April 2009-Conference Edition

Thinking Big! And Making Your Voice Heard In a Changing World

Welcome to San Antonio and the 39th Annual Conference!

Mental Health And Addictions Safety Net In Crisis: Plea To Congress To Save Lives

Thinking Big! And Making Your Voice Heard In a Changing World

As conversations focused on healthcare reform continue in Washington DC and across the country, another conversation spurred by events mainly occurring on and across the southern border may indicate a shift in direction for the Obama Administration in addressing domestic drug policy. During a recent visit with Mexican President Felipe Calderón, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was quoted as saying, "It's not working," in reference to the current approach to combating drug addiction. "We have certainly been pursuing these strategies for... a long time. I remember Mrs. Reagan's 'just say no,'" Clinton said, referring to former first lady Nancy Reagan's exhortation to young people to refuse drugs…"It's been very difficult." The National Council believes that the Administration should start by prioritizing federal investments in prevention, early intervention, and the safety net of publicly funded addiction treatment providers over the course of the Obama Presidency. Through the Meridia Initiative Congress has given Mexico $300 million to fight the drug cartels and has promised hundreds of millions more. As Secretary Clinton has suggested we must turn our attention to the battle here in the U.S. and simultaneously invest an equal amount of resources into our frontlines – our community prevention, treatment and recovery programs. I hope you enjoy the Conference in San Antonio and that you join us again in DC on June 9th and 10th for Hill Day when we take the message to the Halls of Congress that it is time to step up the federal investment in life-saving mental health and addiction treatment services. For more information about Hill Day click here.

Alexa Eggleston, JD
Director of Public Policy

Welcome to San Antonio and the 39th Annual Conference!

As you decide which sessions to attend during the Conference we encourage you to participate in one or more sessions of the Addictions and Co-occurring Disorders Track. The General Session on Tuesday will feature Christopher Kennedy Lawford, who will discuss his newly released book, Moments of Clarity, a collection of 44 stories of individuals' recovery from addiction, including Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, and Jamie Lee Curtis. Also featured in the Tuesday General Session will be Dr. Nora Volkow who will discuss the most recent and up to date science on the treatment and recovery of addiction. Additional sessions feature Thomas McLellan, rumored to be the next Drug Czar’s top deputy, speaking on "What's Wrong with Addiction Treatment: Where Leadership is Needed," and workshops on:

• Medication Assisted Therapy Is Good Care and Good Business
• NIATx: Patient Flow Improves Cash Flow
• Integrated Treatment: Co-occurring Psychiatric and Substance Disorders
• Therapeutic Change: What Really Works with the Substance Dependent Client
• Lunch ‘n’ Learn: What Does Recovery from an Addiction or Mental

I also encourage you to attend the In My Own Words session on Tuesday morning, featuring Jackie Duda, "Why We Couldn't Save Nicole," who will tell her families story of battling addiction and outline five steps agencies can take to better help those in need — steps that could help save other children down the road.

ON THE HILL

Mental Health And Addictions Safety Net In Crisis: Plea To Congress To Save Lives

On March 18, 2009, Linda Rosenberg, MSW, President and CEO of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, pro¬vided testimony to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies to discuss FY 2010 appropriations for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Our nation's mental health and addiction treatment systems are chronically underfunded, Rosenberg testified. The situation is being exacerbated by cuts in state and local funding, even as we are seeing a marked increase in the number of people seeking treatment. Rosenberg noted that in response to budget shortfalls, states are reducing services, closing programs, and cutting or freezing provider reimbursement rates. Access to critical treatment and support services is being reduced while demand is increasing. Consumers do not magically disappear when funding is cut, said Rosenberg. Withdrawing community-based supports for some of the most vulnerable people in American society typically results in tragic and costly outcomes — placements in high- hospitals and facilities, homelessness and even incarceration.

Addiction disorders continue to ravage society, said Rosenberg in her testimony. In 2007, only one in 10 Americans with alcohol or drug problems received treatment at a specialty treatment facility, leaving 20.8 million persons untreated. State and local governments fund half of the substance abuse treatment provided in this country and the current economic downturn is resulting in reductions in substance abuse prevention and treatment services across the nation. Rosenberg asked for additional 2010 federal support for mental health and addictions services in the form of:

•  A $35 million increase to expand primary care within behavioral health organizations
•  A $100 million increase for the SAMHSA’s Community Mental Health Services Block Grant
•  A $150 million increase to the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant

We can assure you that these new dollars would be employed wisely helping those in desperate need, Rosenberg concluded.

Read Linda Rosenberg's full testimony.

HAVE YOU HEARD...

According to a recent article in ScienceDaily (Mar. 25, 2009) a precise, new nanotechnology treatment for drug addiction may be on the horizon as the result of research conducted at the University at Buffalo. Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics and UB's Department of Medicine have developed a stable nanoparticle that delivers short RNA molecules in the brain to "silence" or turn off a gene that plays a critical role in many kinds of drug addiction. The UB team’s in vitro findings were published online the week of March 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "These findings mean that in the future, we might be able to add a powerful pharmaceutical agent to the current arsenal of weapons in order to more effectively fight a whole range of substance addictions," said Paras N. Prasad, Ph.D., executive director of the UB Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics and SUNY Distinguished Professor in the departments of Chemistry, Physics, Electrical Engineering and Medicine, who led the UB team.