Celebrating Progress and Looking Back at National Recovery Month 2017
Every September, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) sponsors National Recovery Month to raise awareness and understanding of mental health and substance use disorders, and celebrate people who are living in recovery. As we head into October, we wanted to reflect on Recovery Month and the ...
Heroin(e): A Harrowing but Optimistic Look at the Opioid Epidemic
A new documentary has been added to Netflix’s lineup and it's worth a watch. Heroin(e), directed by Elain McMillion Sheldon, follows three brave and compassionate women as they battle addiction in the City of Huntington, West Virginia – the overdose capital of the country. In 2015, the city’s overdose rate ...
Get to Know David Nefussy, Spectrum’s New Vice President of Business Development
In case you missed it, we recently hired a new Vice President of Business Development, David Nefussy, to help Spectrum Health Systems continue to promote its mission while providing quality addiction treatment services amidst the ongoing opioid crisis. In addition to leveraging his relationships with managed care organizations, insurance companies, ...
What Is Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) And Why Do Our Prisons Need It?
Last month, our Vice President of Clinical Development, Dr. Romas Buivydas, and State Director for Massachusetts’ Correctional Services, Earl Warren attended the American Correctional Association (ACA) conference in St. Louis, Missouri. While there, they led a workshop designed to educate the audience of non-clinical corrections professionals about Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) ...
An Inside Look: Clinical Stabilization
Detoxification is often a necessary first step for individuals seeking help for an addiction. Once detoxification is completed, it’s very important to continue treatment for a period of time in order to build a solid foundation for sustaining long-term recovery. Spectrum provides a range of continuing care options, including two ...
An Inside Look: Inpatient Detoxification
For most people with substance use disorders, the first step to addiction recovery is detoxification or “detox” – the medical process of removing toxic substances from the bloodstream through abstaining from alcohol or drugs until it is completely free of toxins. It sounds simple, but the concept is especially daunting ...
Opioid Epidemic Declared a National Emergency
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, nearly 35,000 people across America died from heroin or opioid overdoses in 2015, and a study released by the University of Virginia on Aug. 7th concluded the mortality rates were 24 percent higher for opioids and 22 percent higher for heroin than ...
Is Binge Drinking Considered Alcoholism If You’re A College Student?
Fall is around the corner and for many young people, it’s almost time to ship off to (or return to) college. They pack up their rooms, kiss mom and dad goodbye, and venture to a campus where they are testing out the freedom of (almost) adulthood. For most colleges and ...
Demystifying intake: You do not need drugs in your system to be admitted to detox
The world of addiction is ripe with misconceptions and myths, but one particularly harmful one we’ve heard time and time again is the belief that you need to have drugs in your system to be admitted to treatment. This may cause vulnerable individuals struggling with addiction to seek out their ...
Help, Not Handcuffs: Finding an Ally in Blue
They’re some of the first to arrive at the scene when there is a critical overdose, a person in need, or a troublesome situation. While some find comfort with the men and women on the front lines of the opioid epidemic, it can be a contentious relationship for others. For ...
Fatherhood and Addiction
There has long been a stigma surrounding women struggling with addiction, and mothers in particular. Mothers are more apt to shy away from recovery treatment, in part because they are not aware of the problem they may have with substance abuse, but also because they feel guilty for leaving their ...
Support Us When You Shop for Father’s Day
This one is for or all of the amazing dads out there. The dads who rock us to sleep. The dads who stay up late until we get home. The dads who help us buy our first car… And fix it. The dads who make us laugh and make us ...
Shane’s Story: From Shame to Sobriety in Three Months
Shane’s first encounter with the law was at the young age of fourteen, when he was caught stealing a vehicle with his friends. This wouldn’t be the last time he would run into such trouble. By this point, he had already experienced a lifetime of ups and downs, including past ...
The Next Big Thing: “Grey Death” Heroin
The latest fatal heroin mix, “grey death,” is taking the streets by storm and its users in mere minutes. And it’s as ominous as the name suggests - the end result of using “grey death” is typically overdose or even death. According to a Georgia Bureau of Investigations lab analysis, ...
Make Mom’s Smile This Mother’s Day
I love that we set aside a whole day to honor and celebrate the women who brought us into this world. Mother’s Day helps us remember to celebrate the big and small triumphs of motherhood. And if you ask moms the age-old question “What do you want for Mother’s Day” ...
