Harmony Foundation

COVID-19: Keep Connecting During The Pandemic

Posted on by Christy Weeks

The current global coronavirus pandemic has presented serious challenges for people in recovery from addiction. Self-isolation, the threat of unemployment, no access to 12-Step meetings, and deep anxiety about an invisible disease spreading across the country—these are all possible relapse triggers.

While these risks should certainly not be underestimated, they could also be treated as an opportunity to strengthen recovery efforts.

“We are clearly facing a very difficult situation at the moment but just like everything else in life, this too shall pass,” says Michael Arnold, alumni community relations manager at Harmony. “I believe we now have a great opportunity to work on ourselves while also being of service and reaching out to help others.”

Connection is crucial for a sustained recovery and nothing disconnects like a lockdown in a pandemic—or does it? With stay-at-home orders across the US, meetings and counseling sessions for those who struggle with addiction have now largely moved online.

“With the help of modern technology, we have the chance to be more connected than ever before,” says Arnold. “The time COVID-19 is giving us at home is actually the greatest gift that our recovery can receive. If you are concerned about being isolated at home, pick up the phone, tablet, or use your computer to reach out to someone. When we choose to connect with people we are helping our own recovery just as much as we are helping the person on the other end of the link-up.”

These types of resources are incredibly valuable right now, say addiction professionals, mental health counselors, and individuals in recovery from substance use disorders. “The peer support group means so much to me,” says Harmony alumna, Spring B. “It’s essential for recovery especially in this period of time to stay connected. It’s super nice to see all the alumni. This group gives me an invisible link to people that understand and support me.”

If you are unsure how to proceed, Alcoholics Anonymous has provided a web page devoted to online options. Narcotics Anonymous offers similar information on its website.

“I don’t know what I would have done if I had been in this situation when we didn’t have access to virtual meetings,” a New Yorker who participates in Alcoholics Anonymous told CNBC. The 26-year-old woman from Brooklyn was 62 days sober at the time and planning to attend 90 meetings in her first 90 days of sobriety. She said a recent meeting she attended through video conferencing had over 1,000 participants.

“It’s so cool that technology enables us to attend meetings with friends in recovery that do not live anywhere close to us,” says Harmony’s Michael Arnold. “Even while we are physically isolated, we have the opportunity to be of great service to one another. When we come together, we can recover. I invite you to see this present moment of crisis as the best time to work on your recovery. Embrace this pause in life and fully engage in your journey of recovery.”

Harmony Foundation continues to serve clients during the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak and is taking new precautions to ensure staff and client safety. These include strict hand-washing protocols, heightened and ongoing disinfection of all areas at facilities, as well as updated admission assessments to consider previous travel, potential exposure, and health status. All new admissions will have additional medical screening upon campus arrival.

Harmony Teams Up With Rocky Vista University to Improve Addiction Training

Posted on by Kevin Zundl
Rocky Vista Logo

In his groundbreaking report on addiction in America, former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy suggested “a comprehensive approach” to address the substance misuse crisis in the United States including “improved access to evidence-based treatment services, integrated with mainstream healthcare, for those at risk for or affected by substance use disorders.“

Better integration with mainstream healthcare requires better addiction training for medical professionals—among other things. In a new partnership with Rocky Vista University, Harmony Foundation is now providing just that.

RVU was established in 2006 as the nation’s first private, for-profit health sciences university to offer a professional medical degree since 1910. RVU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine grants the degree of Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) and admitted its inaugural class of medical students at the Parker, Colorado campus in 2008.

Recently, RVU added a physician assistant program. The goal of the PA program is to support the development of “clinically competent, collaborative, and compassionate” physician assistants. One of the first students in that program is Adrianne Bryant who recently also benefitted from the trailblazing partnership with Harmony. She was able to learn quite a lot about the treatment of substance use disorder (SUD) during her rotation at Harmony.

