
#methadone #substanceusedisorder #stigma #mentalhealth #recoveryispossible #mentalhealth #morelovenotless #behavioralhealth
What the heck is she talking about now?!?!?! Well, let me tell you how tired I am hearing people in the mental health field act as if substance use disorder treatment is shady, and how exhausting it is to hear SUD treatment providers act like they don’t want anything to do with mental health providers. Heads up folk, we are all doing the same thing…..except we’re not.
Substance use treatment got big in the 70s thanks to an overwhelming amount of white folks dying. Let’s be honest, the United States did not mind when people of color were dying, they still don’t. Having said that, mental health professions were somehow more professional and more sacred than those doing the hardest work on the planet. The SUD world had to rely on people with lived experience to provide care and the medical field, for all their stuff that I don’t like, showed up with medical solutions. As this time period unfolded clinical mental health providers became elevated and more “important”. The licensure ensued, people started turning away clients, and SUD services had to be as back ally as the drug deals themselves.

Fast forward to the middle of third opiate/ amphetamine epidemic in the US, today, where the behavioral health field is falling apart and there is a need for folks with lived experiences and certificate (not licenses) to come and save the day for SUD and mental health. Have we learned nothing? Are we not paying attention? Right, the answer is no Dr. Wynn we are not paying attention. We have been making fun of holistic and community developed care for millennia why would we say out loud that maybe we got it wrong?
As a field we must say out loud that we need all hands on deck. Certificates, licenses, family members, the medical field…we need everyone who is willing to listen to participate in the solution. We need all of the credentials and people. We must stop the stigma, substance use disorder is but a symptom of larger issues, including and not limited to mental health, trauma, and socieoeconomic crisis.
What could happen if the entire field of behavioral health decided that we should know everything about SUD codes of ethics as well as SUD? What if we decided that SUD was as important to treat as diabetes? What is all SUD and MH care was free through your insurance and Medicaid/ Medicare? What if there were universal screens for all humans at all ages for both? Can you image a world where people got the help they needed the first time they asked for it? I can. So, come along with me and let’s make it happen!!!
More love, not less,
Tiffany
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