is the new normal.

Should we just accept it? I don’t think so!

Maybe the destruction of a generation and the countless families in despair is the new normal. But let’s be clear, we are not even coming close to touching this issue… or mental health…

It is possible that everyone is doing the best they can under the circumstances. This is no one’s fault. It’s not diabolical and it’s not intentional. Nor is it about individual people, and it’s not about individual programs.

It’s not about one approach over the other. This is not about one “pathway” over the other.

It’s simple…society has evolved. Times change. The culture has changed. It’s a brave new world.

Addiction has Mutated

Addiction has mutated. Mental Health has become more pronounced. Suicide is also at record levels. Anxiety is at record levels. Depression is at record levels.

In terms of physical safety, we live in the safest period of time in human history.

We live in one of the most materially abundant periods of time in human history. Yet emotionally, psychologically, behaviorally, we are in a free-fall.

We are addicted and the country is destroying itself from the inside out. These are facts. Empirical facts.

North Korea… Russia…. Iran… these are not the existential threats facing our country…. We will take ourselves out before Putin or the “rocket man” take us out…

We Need to Change or Just Keep Dying!

There comes a time for a deep and substantial paradigm shift. We can keep all the existing structures and systems and philosophies. But we know what the results will be.

We have been witnessing these results over the past 20 years.

There are many things that we could do differently.

But at its core this requires a fundamental change in thinking. Our core beliefs about how we help people with emotional, mental, addiction, behavioral issues must change.

Our core assumptions about what it takes must change.

The most important: professional services could line up under a healthcare banner as a new discipline that is part of a more comprehensive chronic disease management model.

No more fragmented services. Chronic disease management–period.

In-Home Recovery Services

There is no reason for office based therapeutic services or clinic based therapeutic services. Primary funding sources should pay for in-home services.

You don’t need to be “willing” to be in treatment for a behavioral health issue. You need to become willing over time and the primary responsibility for that transformation falls at the feet of the professional.

The family should be the “identified patient unit” and individual reimbursement should be an after-thought.

There should be a new workforce identified.

Specially Trained Engagement Team

It could include peer recovery support but it doesn’t have to be only peer recovery. A specially trained engagement team. Anyone who can do it well. I don’t care if you are in recovery or not. But you need to love the “damaged soul”.

I think that recovering people would be a logical place to start.

It goes without saying that getting better has nothing to do with working a certain program of recovery.

Multiple pathways. Whatever works. Do more of that.