indyworkshops

... produces audio and video programs for use in therapeutic and staff training settings ... was prime sponsor of the Great Lakes Conference on Addictions and Mental Health, held in Indianapolis for 20 years, and sponsors occasional day-long workshops. We work with people like Cardwell C. Nuckols, Phd; Pat Sheehan, DNS; Dan Newman, PhD and several other giants in the Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Treatment fields.

Writing in the Addiction Recovery blog of PsychCentral, an on-line magazine, Dr. David Sack, a California based Board Certified Psychiatrist and Addictionologist, while not addressing the recent death of Whitney Houston, comments on Why Do Doctors Prescribe Addictive Drugs To Known Addicts?, by writing “Most physicians receive little or no training regarding substance abuse and the use of controlled substances that have the potential for addiction. While there are many doctors who prescribe these powerful drugs responsibly, and these drugs are often critically important when used as intended (usually very short-term use or on an as-needed basis), better education will help them recognize drug-seeking behavior and train them to evaluate and refer these patients to treatment the same way they do when they see high blood sugar or blood pressure.”

He discussed a recent congressional hearing that recommended requiring all health care professionals get real training (emphasis added) in prescribing addictive drugs, recognizing signs of addiction, and identifying problematic patterns of use.

As our media and culture look for someone to blame, and the threads on the addiction groups on LinkedIn discuss the real rate of recovery, and how many times someone should be allowed to use and still be able to live in what we used to call “half-way houses,” it is clear to me that Ms. Houston, and others do not recover because they never accepted one of the basic tenets of recovery: if you keep doing what you were doing, you’ll get what you were always getting.

People early in recovery who don’t surround themselves with non-drinking, non-drugging people (whether they are in recovery or not) will not stay clean and sober. It is especially hard for entertainers who are surrounded by sycophants whose reason for being is the continued illness of the “star.”

Everyone I know who has maintained long-term recovery has changed not only the people with whom they associate, but their attitudes toward their old behaviors. Do they continue to “live” at the AA clubs, go to two or three meetings a day? No. They recognize that life has many things to offer that do not include drinking or drugging. Eventually they can be in the presence of people using alcohol and other drugs of abuse, but not seek them out.

Do more than 5% actually recover? We don’t know. Many people, especially those who never went to “treatment,” don’t let their health care professionals know officially that they are in recovery. Insurance rates and coverage are affected even for people with decades of recovery.

Dennis S. Miller has been developing training materials for the Addiction and Mental Health fields since the 1980’s. A former broadcast journalist and public relations specialist he has fully embraced the “new media” in his old-age.

Registration is beginning to fill up for our March 9 workshop with Rev Dan Newman and his fun and fact-filled Getting High at the Convenience Store. The day-long workshop, featuring PowerPoint, flipchart, samples and lecture will deal with substances readily available at local convenience and drug stores without prescription or age limit, as well as, the latest data on what’s happening with the old stand-by’s as well as the new designer drugs.

And Angie Rees will treat us to her popular workshop on Conflict Resolution in the Workplace on March 10th. A hands-on program that will teach you how to deal with potentially explosive issues in the workplace.

For complete details, click on the links to the left, describing the events and the presenters, and register on-line by clicking on our Workshop Registration link!

We have been approved for 6.0 Contact hours of continuing education credit for each workshop from the Indiana Counselors Association on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, (ICAADA), a member of ICRC/AODA, which approves CEU’s for 42 states, Canada and the US Military.

ICAADA hours are accepted by many state nursing boards, as well as social work boards, employee assistance organizations and psychology boards.

Please join us in continuing discussions of recovery from alcoholism and other drug abuse. Please use the discussions page to give us your thoughts, concerns, triumphs.

Are workshops and conferences still viable ways to train our providers?

Please review our video and audio products, letting us know how you use them in your practice or agency.

Our goal is to provide a forum to discuss what's important to us us as clinicians in an ever more difficult environment.

Please visit, become a fan and participate! Our field needs all the cross-pollenization we can give it!

We have added short clips of all our videos to the Facebook page. They are also available on YouTube.

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