Supervised by Harmony’s medical director, Christopher Reveley, MD, Bryant got a “well-rounded look at addiction treatment and what recovery is like,” as she puts it. “I had the opportunity to talk with the psychologist and multiple counselors. I was able to take part in group therapy and learned about managing meds and the detox process. I’m getting a really good overview of the whole program.”

It’s a modest but important beginning. Harmony aims to become an incubator for teaching and learning around the medical side of addiction. Dr. Reveley considers Harmony an ideal place for that kind of training. For many medical professionals, this “may very well be their only experience in addiction medicine before launching into their careers, regardless of whether they become MDs, DOs, or PAs,” he says. “Here at Harmony, we can offer a full spectrum of inpatient treatment. We’re treating all kinds of addiction problems, with all kinds of substances, and we have a fully qualified mental health staff.”

This kind of first-hand experience is often lacking in the medical field. Not many medical schools require or even offer it, despite the current addiction crisis in America. Dr. Reveley can speak from experience. Years ago, when he went to medical school himself, he didn’t have any addiction training at all. Then, when he became interested in recovery and the treatment of addiction after years as an anesthesiologist, he started to look for an addiction medicine fellowship. There were fewer than 50 on offer in the entire United States—in 2015!

“It’s really admirable that RVU has acknowledged the importance of addiction treatment,” says Reveley. “Primary care doctors, in particular, are in the front lines of recognizing addiction in patients and getting them into treatment. So it’s so important for someone like Adrianne Bryant, who might be working in a primary care clinic to know what addiction looks like.”

Bryant agrees: “I don’t think people have a real good sense what drug-seeking behavior looks like, so we may not recognize it all the time,” she says. “This rotation is helping me in that regard because I see people in recovery who genuinely try to get better. Sitting in on counseling sessions, witnessing patients taking an honest look at their lives, I get a better sense of what people struggling with addiction are like, what they were like in active addiction, and what recovery looks like.”

Dr. Reveley hopes that collaborations like the RVU-Harmony partnership will get more medical professionals interested in addiction treatment. Thanks to her Harmony rotation, Ms. Bryant will certainly be in a better position to recognize SUD in her patients and suggest evidence-based therapy for them. That’s a big step forward. “A lot of substance misuse doesn’t result in treatment because doctors simply don’t ask about it,” says Reveley.

Addiction is a complex biopsychosocial disease requiring comprehensive treatment in an integrated care environment. Many agencies can help make that treatment a reality. In the case of the new partnership, Rocky Vista was also aided by the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) which helped with the placement of students. The AHEC Program works with regional offices to build state-wide network capacity in Colorado, strengthening academic-community linkages in four core mission areas: health careers and workforce diversity, health professions student education, health professions continuing education and public health and community education.

Renewing the Holidays

Posted on by Christy Weeks

Harmony Alumni Share In Their Own Words

The holidays mark a time end of year celebration but for people in recovery, however, the holidays can be more complicated emotionally warns The Recovery Book: “They are also a time when temptations to jump off the wagon seem to multiply.” Holiday stress can cause people struggling with alcohol and drug addiction to resume or intensify their substance misuse. The increased presence of alcoholic beverages during holiday celebrations can be a dangerous trigger. So, how can people in recovery avoid all that? Continue reading “Renewing the Holidays” →

Harmony Foundation Announces Second Major Expansion During Its 50th Year

Posted on by Christy Weeks
IOP

Colorado drug addiction program is celebrating it’s 50th Anniversary with a new intensive outpatient program with a unique twist and a Fort Collins Recovery Center. Gala celebrating milestone was held Oct 25 in Denver with special guest Carnie Wilson of Wilson Phillips. Continue reading “Harmony Foundation Announces Second Major Expansion During Its 50th Year” →

