Conference Schedule

*Subject to change

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Wednesday, August 28, 2024

7:00 AM - 8:15 AM | Registration, Continental Breakfast, & Sponsor Booths

8:15 AM - 8:30 AM | Welcome & Overview

8:30 AM - 9:30 AM | Seminar: Alchemy of Recovery

Bobby Grubbs, MSSW, LCSW, LCADC

More information coming soon.

Objectives:

  1. Discuss the Neurobiology of Beliefs
  2. Describe the Adaptive Information Processing System
  3. Demonstrate various Intervention Strategies for identifying the “causal” factors
  4. Demonstrate capabilities for identifying and working with experiences that activate risk factors for continued use or relapse.
  5. Be able to identify a few resourcing techniques to aid in client stabilization.

Robert “Bobby” Grubbs began his career in this field at 19 years old as a youth care counselor working with adolescents struggling with behavioral concerns. He attended Murray State University for his Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work. While attending Murray State University he received several awards including Outstanding Social Work Student of the Year (2003) and Outstanding Student Officer of the Year (2003). Bobby served as President of the Student Association of Social Workers, as well as Vice President of the American Humanistic Student Association. While working full-time as a clinical evaluator Bobby also began graduate school at the University of Louisville pursuing his Master’s Degree in Social Work. During this time from 2005-2008 clinician knowledge was gained through job experiences at adolescent residential treatment facilities, adult psychiatric hospitals, along with a one-year practicum dealing with emergency psychiatric assessment and treatment.

After completing graduate school in 2008, Bobby continued gaining clinical experience managing the assessment center for one of the largest private non-profit psychiatric hospitals in the United States. His next position was the lead clinician at a 28-day residential treatment program in Louisville which treated substance use and dual diagnosis clients from many different regions. In both above-mentioned roles, Bobby was interviewed on local TV News & Radio several times regarding current community issues, diagnoses and treatment methods. Bobby obtained dual licensure and the highest clinical degrees in his fields as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), and a Licensed Clinical Drug & Alcohol Counselor (LCADC). In addition, Bobby completed training in a dynamic and proven form of trauma therapy called (EMDR) Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing. After spending many years in the mental health and substance use treatment field, he decided to create his own practice as a means of giving back to the community where he grew up.

Sarah Johnson

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM | Seminar: ASAM Updates for 2024

Sarah Johnson, MD

More information coming soon.

The ASAM Criteria provide standards for care for substance use disorder treatment, and patient placement criteria intended to optimize treatment outcomes and ensure patients are able to access high quality care. It is important for treatment providers to be familiar with these criteria. The 4th Edition of the ASAM Criteria was released in late 2023 and is currently being implemented into treatment systems.

Objectives:

  1. Understand the background and purpose of the ASAM Criteria
  2. Will become familiar with recent updates to the 4th edition of the ASAM Criteria
  3. Will be able to apply the principle of the ASAM Criteria to their practice to optimize patient care outcomes.

Dr. Sarah Johnson has extensive clinical and administrative experience, as well as expertise in addiction treatment. She previously served as Chief Medical Officer for Landmark Recovery and Associate Medical Director for Beacon Health Options before joining Addiction Recovery Care in 2021. Her extensive background brings valued experience in working on healthcare policy and interface of clinical practice with healthcare systems.

Dr. Johnson is board certified in Psychiatry and Addiction Psychiatry. She completed her medical training and Master’s Degree in Clinical Investigative Sciences and Epidemiology at the University of Louisville, where she remains on volunteer faculty. Her work at ARC is focused on Behavioral Health initiatives, program development, and supervision of Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner staff.

Dr. Johnson is a Kentucky native and looking forward to spending more time in her home state after providing medical leadership for national expansion projects.

10:45 AM - 11:45 AM | Seminar: Recovery Capital

Kurt Lebeck, MSW, MA

More information coming soon.

Kurt will introduce recovery science by weaving it through his own story of recovery from polysubstance use and mental health challenges and his ongoing management of chronic pain. He credits the peers he met early in treatment, his development of body awareness, the work of many physical therapists, and his return to spending time in the wilderness for his initial recovery. He will then describe how active participation in mutual aid groups, volunteering at a transitional living program, and returning to school helped him to the second phase. Finally, he will describe how his practice of Zen, training as a clinical social worker and a policy researcher, has informed his latest phase. As he does this, he will link a dynamic understanding of recovery capital, or the internal and external resources necessary to sustain recovery from alcohol and other drugs, to his and many others’ recovery trajectories. Touching on several competing addiction etiologies, he will argue that recent recovery science research demonstrates the interplay between recovery capital and multiple socio-ecological levels characterizes recovery. To do this, he will include the latest recovery science research findings, including his preliminary results from a pilot study designed to target recovery capital and another program designed to improve recovery from opioid use disorder, including fentanyl. All the while, he will outline the effects of this dynamic recovery model on the brain, body, and community.

