Spreading the Word and Making Connections

This past year has been about promoting awareness about Planning to Flourish and my upcoming pilot project -  Insight, Information, and Incentives for Women in Recovery (more about this at a later date). It’s so exciting and interesting to hear about problems, issues, and addiction treatment for women from many different perspectives.

The 12th Global Addiction Conference last October 2016, in Venice, Italy, involved presentations from professionals from different areas of the globe on a variety of topics. I was pleased to be able to present a topic about addicted women. In fact, it was the only presentation specifically about women and I had a good turn out to my session.  Lots of questions, comments, and discussions occurred after with the participants from different countries. I was disappointed that no one from Italy spoke. It is a good way to get a feel for the problems of the country, and the political climate and treatment related to substance abuse when a speaker from the hosting country participates.

Later in the month, I presented at a conference with a totally different focus. It was the 13th Annual Conference of the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (National DEC) held in Reno, Nevada. I learned about the DEC teams. These community response teams involve law enforcement, social workers, and child welfare workers. The focus is to provide appropriate, comprehensive support to children whose parents are arrested for substance abuse. In addition, I learned about many tribal issues surrounding substance abuse and women and their children.

The 2nd World Congress on Women’s Mental Health was held in Dublin, Ireland in March 2017. It was a large conference with many speakers. My panel of speakers included issues on prostitution, sex trafficking, women and addiction, and pregnancy and addiction. The conference weaved in many issues relating to women in Ireland. I didn’t know that abortion is illegal in Ireland, and carries a sentence of 14 years in prison. There were many talks and activities, including a protest march on International Women’s Day, that centered around repealing the Eighth Amendment which legislates abortion as illegal.  I was fortunate to be invited to a celebration of the SAOL Project, which is an amazing local Dublin program for women and children affected by addiction.

Rounding out the year, and in contrast to the Dublin conference, the 2nd World Congress on Medical Society and Community Health was a very small conference held in Atlanta, Georgia in September 2017. Medical Sociology is the study of the social causes and consequences of health and illness. My presentation on women and addiction was a topic that was very relevant for this area of sociology.

In addition to these far-reaching conferences, I presented my work to several local recovery programs that serve addicted women and their children.

I will continue promoting awareness about the importance of family planning/contraception for women in recovery.  However, my focus for the upcoming year is to implement a pilot project for treatment programs.

Check back in the future for information about this project.