Addiction Reaches Sesame Street

Posted on by Christy Weeks
Sesame Street

America’s addiction crisis is now so pandemic that it features on one of the most popular TV programs for children. As was revealed in a recent episode, one of the Muppet characters on “Sesame Street” is struggling with a big, “grown-up” problem. Show producer Sesame Workshop created a series of videos in which young Karli talks to her friends about her mom’s struggle with addiction. Karli came to “Sesame Street” in May to stay with a foster family because her mother was “having a hard time.” Continue reading “Addiction Reaches Sesame Street” →

Harmony to Present Dorothy Dorman Service Award to NAATP

Posted on by Christy Weeks
NAATP Award

Harmony Foundation, a Colorado-based addiction treatment center, has selected the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP) for its Dorothy Dorman Service Award. The award was established to honor Harmony Foundation’s long-time CEO at her retirement. The award recognizes people or organizations sharing the same integrity and dedication for addiction treatment solutions as the award’s name bearer.

The award will be presented at Harmony Foundation’s 50th Anniversary Gala in Denver, Colorado on October 25th at the Four Seasons Hotel. Carnie Wilson of Wilson Phillips will be the special guest speaker of this milestone event that commemorates the long and impactful heritage of Harmony Foundation which has positively changed the lives of thousands. Proceeds from this event will benefit scholarships supporting those with the desire, but without the means, to receive the addiction treatment they need. Tickets, as well as sponsorship opportunities, are available to the public at www.harmonyfoundationinc.com/50th.

“NAATP has long been the voice for addiction programs across the country and for decades has led the charge in establishing meaningful ethical standards and protocols for this important treatment category,” stated James Geckler, Harmony Foundation President and CEO. “We wanted to acknowledge their continuing hard work in helping their membership collaborate and better serve their patients.”

Recently NAATP has been active on the national stage supporting the passing of bi-partisan legislation H.R.6 (115thCongress), which contains over 120 separate bills to address the opioid crisis. For the first time, the federal government is examining how individual states are enforcing the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) passed in 2008 and making changes to the antiquated Medicaid limitation on residential treatment based on the number of beds operated by a facility.

NAATP CEO Marvin Ventrell added “The National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers is honored to receive the Harmony Foundation Dorothy Dorman Award on the occasion of Harmony’s 50th Anniversary. Founded nearly a decade before the National Association itself, Harmony was among the first treatment programs to join the association and has since that time supported NAATP as a valued charter member. This speaks volumes about Harmony’s commitment to not just its own patients but the welfare the national addiction recovery community at large. Keep up the good work Harmony and here’s to 50 more years of success.”

About Harmony Foundation
Harmony Foundation is a nonprofit alcohol and drug addiction recovery program that serves in a collaborative and respectful treatment environment. Harmony promotes physical, emotional, and spiritual healing, empowering their clients to embark upon the lifelong journey of recovery. Visit HarmonyFoundationInc.com to learn more.

Harmony Joins the Voices of Recovery

Posted on by Christy Weeks

September is Recovery Month and this year the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) celebrates the 30th anniversary of this addiction awareness campaign. The 2019 theme, “Join the Voices for Recovery: Together We Are Stronger,” emphasizes the need to share resources and build networks to support the many paths to recovery. It reminds us that mental health and substance use disorders affect all of us and that we can all be part of the solution. Recovery Month highlights inspiring stories to help many people from all walks of life find the path to hope, health, and overall well-being.

One of those inspiring stories is Michael Arnold’s recovery from alcohol addiction. Michael’s alcohol use disorder almost killed her but she turned her life around and now works as an alumni relations manager at the Harmony Foundation. “Every day is a day of recovery, of course, but Recovery Month is that much more focused and there is more intention behind the message of hope that we are all trying to put forward, emphasizing that you can recover,” says Arnold.

Recovery Month began in 1989 as “Treatment Works! Month,” which honored the work of substance use treatment professionals in the field. A lot has changed in 30 years of fighting the stigma of addiction. “Every single year it’s getting better—especially now that alcohol and drug addiction is recognized as a disease of the brain,” says Arnold. “More and more people are starting to show more compassion and desire to understand instead of judging.”

