Category Archives: Uncategorized

Request for Comment on Report Entitled: Advancing the Care of Pregnant and Parenting Women With Opioid Use Disorder and Their Infants

Request for Comment on Report Entitled: Advancing the Care of Pregnant and Parenting Women With Opioid Use Disorder and Their Infants: A Foundation for Clinical Guidance

A Notice by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration on 08/03/2016

Summary

SAMHSA, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), in HHS announces the opening of a docket to obtain public comment on a report entitled: Advancing the Care of Pregnant and Parenting Women with Opioid Use Disorder and their Infants: A Foundation for Clinical Guidance.

This report describes the formal process agreed on and followed under the guidance of the federal steering committee (FSC). It explains the RAND Corporation (RAND)/University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Appropriateness Method (RAM), justifies its adoption, and reports the outcomes of its application that will form the basis for the development of clinical guidance. This report will serve as the foundation for the development of clinical guidance to be used by providers caring for women with opioid use disorder and their infants. Continue reading

President Obama Signs the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 22, 2016 

Statement by the President on the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016

Today, I signed S.524, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 into law.  This legislation includes some modest steps to address the opioid epidemic.   Given the scope of this crisis, some action is better than none. 

However, I am deeply disappointed that Republicans failed to provide any real resources for those seeking addiction treatment to get the care that they need.  In fact, they blocked efforts by Democrats to include $920 million in treatment funding. Continue reading

PURVI PATEL’S CONVICTION FOR FETICIDE OVERTURNED

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lisa Sangoi
National Advocates for Pregnant Women
212-255-9252; 646-577-1996
lks@advocatesforpregnantwomen.org
July 22, 2016
PURVI PATEL’S CONVICTION FOR FETICIDE OVERTURNED
Indiana Court of Appeals Rules that Legislature Did Not Intend to Punish Women Who Have Abortions
Patel’s Conviction for Neglect of a Dependent Modified, Reducing Her Sentence
 

On July 22, 2016, the Indiana Court of Appeals announced its decision to overturn the conviction of Purvi Patel for the crime of feticide. Patel was accused of attempting to have an abortion and was convicted of two crimes: feticide and neglect of a dependent. Patel was sentenced to 20 years in prison. On appeal, a unanimous panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals overturned the feticide conviction as contrary to the purpose and clear legislative intent of the law. The Court, however, upheld the neglect of a dependent charge but found that while it was bound to accept the jury finding that the fetus had been born alive, the state had failed to prove that she caused the death of the newborn. As a result, the Court vacated her conviction for a Class A Felony, requiring that the judgment be modified to a Class D Felony with a maximum sentence of 3 years in prison.

Ms. Patel has already been incarcerated in the Indiana Women’s Prison for 1 year and 4 months. Continue reading

Historic Victory! Senate Passes Comprehensive Addiction & Recovery Act of 2016 92-2‏

Announced by Faces & Voices of Recovery July 13, 2016
Today, July 13th, 2016, the U.S. Senate passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) of 2016 with a historic 92 – 2 vote!

For nearly three years, recovery advocates have been working to educate our policymakers about addiction as a public health crisis and that long term recovery is a reality for millions of Americans. Through national call-in days, letters, forums and many, many individual conversations with policymakers, and the work of an amazing network of Recovery Community Organizations across the US. Our work with a great team of partner organizations in prevention, treatment, law enforcement and recovery in Washington DC has been an amazing effort!

More work is to be done to ensure appropriations are made to fund this critical bill! Your action and continued support will be needed to make recovery voices heard in the appropriations process.

Join us in showing our appreciation to The Senate for passing the most expansive piece of legislation the addiction field has seen in a decades!
Use the hashtags #CARAPassed #ThankYouUSSenate

View Final Bill

 

We did it! CARA passes the House!‏

Addiction Policy Forum, July 8, 2016, CARA – the Comprehensive Addiction & Recovery Act PASSES THE HOUSE!!

Today, the CARA Conference bill passed the House of Representatives in a historic 407-to-5 bipartisan vote.

To quote Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), “CARA is a historical moment.”

