EASEPRESS 3.3

My Cat Needs a Hobby Update and Opinion from the Editor: Why is this rag so damn esoteric? Esoteric means something like fathomable by only a certain group or discipline. And, we are guilty of not really writing for the average consumer as we had hoped to at the start. We'll try to correct that. Having a writer from the outside, not from just the editor’s brain, will help. If anyone reading this wants to write regularly, please do contact us through EASE Nonprofit. I'm sure the address is emblazoned in print here somewhere. Debriel is a very good writer. She has enlightened his highness, the editor to some authors, which would have escaped his notice. Szasz and Schaler especially. You can find them at http://www.easenonprofit.org/articles2/schaler.htm or /conduct.htm Or if you like easy, just go to www.easenonprofit.org and link to Articles, then Credo (Schaler), or Rules of Personal Conduct (Szasz). You can read Riel there to, as well as in this issue. Along Medical Lines: Here in our posh offices - a folding and bent chair and an old Macintosh in a basement built on a slough - the jury is still out on Naltrexone. I once had a script for it and blew it off in favor of beer and Vodka. Kinda similar to Antabuse in that regard. I am hoping to get numbers to crunch on the effectiveness of it. Pursuant to killing the esoterica, I wish to clarify that the Medical Model of addiction is not the same matter as is Medicalization of addictive substances. This editor likes the idea of Medicalization. If you find it legal to inject opiates while you get your psyche together such that you don't find yourself wanting them, you stand a better chance of said togetherness. If you are constantly avoiding the law and the physician in pursuit of intoxicants... well...who has time to get one's psyche or environment together? Medical Model, or Medical Treatment on the other hand, I can't advocate until I can crunch said numbers. (Maybe there are some relevant charts and graphs from SAMSHA here). The aforementioned authors, Schaler and Szasz get a lot of criticism for poo-pooing the Medical Models of addiction (and Mental Health), but if you read it, it might make a lot more sense than all the mumbo-jumbo about seratonin and neurology that you read at NIH (The National Institute of Health), which, in case you're new here, is big big big on the Medical/Disease Model. Until it gets sorted out, I have a job. On The Nonprofit Front: Riddle: how can a nonprofit not be tax-exempt? Answer: Revenue The good people at EASE Nonprofit, who publish this, are back in the administrative saddle and corresponding with the IRS. Give 'em an issue or two to alert you that they are recognized as exempt, (and poorer for the trouble). Then send 'em money. Heh heh. The examiner is probably reading this... It has been a long time since EASE Non-profit produced a video. Look for information on upcoming video and cablecasts. If you want to get some information to the public, please consider volunteering an interview or a production of your own. EASE disseminates all the information they gather, but they haven't the staff to get all information gathered, much less compiled. If you want to see the latest effort, you can get hardcopy of the Compendium by writing EASE Nonprofit, or you can visit the web version, which they hope to update this quarter. Link to it at www.easenonprofit.org Impartial is the keyword here. They do not want to favor one philosophy over another, nor any provider before another. Just the facts, ma'am. On the printing: Yes, this issue is legible, Thanks to Royal Business Forms and Randy Collins. We hope you will advise us on how to make it better. At least I trust that Randy will not track the words together, as I used to. Changing defaults is not my forte. Get Pub! Send graphics, drawings, stories, letters, articles. Send Send Send. This means you! We still use the email of EASE Nonprofit: easenp@yahoo.com They got a domain (www.easenonprofit.org), all very nice, but not email there just yet. That's another expenditure, you know. About Audrey Kishline: Like most who read about Audrey Kishline, I am sad for her and for the family of the deceased. Kishline is accused of vehicular homicide, two counts. She was going the wrong way on a freeway. There's all kinds of discussion in print and online about the accident and about the criminal case she's facing. There's a lot more discussion about her integrity as the founder of Moderation Management, and as an advocate of moderation as a solution to drinking (or drugging) problems. Myself, being unversed in the philosophy behind her Moderation Management, am sad to see this tragic incident linked to the idea of moderation. While I believe in abstinence for problem users, I see the need for someone to tip their hat to moderation and to study it, as did she. What I speculate happened to her was that she found herself, amid other possible troubles in her life, getting heavy criticism about the management of Moderation Management; she decided that getting good and drunk was going to have to serve her. I have read that she declared (perhaps after such a decision) that she was going to revert to AA for her personal wellbeing. I would speculate that having decided that drinking was a comfortable way out of the pressure of criticism and doubt, she immersed herself in the philosophy which was most conducive to immoderate and irresponsible drinking. Namely the disease concept of addiction fostered in AA. In AA, while she hoped to find abstinence I am sure, she was also given excuse to drink to excess, having "fallen of the deep end: One drink, one drunk." I am very sad that it tragedy resulted. I wish all those who identified with Moderation Management the best. I don't think moderation is a ploy. It is a viable option. Most users use in moderation. They just don't get any ink. They don't use public funds or raise insurance premiums to address their use. They don't complain about their environment. Happily and with the sanction of consumerism, they cause less harm to society. The Old Numbers The 1998 Numbers from SAMHSA (The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Admin.) show us that: Facilities which offered substance abuse treatment (Specialized Treatment), and not Mental Health treatment, numbered, in 1997, 5,906. This was down from 7,398 in 1992. ('92 was big for treatment funding.) Tribal governments ran 149 facilities in '97, down from 351 in '92. Criminal Justice ran 556, UP from 312 in '92. Candidate Gore would approve. Overall facilities addressing substance abuse or mental health were, in '97: 60% non-profit, 24% for-profit and 13% government. Specialized Treatment revenue in '97 was imputed at $2,708 million. Clients paid about 11% of that, State governments paid about 40% of it. Private insurance about 11%. Medicaid about 14%. In the Criminal Justice system, revenue was imputed at $378 million, mostly State Government money (63.7%), some Feds Money (4.4%), some "other public revenue" (15.8%), and a spattering of client-pay, insurance, and Medicaid. A fun table lists "Clients in treatment per 100,000 population aged 12 and over...". Total ("Drugs, alcohol, or both"), nationally there were, on a given day (October 1, 1997) 916,637 clients in substance abuse treatment. That is 415/100K people (aged 12+), or 4.15%. The District of Columbia led the pack with 18% of it's population receiving Tx!, Minnesota had 1.95%, a relatively healthy bunch that day! Alaska of all places, had 10.7%. Nationally, those clients which were in substance abuse outpatient were served by: non-profit: 59.8% for-profit: 23.5% local government: 8.2% State Gov.: 4.4% Fed gov.: 2.7% and Tribal gov.:1.4% Those clients in inpatient (residential, including therapeutic communities) were served similarly. Private for-profit facilities were most likely to offer family counseling (98.8%), least likely to offer group therapy (excluding relapse) (78.2%). Most likely to offer group therapy was State Government at 93.8%! The Federal Government was strong on the pharmacotherapy offering meds at 68.6% of the facilities, compared with 22.1% at Tribal facilities, and 36-39% at private facilities. On that October 1st, in Minnesota there were 7,593 clients treated by facilities for substance abuse; 2,697 for alcohol only, 1,275 for drugs only, and 3,691 for both. Words From The Wise Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. Endeavor to speak truth in every instance-to give nobody expectations that are not likely to be answered. By my rambling digressions, I perceive myself to be getting old. Ben Franklin