“in recovery”? We Need a Better Definition

GETTING BACK SANITY? –

July 11, 2023 – It came up with this definition after assembling unidentified “leaders in the behavioral health field, consisting of people in recovery from mental health and substance use problems” and engaging in further “consultation with many stakeholders,” who were also unnamed. The 2010 SAMHSA document identifies 10 “Guiding Principles” of recovery including “hope,” “person-driven,” “holistic,” “peer support,” and “relational.”

While there was opportunity for public input in 2011, the working definition does not appear either at the time or since to have been subject to any external, formal peer review or public comment period. The brief document cites in support of its guiding principles no papers or scientific studies. This document seems, in short, a shaky foundation on which to build programs or support a key part of a national strategy intended to reflect coordination across 19 federal departments and agencies as part of a $41 billion national drug control budget.

SAMHSA itself now has created an entire Office of Recovery that will “evaluate and initiate policy, programs and services with a recovery focus and ensure the voices of individuals in recovery are represented.” That new Office of Recovery’s website in turn also cites in its resources the SAMHSA 2010 working definition for recovery.

This imprecise language that pervades the nation’s most important and well-publicized behavioral health strategies is anathema to another of the Drug Strategy’s important goals — that of supporting “evidence-based” policies, approaches and solutions (variations of which are used 86 times in the Strategy).