Treatment and Recovery News Roundup


November 28, 2017

Maureen Fitzgerald
ATTC Network Coordinating Office
NIATx


Did your recent holiday include a holiday from the news?  Get caught up with these links to breaking treatment and recovery headline stories:

The Health 202: This hotel CEO thinks he can fix America's opioid abuse problem, Washington Post: "Gary Mendell, the chairman of HEI Hotels & Resorts who lost his son to drug addiction six years ago, has convinced four of the five major U.S. insurers – Aetna, UnitedHealth, Cigna and several of the Blue Cross plans – and a dozen smaller companies to sign onto eight principles of care for patients struggling with addiction."

In Ads, Tobacco Companies Admit They Made Cigarettes More Addictive from NPR:  Tobacco companies launched a series of ads warning about the health effects of smoking and the dangers of second-hand smoke.

Where is the Prevention in the President's Opioid Report? New York Times: The report mentions some evidence-based prevention programs, but does not recommend any.

Scientists explore drug's value in treating both alcoholism and PTSD, from Baltimore Sun: Dr. Bankole Johnson of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, is leading a team launching a five-year study of the effectiveness of a drug called pregablin for treating alcoholism and PTSD together.

White House report: Cost of opioid crisis over $500B from UPI:  A report by the White House Council of Economic Advisors adjusts for underreporting of opioids in overdose deaths and incorporates nonfatal costs of opioid misuse.

Veterans help spur use of medical pot for PTSD from CBSnews.com: The American Legion is pressing VA doctors to recommend medical marijuana where it's legal.

Should Hospitals be Punished for Post-Surgical Patients' Opioid Addiction? From NPR:  Some doctors and hospital administrators are now asking if opioid dependence is a medical error "along the lines of some hospital-acquired infections."

How Opioids Started Killing Americans, from Bloomberg: A Columbia University study analyzed clinical diagnoses and prescriptions for more than 13,000 adults in the Medicaid program in 45 states who died from an overdose from 2001 to 2007.

Follow the ATTC Network and NIATx on Twitter and Facebook to stay caught up with treatment and recovery news.

What are other ways that you keep informed of what's happening with treatment and recovery? Share your comments below. 

You Don’t Have To Be a Latino to Provide Services to Latino Populations: Enhancing Transcultural Mental Health Care

December 4, 2017


Emily Maynard, PhD
Post-doctoral fellow
University of California, Santa Barbara


Three facts you need to know about Latinos and mental health care in the United States:

  • Eighteen percent of the U.S. population is Hispanic or Latino (56.6 million) (US Census Bureau, 2016)
  • Only 5% of American psychologists are Hispanic or Latino (American Psychological Association, 2015).
  • Approximately 3% of American social workers are Hispanic or Latino (National Association of Social Workers, 2003).
See: How the U.S. Hispanic population is changing/Pew Research Center

With the number of Latinos in the United States at a high and growing, and after recent natural disasters that have impacted Latino populations in the Caribbean and Gulf areas, we may see more Latinos than ever accessing mental health services. Therefore, it’s likely that many non-Latino clinicians will be asked to work with Latinos, especially in border states and the Gulf region. Some familiarity with this group is helpful to provide appropriate, cross-cultural mental health services to Latinos.

What do non-Latinos need to know to work effectively with Latinos?


Nine things to keep in mind.

1. Latinos are diverse! Just like the United States, Latin American countries have long histories of colonization, conquest, slavery, and immigration. There are individuals of European, African, indigenous, Asian and Middle Eastern descent across Latin America. Don’t assume that someone is or is not Latino because they look a certain way or have a certain name.

2. Take the time to learn about the recent history of the countries/regions where your patients come from. A professional-class patient fleeing Venezuela may have a very different background than a Puerto Rican laborer or a Chilean graduate student. Newspapers, magazines, films, novels, and even Wikipedia are great sources of information about your patients’ countries of origin.

