Mental Health Crisis in Michigan – New Campus Opens to Address Need
Mental Health Crisis – Addressing the Need [Grand Rapids, Michigan 05/21/22] – May is Mental Health Awareness Month and the theme is “together for mental health”. The newly opened Sanford West Behavioral Health Campus reflects the theme, because its creation has been a team effort. Rae and David Green, life-long Grand Rapidan’s, founded Sanford in […]
Substance Use Disorders Linked to Severe COVID Illness
In a recent National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) article, Dr. Nora Volkow addresses COVID-19 vaccines for those with substance use disorders (SUD). SUDs are among several health conditions the CDC identified as increasing the risk of becoming severely ill from COVID-19. NIDA analyzed health records from 73 million patients in U.S. hospitals and […]
Age, Mental Health & Alcohol Use During COVID-19
Two new surveys by Preventive Medicine (Volume 145, April 2021, 106422), “aimed to examine whether age modified the association of anxiety and depressive symptoms with alcohol use during the COVID-19 pandemic”. Almost six-thousand people in the U.S. responded to their online questionnaires. Age, Mental Health and Alcohol Use 29% of respondents said they […]
Anybody Else Having Trouble Sleeping?
I have a sleep history. For most of my adult life I have been a card-carrying insomniac. Waking at 3:00 am with a crazy energy, sweeping the front porch at dawn and banging pots and pans (or any other noisy handiwork) by 5:00 am. Loved ones stuffed toilet paper in their ears to deaden […]
Substance Use, Mental Health, COVID-19 – the Connection
A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Report verifies what we have been hearing and reading over the past ten months of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has negatively impacted our mental health. But with nearly a year of social constraints and disease diagnosis, the data coming in are showing some interesting new […]
Coping Strategies for Substance Use Surge – WoodTV8 Interview
Thank you to WoodTV8 and, Donovan Long, for shining a positive light on substance use treatment during the pandemic. Donovan interviewed Sanford founder, Rae Green, and staff members in recovery, Shelby Kendrick and Ellen Long, in front of one of the Sanford residential facilities this week. Sanford is a residential and outpatient addiction treatment […]
Addiction Recovery During COVID-19 – The GOOD News
Judith Snow is the Clinical Manager at the Sanford Outpatient Center, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And during a time when most of the news is negative about the rise of addiction, relapse, and overdoses during the pandemic, she is a breath of fresh air. As a proponent of Carl Rogers, Judith contends, “You have […]
Adults (Especially Women), Alcohol Consumption & COVID-19
We’ve been under the thumb of COVID-19 long enough now, that the statistics are beginning to come in. There has been a more than 50% increase in national sales of alcohol in 2020. And a new survey by RAND Corporation shows that those over the age of 30 increased alcohol consumption 14% during May […]
Intentional Clinician Podcast – Addiction Treatment 2020
Thanks to Paul Krauss and The Intentional Clinician podcast for his in-depth interview. During this episode, Paul got three different perspectives on the impact of the pandemic on addiction treatment and substance use from three Sanford professionals. The conversation covered anxiety and distancing in recovery, the rise in drug/alcohol use, how Sanford is addressing […]
Dear Rae: Should We Delay Treatment for Our Son?
Dear Rae: Should we delay treatment for our son? Since March, our 21-year old son has been showing signs of alcohol and marijuana addiction. He is always sneaking off in our back yard, and there have been many times when he has been staggeringly drunk or high. I guess we are seeing it now that […]