Harmony is celebrating Recovery Month with a 50th-anniversary alumni reunion and a special workshop. “It will look at vulnerability, communication, and owning your sobriety,” explains Arnold. “Behind the ‘stronger together’ motto there is a lot of vulnerability for people in recovery and the workshop will discuss that.” Michael’s own motto is “recover out loud!” Her way of dealing with the disease is to help others, sharing the story of her addiction and recovery instead of hiding her past.

“Our addiction wants us in isolation—completely alone,” she says. “Our addiction wants us in the dark. How do we combat this? Together. Together, we can recover. In order to live a healthy life in sobriety, it is imperative to have a community. When we recover together, we become part of each other’s solutions.”

To spread the message that the door to recovery is always open, she has co-authored a book about recovery. “Our book is all about the fact that addiction doesn’t discriminate, and so recovery doesn’t, either. We work together, no matter what your pathway to recovery may be.”

You can be part of Recovery Month, too

One way to help your community rally around treatment and recovery is to encourage
social media user-generated content. Urge participants to use hashtags like #RecoveryMonth, #RisforRecovery, or #Recovery. Encourage them to share their personal stories about recovery and to tag their friends, family, and other members of their community. A local social media campaign is something easy for people to participate in and can foster a positive, collaborative spirit among community members.

SAMHSA’s Recovery Month toolkit provides a lot more information, resources, and ideas on how to get involved. With your help, the millions of Americans affected by mental and substance use disorders, including co-occurring disorders, will be lifted up into a life in recovery, filled with hope, health, and personal growth.

When Gray Drinking Leads to Long-Term Sobriety

Posted on by Christy Weeks
Gray Drinking

by: Michael Rass

Sobriety is no longer just the earnest goal of recovering alcoholics. As of late, it has also become the holy grail of so-called “gray area” drinkers.

According to former social drinker Amanda Kudo that gray area is the “place where you’re not a super-casual, once-in-a-while drinker, but you’re also not a hit-rockbottom, time-to-get-help drinker, either. You’re just there, somewhere in the middle, drinking in a way that is still deemed socially acceptable if not socially necessary.”

Or as health coach Jolene Park put it in her TED talk, “from the outside looking in, my drinking did not look problematic, but from the inside looking out, I knew, the way I was drinking was a problem for me.” Many people like Kuda and Park say they never had a real drinking problem, but they had a problem with drinking.
One of those “gray area” drinkers was British expat Ruby Warrington, currently living in Brooklyn, who— according to the New York Times—”spent her early career quaffing gratis cocktails at industry events, only to regret the groggy mornings.”

“After moving to New York in 2012, Ms. Warrington tried 12-step programs briefly but decided that ‘Ruby, alcoholic’ was not the person she saw in the mirror,” wrote Alex Williams in the Times feature about a new sobriety trend spreading across the nation. “Three years ago she started Club Soda NYC, an event series for other ‘sober curious,’ as she termed them: young professionals who were ‘kind-of-just-a-little-bit-addicted-to-booze.’”
Being “sober curious” has caught on and Warrington wrote a whole book about this latest health fad. “For these New Abstainers, sobriety is a thing to be, yes, toasted over $15 artisanal mocktails at alcohol-free nights at chic bars around the country, or at ‘sober-curious’ yoga retreats, or early-morning dance parties for those with no need to sleep off the previous night’s bender,” wrote Williams.

But there is a serious side to avoiding alcohol use, of course. It is after all an addictive substance without any health benefits that physicians would acknowledge. And while the sober-curious vogue may well be short-lived, reducing or giving up alcohol consumption is certainly laudable since it comes with all kinds of health benefits.
When Jolene Park described her alcohol use as knowing “the way I was drinking was a problem for me,” she was actually paraphrasing the first diagnostic criterion of alcohol use disorder (AUD) in the of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), which reads: “Alcohol is often taken in larger amounts or over a longer period than was intended.” And when she said in the same TED talk that she had no trouble stopping but couldn’t “stay stopped,” she was paraphrasing the second AUD criterion in the DSM-5. Two criteria (out of eleven) indicate a mild alcohol use disorder.

