Addressing Trauma with Alternative Therapy

  Trauma is an event or circumstance that results in emotional, physical, and life threatening harm. It is important to note that trauma is highly individualized. This means, we all respond to events differently. How we respond is largely based on prior experience. For this reason, one person may demonstrate resilience after an event while another […]

Synthetic Opioids – Increases in Overdose Deaths 2020

  A December Health Alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says overdose deaths accelerated in 2020. The largest increases were from March to May, which coincides with widespread measures taken to slow the spread of COVID-19. Approximately 81,230 drug overdose deaths occurred in the US from May 2019 to May 2020. […]

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Utilization Review for Addiction Treatment – Limelight

  One of the most daunting tasks for those seeking help for a substance use disorder (SUD) is navigating insurance benefits. The mechanism for presenting a potential client’s case to an insurance company to obtain authorization for treatment is called a utilization review. At Sanford, we recognize this process is not just an administrative effort. […]

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Acute Care vs Recovery Management – Addiction Treatment

Acute care (AC) models of addiction treatment encompass service interventions that intervene at a late stage of problem development via services focused on brief biopsychosocial stabilization that lack sustained support across the stages of long-term personal and family recovery. Recovery management (RM) is a philosophical framework for organizing addiction treatment services to provide pre-recovery identification and […]

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Healing After Suicide – i understand Book Interview

What better time than National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month to speak to Vonnie Woodrick about her new book? Vonnie and her children created the nonprofit organization, i understand in 2014 to change the way we talk about suicide. And to address the stigma and language surrounding what is the terminal effect of a mental illness. […]

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Judy Garland & the Pervasive Stigma of Addiction

I went to see the movie Judy recently. There was a moment toward the end of the film when I thought to myself, Oh for God’s sake – why doesn’t she just get her act together? While a thousand ticket holders waited at a venue in London to hear her sing, Judy Garland was drinking […]

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Neuro-Reflexive Therapy – Dry Needling for Addiction Aftercare

  I am lying on a wide padded table breathing in through a “hole in my head”. I am breathing out through my hands and feet. There are neuro-reflexive needles in my face, hands, ankles, hips, and the top of my head. And behind my eyes I see cobalt blue squares. When I tell the […]

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