Mar 16,2019
Dear Hossein,
First, let me share my congratulations on your recent award for creating volunteer positions. I was very pleased that Ehsan shared a photo with me from the award ceremony. This award was well-deserved and a fitting tribute to your own leadership and the work of Congress 60.
Time is moving so quickly. It seems like only a few weeks ago that Congress 60 branches were in the middle of your annual tree planting. This is such a wonderful act of service to your country and to Mother Earth. There is so much destruction of the environment underway that such acts of healing and replenishment are desperately needed. This week in the U.S., many students went on strike at their schools to protest their elders lack of attention to the environment and to failing to address climate change in particular. They fear we are quickly reaching a tipping point in which global warming will be irreversible and dramatically affect the quality of life of all future people on earth. Here in the U.S., we have had many weather extremes this winter and quite severe damage to many communities from tornadoes. Such tornadoes are a risk during the spring and early summer but they have arrived quite early this year—another warning sign.
I agree on your suggestion of recovery requiring proper timing, proper medicine, and a proper method. I am recently interested in the question of timing of recovery seeking at a community level and if there are any factors that can contribute to sudden surges in recovery initiation within local communities. Have you seen such surges within any of the communities which contain Congress 60 Branches? I’m wondering if there are actions by any of the Branches that have resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of addicted people seeking help through Congress 60. In the U.S., some communities are experimenting with trained people in recovery doing outreach to engage addicted people in the community and linking them to treatment services. I think such outreach might have great potential for some communities.
Your comparison of treatment to pregnancy is also quite astute. The dominant models of treatment in the U.S. are analogous to a hospital emergency room with recovery support being provided for far too short a time period. I have argued for longer periods of care and that when recovery is fully stabilized people should still be provided regular recovery checkups in a manner similar to the checkups people treated for cancer, diabetes, and heart disease are afforded. Some of my colleagues have done research studies confirming that providing such checkups lowers addiction recurrence rates following treatment and enhances long-term recovery outcomes.
Only 3 cases of Hepatitis C among 300 Congress 60 members treated with the DST method is quite remarkable. In my experience, rates of Hepatitis C are much higher than that in most treatment programs in the U.S.
The number of William White legions surpassing 200 is a remarkable milestone. Recoveries are being strengthened as is the Congress 60 community. Members of those legions will be blessed with longer and richer lives in recovery.
Collecting data on the types of diseases members of Congress 60 experienced before beginning their treatment could be an important study that could inform what kind of health supports members need once they join Congress 60.
I am now reading a book on the “radical hope” needed to save the culture of early Native American tribes faced with the utter destruction of their cultures from invasion of their lands, war, epidemic disease, and the mass destruction of the buffalo. It seems to me that addiction is like that kind of devastation at a personal level and that Congress 60 provides people a form of radical hope that allows them to take the leap into recovery.
I know there are many great sports fans in Congress 60. Here in the U.S., our baseball season is about to begin. I enjoy watching many sports but I most closely follow baseball since I played that sport as a child and young man. Baseball is for us one of the welcome signs of spring.
Friends and Brothers Forever,
Bill