Park probably wasn’t aware of the DSM-5 criteria at the time but she read the warning signs correctly and realized that she was “kind-of-just-a-little-bit-addicted-to-booze.” She understood that her alcohol use could escalate further and made the right decision. She embraced sobriety.

She also realized that her alcohol use was a coping mechanism for her anxiety issues and designed a new coping strategy for herself based on connecting with nature and other people, exercise, and meditation. Park now shares this healthy approach to life with other people.

Amanda Kuda also realized that she needed to drink in order to relax. “But there was a bigger part of me that wanted to feel happy, joyful, vibrant, inspired, energized, motivated, fulfilled. Once I realized that alcohol was not only failing to contribute to those feelings, but was actually dragging me further and further away from them, I no longer wanted to drink.” Neither Park, Warrington, or Kuda sought detox or residential addiction treatment for their alcohol problem, and only Warrington briefly tried a 12step program. This low level of care for a mild or moderate alcohol use disorder may not be the right choice in all cases, though. Some patients might require an intensive outpatient program or even partial hospitalization. Only a careful assessment of the patient’s individual needs can determine the appropriate level of care.

Although none of the three “gray-drinking” women made use of a treatment program, they nevertheless realized a core principle of recovery. Stop using and change your life! Real recovery goes far beyond giving up substance misuse. It is a life-changing journey to long-term wellness that should make you feel happy, joyful, and inspired.

IF YOU OR A LOVED ONE IS STRUGGLING WITH SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER, OR YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR PROGRAMS, CALL HARMONY TODAY AT 970.432.8075 TO GET THE HELP NEEDED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

Why Recovery Needs Healing Space

Posted on by Christy Weeks

Addiction is a family disease. The Recovery Book advises family members of people in recovery that “Everyone in your family, as well as other people in your lives, has been affected by addiction in some way. Now you all need to work on getting your lives back to some kind of normal.”

Michael Arnold is a recovering alcoholic who now works as an alumni relations manager at the Harmony Foundation. In a recent Facebook Live with her twin sister, Michael and Casey talked about the impact Michael’s addiction and recovery had on their relationship. Both siblings demonstrated how important clear and honest communication is for the family dynamic.

Michael talked about the need to share with “brutal honesty what addiction can do to your family.” Casey talked about how hard it was for her to watch Michael decline in active addiction, realizing there was nothing she could do, that Michael had to save herself.

Michael recalls doing things to her family that “just weren’t nice.” Casey remembers all too well. Seven years ago Michael helped to put her twin sister briefly in jail—just to hurt her. Michael was in such a bad place that to hurt her sister made her feel better.

“I never thought I could be close with Michael again, never thought I could trust her again,” Casey said. But change can happen. Recovery can work miracles. “Michael has changed. She is not the person she was seven years ago,” Casey said. “She is not that selfish person that put me in jail. She’s working very hard at it every day.”

For desperate family members the trick is to be patient and supportive. “Don’t hammer people in recovery about all the mistakes they made in active addiction” all the time. “Show your love,” Casey said. “You need to have grace and patience with them. As family members you have to give them space to recover, the harder you are on them the worse it’s going to be.”

Appealing to people in the audience who have family members with addiction, Casey said, “You have to choose either to be there and support them or walk away. You can’t live in the middle and hold their past wrongdoings against them—that doesn’t help them recover. I have nothing but complete love for Michael now and I’m just so proud of her. It’s been a journey for both of us.”

Michael shared her side of that journey. Only “when I went through rehab did I get the tools to tell myself everyday to have that patience, to be so grateful that I’m sober. I have to know that my family will trust me; that they should realize that I’m a changed person but time is not on my side.”

