Three Ways to Improve Transitions from Detox to Continuing Care

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

In fall 2014, baseline data showed that only 33% of  Ministry Behavioral Health (now known as Ascension) clients in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, transferred from detoxification services to continuing care. 

Participating in a NIATx project helped the Change Team boost continuation to continuing care to 63% by June 2015 - an increase of 91%!

How did they do it?  “Rapid-cycle testing was key,” says Change Leader Kathleen Olszewski, MBA, CRCE-I Manager of Business Operations at Ministry Behavioral Health.

Sneak Preview: How to Engage Your African-American Clients in Treatment

February 24, 2016

Maureen Fitzgerald
ATTC Network Coordinating Office/NIATx


Mark Sanders, LCSW, CADC, of On the Mark Consulting, is an international speaker on addiction and mental health treatment. He's written several books, along with the recovery monograph, Recovery Management.

This week, Sanders is presenting a webinar as part of the Great Lakes ATTC Behavioral Health webinar series:
Counseling African Americans with Substance Use Disorder
Thursday, February 25, 2016
12:00-1:30pm CT (10:00am PT, 11:00am MT, 1:00pm ET)

View the recorded webinar here.

I caught up with Sanders recently to ask if he could give a sneak preview of his webinar, and here's what he told me:

Build Your Cross-Cultural Skills with the ATTC Network

February 19, 2016

Maureen Fitzgerald
ATTC Network/NIATx


Providing culturally competent care the considers age, race, ethnicity, culture, language, disability and gender is increasingly important as U.S. society grows more diverse.  As the United States Census Bureau reported in March 2015:

"Around the time the 2020 Census is conducted, more than half of the nation's children are expected to be part of a minority race or ethnic group."

The ATTC Network offers an array of training and education resources to help addiction treatment professionals address the needs of the diverse populations they serve.

Got Technology?

February 10, 2016

Maureen Fitzgerald
ATTC Network Coordinating Office/NIATx

Back in 2004, NIATx Director Dave Gustafson got together with a group of creative thinkers from around the world. Their goal was to create a vision for the addiction treatment system of the future.  The result, after a couple of days of serious brainstorming, was a vision for addiction treatment that included virtual counselors and technology tools to track moods, manage cravings, and prevent relapse.

Dave wrote about that vision in Automating Addiction Treatment, published in Behavioral Healthcare in 2009. At the time, he and his team were just starting to develop A-CHESS, a mobile app to help people with alcohol dependence maintain their recovery after leaving residential treatment.

Addiction and the Bottom Line

February 2016

Kevin Kirby, CEO and Founder
Face It TOGETHER

Financial sustainability is a hot topic in the recovery organization world. Most if not all recovery community organizations (RCOs) are highly dependent on public sector funding. This has left them vulnerable to budget cuts, shifting priorities, and broader economic downturns.

As a result of this unpredictability, RCOs are often forced to focus on the short term, with little opportunity to plan and execute long-term strategy or invest in innovations.

Our experience with Face It TOGETHER Sioux Falls has been driven by a business orientation and a belief that we could harness the forces of the market to transform how our community deals with drug and alcohol addiction.