Celebrating Progress and Looking Back at National Recovery Month 2017
Every September, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) sponsors National Recovery Month to raise awareness and understanding of mental health and substance use disorders, and celebrate people who are living in recovery. As we head into October, we wanted to reflect on Recovery Month and the ...
What Is Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) And Why Do Our Prisons Need It?
Last month, our Vice President of Clinical Development, Dr. Romas Buivydas, and State Director for Massachusetts’ Correctional Services, Earl Warren attended the American Correctional Association (ACA) conference in St. Louis, Missouri. While there, they led a workshop designed to educate the audience of non-clinical corrections professionals about Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) ...
An Inside Look: Clinical Stabilization
Detoxification is often a necessary first step for individuals seeking help for an addiction. Once detoxification is completed, it’s very important to continue treatment for a period of time in order to build a solid foundation for sustaining long-term recovery. Spectrum provides a range of continuing care options, including two ...
An Inside Look: Inpatient Detoxification
For most people with substance use disorders, the first step to addiction recovery is detoxification or “detox” – the medical process of removing toxic substances from the bloodstream through abstaining from alcohol or drugs until it is completely free of toxins. It sounds simple, but the concept is especially daunting ...
Demystifying intake: You do not need drugs in your system to be admitted to detox
The world of addiction is ripe with misconceptions and myths, but one particularly harmful one we’ve heard time and time again is the belief that you need to have drugs in your system to be admitted to treatment. This may cause vulnerable individuals struggling with addiction to seek out their ...
Help, Not Handcuffs: Finding an Ally in Blue
They’re some of the first to arrive at the scene when there is a critical overdose, a person in need, or a troublesome situation. While some find comfort with the men and women on the front lines of the opioid epidemic, it can be a contentious relationship for others. For ...
How to Recognize “Sticks and Stones” in Your Home
While many of our blog posts revolve around addiction and recovery, today’s post focuses on another serious problem that takes place in many homes – and that problem is domestic violence. Spectrum Health Systems is well known for its addiction treatment programs, but many don’t realize that we also offer ...
It Helps, and It Hurts: Social Media and Addiction Recovery
Alongside many other areas of our lives that have been complexly affected by social media, addiction recovery has been wading through its muddy waters in recent years. Social media has become a huge part of our day-to-day lives: it is where we hear our news, find our information, remain connected ...
This Valentine’s Day Say, ‘I Love … Me’
It's Valentine's Day, and love is in the air. Yet February 14th can be tough for a lot of people, especially those in recovery who face a unique set of challenges on this day of celebrating romance. This may come as a surprise beyond the recovery-care community, but addiction experts ...
A Day in the Life at The New England Recovery Center™ Part Two: What to Expect at NERC’s Inpatient Addiction Treatment Program
In follow-up to our overview of the New England Recovery Center (NERC) detox program, we are offering a glimpse into a day in the life at our inpatient addiction treatment program at the Charles J. Faris Recovery Center - where clients typically go after a successful detox. Pursuing treatment for ...