Learning objectives:
Participants will be able to:

  1. Understand the effects of recovery on the brain, body, and community
  2. Understand the value of assessing recovery capital at multiple recovery phases
  3. Apply recovery science to clinical cases

Kurt D. Lebeck, MSW, MA, is a substance use and co-occurring disorders (SUCOD) recovery scientist specializing in recovery-oriented program development and implementation. Kurt draws on his own and others’ lived experiences of recovery, resilience, and flourishing, including managing chronic pain, to improve behavioral health programs and policies. He incorporates organizational, social, and individual change theories to enhance the responsiveness of treatment providers and behavioral health systems to the needs of those in their care.

Kurt works with treatment programs, developing programs and interventions to help people in early recovery mobilize their recovery capital. Currently, Kurt is leading the implementation of a program that targets recovery capital in screening, assessment, planning, and support of clients in SUCOD treatment. The implementation team comprises Certified Peer Support Workers, case managers, and clinicians. By centering these professionals’ voices in the project’s development, he is refining an interventional set of tools that accelerates SUCOD recovery while increasing engagement and reducing program dropout.  Staff also benefit from the program, which increases interprofessional collaboration while reducing churn, burnout, and role drift.

Other recent projects include helping organizations integrate medications for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) into recovery-oriented programming, developing a recovery-oriented cognitive behavioral therapy intensive outpatient program, leading a team of data analysts for the SXSW Mental Health Technology Transfer Center, and serving as an independent evaluator for the State Opioid Response grant in NM.

In addition to his research, program development, and consulting work, Kurt is the President of the New Mexico Society for Addiction Medicine, a chapter of ASAM; teaches social policy at the Smith College School for Social Work in Massachusetts; and is entering his third year as a PhD Candidate and National Institutes of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Training Fellow at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management in Massachusetts.

Kurt holds an MSW from Smith and an MA in policy from Brandeis’ Heller School. During his first few years in recovery, he volunteered as a peer, leading groups, wrangling data, and coordinating activities. Before entering the behavioral health field, he founded a design-and-build business in 1999 in Brooklyn, NY. He was born in Albuquerque and raised in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains in NM. You can still find him mountain biking the trails he helped establish or enjoying the trails in other parts of the country.

11:45 AM - 12:45 PM | Networking Lunch & Sponsor Booths

Christopher Stewart

12:45 PM - 1:45 PM | Seminar: Integrating Group Psychotherapy with 12-Step Recovery

Christopher Stewart, MD, FASAM

More information coming soon.

Attendees will gain knowledge of how to apply secular 12-step approach to Group Psychotherapy consistent with Psychodynamics Group Psychotherapy principles. Improve group psychotherapy for addiction treatment. How to use the knowledge of psychodynamics in a way to reinforce 12-step involvement.

Objectives:

  1. Recognize how the concept of powerlessness, surrender can be used in groups to deal with authority issues our patients have.
  2. Examine the 12 steps and how each step also represents group interventions such as living amends, inventory and transference and others.

Christopher Stewart, MD is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, and the Training Director of the UofL Addiction Psychiatry Residency Program. Dr. Stewart is an Addiction Psychiatrist with an extensive background in a variety of addiction treatment settings. He is currently the Director of Clinical Services for the UofL Physicians Addictions Program and the Coordinator of the Kentucky Opioid Response Effort within the UofL Department of Psychiatry. Under his leadership the University has expanded services to include the restoration of the substance use disorder service or (SUDS) at UofL Hospital, expanded outpatient services at the UofL Healthcare Outpatient Center, and initiated a mobile substance use disorder service in partnership with the Louisville Metro Health Department and the Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition. He provides direct Clinical Services at the Volunteers of America Freedom House Program and Shelby Men’s Recovery Center. Dr. Stewart is board certified in general psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, addiction medicine and consultation liaison psychiatry. He has sought throughout his career to integrate treatment at the intersection of trauma-related disorders and addiction. Dr. Stewart is a Certified Group Psychotherapist (CGP) with the International Board for Certification of Group Psychotherapists and provides both individual, group and intensive psychotherapy to patients seeking outpatient treatment for addiction.

1:45 PM - 2:45 PM | Seminar: Language of Recovery

Stefanie Robinson, BA, CPRSS-Supervisor

More information coming soon.

Research continues to show what we believe impacts how we speak and what we say matters! Language has a profound impact in substance use disorder related work and this session will focus on utilizing strength-base, person first recovery language and the impact language has on those we serve.

Objectives:

  1. Understand Substance Use Disorders are diseases
  2. Identify stigmatizing language and comprehend why language matters
  3. Understand language as a foundation to trauma-informed care and utilize strength base, person first language
  4. Define recovery and dimensions

Stefanie Robinson is the Founding Executive Director of Hope Recovery Community (HRC), a Recovery Community Organization (RCO) in Medina County serving those impacted by addiction. She previously served as the Medina County Coordinator of Recovery Peer Support Services at OhioGuidestone where she started a peer support program, launched a women’s recovery house, managed a weekly quick access MAT program and supervised a peer navigation team. Stefanie also works on special recovery support services projects for Ohio Citizen Advocates for Addiction Recovery (OCAAR) and is on the Advisory Council National Recovery Peer Alliance.

