We're all connected: National Recovery Month 2017

August 23, 2017

Maureen Fitzgerald
Communications Coordinator, ATTC Network Coordinating Office
Editor, NIATx

"Recovery: A process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live a self-directed life, and strive to reach their full potential.”

--from SAMHSA’s Working Definition of Recovery, 2012

National Recovery Month 2017 is just around the corner. This year’s theme, Join the Voices for Recovery: Strengthening Families and Communities, highlights the important role that families and communities play in helping others achieve recovery and reach their full potential. After all, as it's often said, people receive treatment for a substance use or mental health disorder in a healthcare setting, but they recover in the community. 

The 2017 Recovery Month Toolkit again offers loads of ideas and tools for celebrating and announcing Recovery Month in your community. For media outreach, this toolkit includes templates for Recovery Month public service announcements and OpEds that you can tailor to your specific event or community.  

Recovery Month Public Service Announcements 

Have you seen this year’s Recovery Month public service announcements? Again this year, they’re available in English or Spanish, and they’re not just for September—you can use them to promote recovery year round. Here’s a link to Connections (20 seconds): 

SAMHSA’s Road to Recovery Television and Radio Series

Road to Recovery September 6,  2017: Recovery among Diverse Populations. Tune in to this episode to learn more about what recovery means in diverse communities! 

Kick off Recovery Month by watching the September 2017 episode of Road to Recovery: Recovery Among Diverse Populations. Hear experts discuss ways that providers can build culturally informed practices into their treatment and recovery services. You’ll also want to check out previous episodes in this year’s series. Click here for the full schedule.  

Strengthening Families and Communities 

The ATTC Network also offers many resources that embody this year's National Recovery Month theme. Just a few that you might want to check out include: 

• Recovery-oriented Systems of Care Resources: Great Lakes ATTC 
• Family Therapy for Substance Use in Hispanic Adolescents:  National Hispanic and Latino ATTC
• Tools for Treatment: Family-Centered Behavioral Health Support for Pregnant & Postpartum Women: Mid-America ATTC
• Build Up Your Teen Treatment IQ: A joint project of the South Southwest ATTC, Central Rockies ATTC, New England ATTC, and Mid-America ATTC
• Behavioral Health Series and Essential Substance Abuse Series:  National American Indian and Alaska Native ATTC 
• The Opioid Epidemic: What can we do differently? Webinar series, Central East ATTC 
• The YMSM+LGBT Center of Excellence:  Pacific Southwest ATTC 
• Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT): National SBIRT ATTC 

So, what will you or your organization be doing for National Recovery Month this September 2017? From posting a public service announcement or writing an OpEd to organizing a recovery walk, any activity helps spread the Recovery Month message that behavioral health is essential to overall health, that prevention works, treatment is effective, and people can and do recover.