3. If you speak Spanish, seek out professional opportunities to train and receive supervision in Spanish.
Have you ever taken any Spanish classes? Spanish is by far the most-taught second language in the United States, with more students enrolled in Spanish than in all other foreign languages (Goldberg, Looney, & Lusin, 2015). If you have even a passing familiarity with Spanish or with Latin American cultures, use what you know of it to inform your work with patients. (For example, use the formal usted form of address unless your client invites you to use the informal tú.)
4. Be willing to acknowledge your own racial/ethnic identity. If you speak Spanish and are not Latino, patients will have curiosity about how you acquired it. To not answer questions about language acquisition or race/ethnicity may be perceived as hostile, strange, or may invoke paranoia. Be prepared to give a brief explanation, e.g., “I lived in Chile and Argentina for a few years,” and move on. 

5. Be on the lookout for complex trauma and trauma-related disorders when working with Latinos. Latin America is now considered the most violent region in the world, with the highest homicide rate (U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, 2013). Latinos endorse high rates of exposure to violence, including political violence (Fortuna, Porche, & Alegria, 2008). 

Day of the Dead shrine in guest blogger's office
6. Distinguish between psychopathology and culturally-normative behavior. For instance, a person who appears to be paranoid may be in fact behaving very adaptively if they were raised under a dictatorship (as, for example, in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Cuba, to name just a few). Signs of anxiety/panic/nerves must also be considered in the context of recent changes to immigration policy and raids on immigrants across US.

7. Interpersonal boundaries are different, but still exist with Latino patients! Don’t be fooled into thinking that a more affectionate style among Latinos means that they don’t respect interpersonal boundaries. I have found that Latinos are often keenly aware of professional hierarchies and are very respectful when working with therapists. They will also expect a similar level of professionalism and respect from their clinicians.

8. Family is important. Most Latino cultures have a greater focus on family functioning rather than on autonomous individualism (Cauce & Domenech-Rodriguez, 2002; La Roche, 2002). Some ways to acknowledge family role in therapy:
  • Routinely ask about significant family members.
  • With children/teens: “Mándale saludos a tu mamá”/“Say hi to your parents for me.”
  • Allow parents of infants or small children to bring children into psychotherapy with them.
9. Show up. For non-Latinos, it is important to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to working with Latinos. Linguistic and cultural knowledge are markers for commitment, but so is showing up!
  • Be present at public events in the Latino community; let yourself see and be seen. 
  • Take university-level classes in Spanish, or courses on Latin American history and culture.
  • Visit Spanish-speaking neighborhoods.
  • Acknowledge important holidays and traditions with patients: Día de los Muertos, December 12 (Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe) and quinceañeras for Mexican patients


About our guest blogger

Emily Maynard received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Fordham University. Her pre-doctoral internship was conducted at NYU-Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City, where she completed rotations in medical psychology, substance abuse treatment, and inpatient psychiatry. Dr. Maynard received her undergraduate degree in Spanish and Portuguese from Princeton University, with a minor in Latin American Studies, and she was later a Fulbright Fellow to Brazil. Dr. Maynard is bilingual in Spanish and fluent in Brazilian Portuguese.





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NIAAA's Alcohol Treatment Navigator: Pointing the way to evidence-based care



November 20, 2017

Lori Ducharme, Ph.D.
Program Director for Health Services Research
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) estimates that about 15 million American adults met the diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorder in 2016, while only about 10% received treatment from a specialty facility. And many of those who access treatment still don’t get care that meets their needs, or includes evidence-based behavioral therapies or medications. 

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), recently released a new online resource called the Alcohol Treatment Navigator. It’s designed to be a comprehensive, easy-to-use tool to help individuals and their loved ones navigate the often-complex process of searching for, and choosing, a professional treatment provider. By explaining what you need to know, and what you need to do to find quality treatment, the Navigator aims to help empower people to make more informed decisions. This is especially important because the search for help often comes at a time when families are most stressed.

Native American Heritage Month: Books to add to your reading list

November 7, 2017

Maureen Fitzgerald
ATTC Network Coordinating Office
NIATx 

Awareness months such as November’s Native American Heritage Month can be a great time to challenge ourselves to learn more about Native Americans’ history and culture, as well as their experiences today. 

Start by adding books by American Indian authors to your reading list. If you're looking for book recommendations, consult Birchbark Books, an independent bookstore in Minneapolis owned by Native American novelist Louise Erdrich. Erdrich's books and poetry have won numerous awards; her 2016 novel LaRose won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.