You are visiting us from Virginia. You are located in HHS Region 3. Your Center is Central East ATTC.

National Recovery Month 2019: ATTC Resources Address Treatment and Recovery in Diverse Populations

By Maureen Fitzgerald 
Great Lakes ATTC 

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) first launched National Recovery Month in September 1989 to celebrate the millions of Americans living in recovery from substance use and mental health disorders. Over the past 30 years, National Recovery Month has promoted the message that treatment works, people do recover, and behavioral health is essential to overall health.

National Recovery Month also highlights the fact that substance use and mental health disorders affect everyone, regardless of age, race, gender, or socioeconomic status. With our increasingly complex and diverse population, providing culturally and linguistically appropriate treatment and recovery services is of vital importance.

Recognizing this, the ATTC Network Coordinating Office, regional centers, and population-specific centers have created a variety of relevant training resources. Topics covered include the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health and Health Care and cultural humility. You’ll also find resources for working with African Americans, Latinx/Hispanic populations, American Indian & Alaska Native Populations, women, the LGBTQIA population, and youth.


Building Health Equity and Inclusion

All of these materials are now available for viewing and download on Building Health Equity and Inclusion, a new section of the ATTC website. This new page unites the Network’s collective expertise on culturally appropriate treatment and recovery services. Resources listed include practical tools that organizations can customize to meet the needs of a particular population or area.

New White Paper: Roadmap for Training and Technical Assistance Efforts in Substance Use Service Administration The Building Health Equity and Inclusion site features the recently published white paper, Roadmap for Training and Technical Assistance Efforts in Substance Use Service Administration: A Journey to Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services, which is also available in Spanish: Hoja de Ruta Para El Trabajo de Formación y Asistencia Técnica en la Administración de Servicios Para El Abuso De Sustancias. Developed by members of the ATTC Network CLAS Standards Workgroup and translated by the National Hispanic and Latino ATTC, the paper offers 7 recommendations to behavioral health and healthcare providers working to improve health and health care equity:

  1. Increase awareness and recognition of non-conscious stereotyping and prejudice toward racial and ethnic disparities in health care.
  2. Encourage full consideration of access to care.
  3. Recommend developing culturally sensitive assessment tools.
  4. Policy change.
  5. Diverse workforce.
  6. Improve efforts to conduct research with diverse populations.
  7. Increase efforts toward interprofessional collaboration in the prevention, treatment, and recovery of substance use disorders.


Updated Regularly with New Resources

Building Health Equity and Inclusion will be updated regularly with new resources developed across the Network. New this month is the Recovery Month 2019 Podcast: Recovery in African-American Communities, produced by the Great Lakes ATTC.

Related Resources from SAMHSA
In addition to the Recovery Month Toolkit, SAMHSA offers Recovery Month Promotional Materials ,which include public service announcements in English and Spanish. Other resources and information are available the SAMHSA page, Behavioral Health Equity Resources.

Does your organization serve clients from diverse populations? What resources do you find most useful in providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services? Let us know in the comment section below!

Published:
09/13/2019
Tags
Recent posts
Flowcharting: The Foundation for Making Meaningful Improvements
The flowchart is one of the essential tools in the NIATx model. A flowchart provides visual map of your process—it shows how things get done, step by step. You might be thinking, “Why do we need a flowchart if we already did a walk-through of the process?" If the process seems straightforward, your team might […]
Find Help
TEST post - By Briana Craemer FindTreatment.gov The confidential and anonymous resource for persons seeking treatment for mental and substance use disorders in the United States and its territories. Available in Spanish. FindTreatment.gov 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline 24-hour, toll-free, confidential support for people in distress. Prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones.Call […]
Medications for Substance Abuse
TEST post - By Briana Craemer Learn how medications can be used to treat substance use disorders, sustain recovery and prevent overdose. The use of medications, in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies, to provide a “whole-patient” approach to the treatment of substance use disorders. Medications used are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and are clinically driven […]
Need more info on Xylazine, Nitazenes and Medetomidine? Opioid Response Network is crowdsourcing info on all three
Xylazine, medetomidine and nitazines are substances that are emerging as key contributors in the latest wave of the Opioid Overdose Epidemic. Xylazine is an adulterant that increases the duration of a user’s fentanyl high and delays withdrawal to some extent. Medetomidine is another adulterant that belongs to the same family of drugs as xylazine, but […]

The opinions expressed herein are the views of the authors and do not reflect the official position of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), SAMHSA, CSAT or the ATTC Network. No official support or endorsement of DHHS, SAMHSA, or CSAT for the opinions of authors presented in this e-publication is intended or should be inferred.

Copyright © 2024 Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network
map-markermagnifiercrossmenuchevron-down