It’s important to remember that recovery is a process. “I thought simply that Casey and I would be okay now that I’m sober. The relationship would be fine but it wasn’t,” Michael remembers. “Casey gave me that space for about a year to recover, but then she said ‘we need to talk about what happened’ so that we can move forward.”

Casey had to tell Michael what she had done to her and “she took it hard. I love you, I forgive you, but you have to earn the trust back.” That shook Michael, “but now our relationship is even stronger because you have to be able to open up about these things or they will simply fester.”

Making amends is an ongoing process for Michael now and Casey knows it. “Michael is ruthless and relentless about her recovery—she has even written a book about it. She is working hard every single day and that is all you can ask.”

The Insurance Dance with Recovery in Mind by Jim Geckler

Posted on by Christy Weeks
Collaboration

We recently received a Facebook post regarding frustration over Harmony’s handling of payments made through insurance. I wanted to use this opportunity to discuss questions and concerns about our partnerships with insurance partners and how we believe it helps benefit access to treatment.

First and foremost, insurance companies make it easier for us to cover some of the cost of treatment, a service that many of us do not plan for when the time requires it. When we consider our personal relationships with insurance partners, how many of us would be able to have yearly physicals, emergency procedures, or access to treatment? As a provider, Harmony works with our insurance partners to provide the appropriate level of care for the appropriate period of time.

Harmony has a 49 year history of providing a residential level of care; this is the highest level of care for people suffering from substance use disorder. We have a responsibility to our clients to stabilize them medically, assess their conditions, provide them with a diagnosis, work with them to create a foundation for sustained recovery, and construct a comprehensive continuing care plan which will support their recovery. The relationships we have fostered with insurance partners has allowed us to work collaboratively to support access to care along the continuum. Under the umbrella of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), together, insurance companies and treatment providers alike are held to the highest standards of care for addiction treatment. This common language, reviewed in tandem with insurance providers determines what level of care an individual requires.

Sometimes there is disagreement.  For example, when Harmony feels that a client would be better served by remaining at a residential level of care and an insurance provider feels they would be successful at the next level.  Other times, a client would like to remain in treatment, however our expert clinical and medical staff believe they are ready to move toward self-management of their own recovery at a level of care which empowers them to practice the early skills of recovery they learned here. In most cases, to arrive at a decision to move a client to the next level of care, involves a conversation with our Medical Director and a physician reviewing the case for the insurance company. We work to keep people at the appropriate level of care indicated by our clinical staff recommendations based on the client’s progress.

Harmony has a dedicated utilization review team, clinical professionals who work with our insurance partners, staff, and clients to keep people at the level of care which will provide them the greatest opportunities for success. When it is determined that funding for residential care has ended, we work to inform the client as quickly as we are able. Unfortunately in this situation the determination for a shift in levels of care is immediate, funding ceases that day. In order to ease the transition for clients and families, Harmony is committed to absorbing the expense of an additional night’s stay for clients. This is not common practice and comes at a fair cost. For example, in the month of July, we provided $28,000 in housing and care at no additional expense to clients. We are able to continue to do this through the generosity of our donors. We recognize the challenge and frustration of learning at 4 pm that one no longer has financing for treatment, however we are dedicated to continue to support our clients during this transition period.

There is nothing magical about 28 days of treatment. We have heard the 28 day timeframe used for many years, growing in public awareness with the Sandra Bullock film. The reality is that proven success is driven by long term engagement in treatment within a full continuum of care, at multiple levels  increasing the opportunity  for self-management.

We will always remain committed to providing access to treatment whenever possible, using all means necessary to help individuals receive treatment that can build an early foundation of recovery.  This could look like something as short as a few days or as long as 4 months.  Either way, our partnerships with insurance and our recommendations for treatment will always be the focus in providing individualized care for clients.

Jim Geckler is the Chief Executive Officer for Harmony Foundation.