Please take a moment to let your U.S. Representative know how much you appreciate his/her vote for CARA. Then, let the Senate know we’re waiting for their vote next week.

ALL ABOUT CARA

Sign-On Letter
Infographic – Reasons to Support the CARA Conference Report
CARA Grant Breakdown

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Comprehensive Addiction & Recovery Act National Call-In Day December 9, 2015

Comprehensive Addiction & Recovery Act National Call-In Day December 9, 2015

The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) of 2015 is the most expansive federal, bipartisan legislation to date for addiction support services, designating between $40 million and $80 million toward advancing treatment and recovery support services in state and local communities across the country, which will help save the lives of countless people.

CARA needs your support as it moves forward through the legislative process! Get into action and contact your Senator and Representative today and urge them to co-sponsor and support CARA! Continue reading

Public Television Broadcast of On Life’s Terms: Mothers in Recovery

OLT - Leslie holding daughter website

I am thrilled to tell you that the documentary On Life’s Terms: Mothers in Recovery launched on public television via the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) in August 2015.  Here is a list of the air dates, time, station and city so far.  Thank you!

Public Television Station Finder Type in your city or zip code for your local station. When you select a station, you will see the schedule and you can do a search for the film.If you don’t find a broadcast date for your city and would like to have the film air on your local public television station contact Sheila Ganz at sheila.ganz@gmail.com for information about how to make this happen. Continue reading

Alcohol use combined with domestic violence: a problem for families

Examiner.com July 30, 2014
by Tracy Kiesler

Domestic abuse is a broad term covering many different types of abuse. Verbal, emotional, psychological, physical, spiritual, and financial abuses are all categorized as “domestic abuse” or “domestic violence.” Any of these types of abuse are extremely challenging to live with and survive, much less thrive. Unfortunately a coping skill that one might use to cope is escape through drinking or drug use. When the person doing the escape through drug or alcohol use is a mother it puts the child or children at even further risk of damage from the abusive situation. Children suffer emotionally, behaviorally, psychologically, and socially when living with domestic violence. Gallup has been tracking Americans’ drinking behavior for more than seven decades. One of the major changes they have seen is an increasing percentage of Americans saying alcohol has caused problems in their family. When first asked in 1947, 15% of Americans said alcohol had been a cause of family problems. On July 27th 2014 Gallup posted poll results of 36% percent of Americans reporting alcohol being the cause of family problems. www.gallup.com/poll/174200/reports-alcohol-related-family-trouble-remain… Continue reading

Treating Addiction in Pregnant Women and New Mothers: A Promising Application for Social Impact Financing?

By Kate Greenwood

Cross-Posted at Health Reform Watch 

Last week, vtdigger.org ran an interesting article by Laura Krantz on the difficulties pregnant women and new mothers who are addicted to drugs have accessing not just drug treatment but also all of the other services and supports they need. Krantz reported on a hearing before the Human Services Committee of the Vermont House of Representatives at which a new mother in recovery from addiction, “a neonatalogist, a substance abuse clinician, a Health Department employee and a representative from the Phoenix House, a residential treatment facility in Brattleboro … all said women need not only treatment, but housing, transportation and help finding jobs.”

Alice Larned, a substance abuse clinician at the Lund Family Center in Burlington, told Krantz that spaces in residential detoxification facilities are increasingly scarce. The demand for transitional housing for women who have completed inpatient detoxification also exceeds the supply. Add to this the sad fact that women can wait a year or more for an appointment with a physician who can treat them with methadone or buprenorphine. Larned told Krantz that many of the women who start treatment with her are taking buprenorphine they bought illegally, an “indication they want help ‘yet we don’t have the legitimate means for them to get this medication[.]’” Continue reading

Born in Prison

by , Author of Prison Baby, A Memoir

Huffington Post, 7/17/14

Cut off from the heroin I’d grown used to, as a newborn I battled through withdrawal. I was born in prison where my incarcerated mother was serving one of her many drug-related sentences. She was a heroin addict.

I Was a Heroin Baby

Her substance abuse started when she was a teen, and like many incarcerated women today, her addictions landed her in prison after prison. On one of her brief stretches of freedom, she violated parole and was also pregnant with me. Continue reading