Thursday, September 10, 2009: Report by Leslie Miller, RICARES Advisory Board

A contingency of us at RICARES attended the NEARR Conference. What a wonderful way to spend the weekend before our Annual Recovery Month: with a group of advocates learning together how to decrease stigma and discrimination against people suffering from addiction disorders and increase opportunities and resources available for long-term addictions recovery!

All six New England States and their respective state advocacy organizations were represented: Dianne Potvin of Connecticut Communities for Addiction Recovery (CCAR); Deb Dettor of Maine Alliance for Addiction Recovery; Maryann Frangules of Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery (MOAR); Denise Devlin of Friends of Recovery New Hampshire; Ian Knowles of Rhode Island Communities for Addiction Recovery (RICARES); and Patty McCarthy of Friends of Recovery-Vermont.

We also had several regional and national advocacy organizations represented such as Denise Adams and William Lowenstein from the N. E. Institute of Addiction Studies; Donna Aligata of Connecticut Turning to Youth and Families; Laurie Fresher of the Hartford Recovery Center; Stephen Gumbley of New England ATTC (Addiction Technology Transfer Center of New England, as well as of Faces and Voices of Recovery along with their Executive Director Pat Taylor; and Joseph Harding, Director of the Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Services in NH.


Pat Taylor, Executive Director, Faces and Voices of Recovery

Joe Harding of the Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Services in New Hampshire got the weekend started for us. After giving us a warm welcome and setting us up for the weekend's activities, Joe had the privilege of introducing United States Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter from New Hampshire, who is the Vice Chair of the Congressional Caucus on Addiction. As a member the House Education, and Labor Committee which is of one of the three committees in Congress working on Health Care Reform, she was reassuring about the passage of health care reform and how it would benefit those seeking treatment for addiction disorders. She referred us to her web site which has a very clear explanation of the legislation being considered: "...Individuals would gain access to high-quality, affordable health insurance, small businesses could receive tax credits to provide health insurance coverage, seniors would avoid the doughnut hole in Medicare Part D, families could escape bankruptcy due to unaffordable costs, and health care providers would be reimbursed for uncompensated care." The Congresswoman had a powerful message of how important treatment and support services for people with addiction-disorders are, that not enough is available, and of her determination to support and encourage our advocacy efforts!
(Click here to read more about health care reform on Congresswoman Shea-Porter's web site)