Tag: addiction recovery

Frank King knew he wanted to be a stand-up comedian since he was four years old. After being sidetracked by years of doing what other people wanted him to do with his life, he finally decided to live the life he knew that he was meant to live.

Frank focuses much of his comedy material on mental health issues, particularly suicide. In addition to entertaining his audience, his goal is to reach out to people who may be quietly suffering and thought that they were alone. He has also performed a series of TED talks.

In addition to speaking and performing, Frank is involved in multiple other activities to inform and educate the public. He provides a continuing education service to healthcare providers that allows them to meet state requirements for suicide prevention training. He also maintains a support group for dentists. Frank hosts several podcasts, including a show right here on the Mental Health News Radio Network.

For men who are looking for support and answers on how they might deal with personal issues, please get Frank King’s new book on the subject of men helping men: Guts, Grit & The Grind: A Mental Mechanics Manual. https://www.gutsgritgrind.com/

In this episode, Stephen and I discuss many topics, from safe consumption sites to medical heroin to Dilaudid dispensing machines on the streets. Yet, the underlying theme of this podcast episode is the value of having empathy and forming relationships with people who struggle with addiction. People who inject heroin are real people who deserve a chance to recover, no matter how long it takes for them to be ready finally. British Columbia, Canada, takes harm reduction to a new level with supervised consumption sites and many other programs to help people who use drugs on the streets to stay safe and help them along the path towards recovery. These programs serve as a positive example for what other countries, such as the United States, that do not allow these advanced forms of harm reduction, could do to save many more lives from the deadly effects of opioids and other street drugs.

Stephen Finlay is the manager of addiction services in the Surrey region for Lookout Housing and Health Society. Lookout is a non-profit organization that provides homeless shelters, supportive housing, subsidized housing, outreach, harm reduction, and related services throughout southern British Columbia, including Vancouver. Surrey is one of the largest cities in the Greater Vancouver area and has experienced problems arising from homelessness and drug use for many decades.

As an addiction services manager, Stephen oversees an Intensive Case Management team, a supervised drug smoking site, and SafePoint, which is the second federally sanctioned supervised injection site in Canada. SafePoint opened in June 2017. Since it opened, there have been over 190,000 visits to SafePoint. The staff has reversed almost 1,500 overdoses, with no fatalities.

Before joining Lookout, Stephen served as executive director of ARA Mental Health Advocacy, a small non-profit that provided advocacy services to people living with mental illness and poverty. He also has 29 years of experience in marketing, product development, and regulatory affairs at TELUS, Canada’s second-largest telecommunications carrier, and four years of experience in marketing research at Procter and Gamble. Stephen served as a civilian volunteer for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition from 2006 to 2015. In his spare time, he enjoys international folk dancing.

Annisa Hudak is a Reiki Master and expert Yoga Therapist who has dedicated her career to helping people who have experienced significant trauma during their lifetime. While traditional psychotherapy and psychiatry are essential to treating conditions such as PTSD, connecting through community and getting additional help to work through physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual issues can make a big difference.

Annisa Hudak has created such a community and also provides one-on-one coaching as well as Yoga classes and Reiki therapy. You can learn more about what she does and about her personal story here: https://www.traumahealingyoga.com/about. She has helped people who suffered trauma in the military as well as rape survivors.

In the world of addiction recovery, it can sometimes be difficult for people to find a community where they are comfortable connecting with others. Building a network of support can be particularly challenging for women. Life in active addiction is often a source of trauma. Having support resources available 24 hours a day, seven days a week can make all the difference when it comes to overcoming trauma and dealing with emotionally painful triggers.

An important concept in healthcare is integrative care. Integrative care means that healthcare providers and other related professionals learn to work together to get better outcomes.

In the field of addiction treatment, the lack of integration is an issue. Different approaches are conflicting. We are going in different directions and not working together. 12-step fellowships, rehabs, and doctors are often not on the same page.

However, we can begin having a dialog to learn how to work better together to solve the overwhelming problem of this current drug and alcohol crisis.

Harold Derbitsky is a spiritual leader and author who has spent many years working with indigenous people to help them to overcome addiction. He is a practitioner of the 3-principles and studied under the founder, Sydney Banks.

Mark Astor is a Florida attorney who is the first in the country to focus solely on helping people to get help with addiction, alcoholism, and mental health disorders. He specializes in areas of the law that include the Marchman Act and the Baker Act. While his focus is on helping people who live in Florida, he can work with their families and loved ones, even if they do not live in Florida.

What is VOI.com? Voi’s mission is to deliver the most comprehensive, innovative solutions to help hospitals and health systems, government agencies, educational institutions, families, and communities detect, intervene, support, and care for people at risk for suicide and living with behavioral health issues.

Dr. Bill Hudenko is the CEO of Voi. Bill was born in Ridgewood, NJ, but grew up in Albuquerque, NM. Although initially interested in medicine (both his grandparents were physicians) he discovered a passion for psychology while at the University of Michigan. He then went on to earn his M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Vanderbilt and then his PostDoc at Dartmouth.

Bill was a professor by 27 and has held positions at Cornell University, Ithaca College, and most recently Dartmouth College. Bill has a strong interest in the vocal expression of emotion and is one of the world’s experts on the production of laughter in children.

His work has been featured both in scientific journals and in media outlets such as the Discovery Channel, NBC, MSNBC, LiveScience, and NPR. He started Incente in 2012 to change the delivery of mental health care in the US and beyond.

Claudia Christian is the most recognized advocate for The Sinclair Method (TSM) in the world.
In 2013, Christian started her non-profit C Three Foundation to help raise awareness of the treatment, which saved her life in 2009. In 2014, Christian’s award-winning documentary One Little Pill was released. The documentary explains the science behind TSM and follows the lives of some of the people Christian helped use the treatment.

Christian has spoken at UCLA, USC and at medical conventions around the world. In addition, she has appeared on Larry King Now and Megyn Kelly educating people about TSM.

Her TEDx talk has had over 2.2 million views. She is a dedicated advocate for medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and is on the advisory board for Ria Health, a telemedicine company that offers comprehensive, personalized treatment for patients with AUD.

Claudia has been an actress in TV, film, and games for over 35 years and is a published author of both fiction and non-fiction.

To learn more, visit https://cthreefoundation.org.