Stefanie has over 15 years in recovery from drugs and alcohol, mental health and an eating disorder. She has served on the boards for the Ohio Citizen Advocates for Addiction Recovery and Eating Disorder Advocates of Ohio and currently serves on the Advisory Council for the National Peer Recovery Alliance. As the owner and CEO of Simply Bold, a communications company, Stefanie spoke professionally for 7 years. She shared her story of recovery with over 100,000 people through speaking engagements, TV appearances, radio interviews, and print publications. After seeing the addiction issues in her own community were not getting better but getting worse, Stefanie decided to focus on Medina County. She spent several years doing recovery peer support in the Medina County Drug Court, and in 2016 Stefanie was instrumental alongside the Medina County Adult Probation Department and the Medina County Court of Common Pleas in launching the Recovery Center of Medina County. In 2018 Stefanie organized and founded Medina’s first Recovery Community Organization, Hope Recovery Community. Hope opened its second location in May 2022 in Brunswick, Ohio, its third location in Wadsworth, Ohio in January of 2023, and launched a recovery run farm! Stefanie is an expert in peer support, non-stigmatizing language, and recovery community organizations. She has traveled the country speaking and sharing her story of hope!

Over the years, Stefanie has been acknowledged for her work in recovery. In 2017, she was awarded the Cleveland Clinic Medina County Community Service Award for her leadership in the Medina County Recovery Community and in 2018 the Medina County ADAMH Board awarded Stefanie the Recovery Advocate of the Year Award for her work in tackling the opiate epidemic in Medina County. She was named OhioGuidestone Regional MVP in 2019, and in the spring of 2019 she was named OneStep Peer Supporter of the Year. In the fall of 2020, Robinson was awarded the State of Ohio Cares Award by the Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities under the category Champion of Recovery. She is married with 2 children and 2 dogs. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends.

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM | Seminar: Advocacy in Action

Sarah Anstine, MPA

More information coming soon.

Learners will understand the importance of advocating for a system of care that supports recovery throughout the lifespan from youth to adulthood.  In addition, we would like learners to accomplish how to advocate for youth recovery services, so that future generations can experience the reality of recovery.

Objectives:

  1. Attendees will be able to describe the youth recovery continuum of care and define what a recovery high school looks like.
  2. Attendees will be able to describe the role of recovery support services in sustaining one’s long-term recovery.
  3. Attendees will learn the need for advocacy related to recovery support services for youths and adults.

Sarah Anstine is the Director of Partnership and Outreach for OneOhio Recovery Foundation.I am a results-driven Community Engagement Leader with extensive experience in nonprofit management, higher education, and corporate government affairs. Others would describe me as being highly effective at convening, aligning, and mobilizing stakeholders around issues that matter. I am sought after for program and organizational development, coalition building, and relationship management. I have extensive public speaking experience, including numerous media interviews.

People know her for being a fearless advocate for the behavioral health system and the individuals and families that benefit from it. She is fueled by the inequity that not everyone has access to the same resources and support that she did as a young person who entered recovery at the age of 17. Her life’s purpose is to create the same opportunities that she had to enter and sustain long-term recovery for others.

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Panel Discussion: Peer Support Across the Continuum of Care

Moderator: Kurt Lebeck, MSW, MA
Panelists: Jimmy McGill, Danielle Wilson, Brandon Conlin, Michael Clark

This NPRA panel will discuss the innovative work being accomplished nationally around peer support as well as what NPRA is doing to raise the bar for recovery.

Overview: Learners will gain an understanding around the value and role of peer support workers as well as the most effective ways to integrate peer support services across the continuum of care.  Understanding the role of a peer and how they fit into the continuum of care will lead to a better team-based approach to treatment/recovery from substance, and therefore, better outcomes for long-term success.

Objectives:

  1. Learners will understand the value of peer support services within teams.
  2. Learners will understand the role of peer support workers generally and across the continuum of care.
  3. Learners will understand the most effective ways to integrate peer services across the continuum of care.

Jimmy McGill is a dynamic force in the realm of recovery and advocacy, he sits as the Executive Director at the National Peer Recovery Alliance. Formerly the Director of Peer and Recovery Services for the state of Arkansas (2018-2023), Jimmy’s personal journey fuels his commitment to advancing recovery services nationwide.

A founding member of the SAMHSA Region 6 Peer Support Advisory Committee and inaugural Chairman of the National Association of Reentry Professionals, Jimmy leads pioneering efforts in peer support and reentry advocacy. Emerging triumphantly from a lifetime of incarceration and a twenty-three-year battle with addiction, Jimmy has transformed into an esteemed author and speaker, fueled by an unwavering purpose.

Despite a challenging past, Jimmy has graced stages alongside presidents, influenced drug and reentry policies, collaborated with Arkansas’s supreme court on program development, and addressed audiences nationwide.

Honored with the “Jimmy McGill Peer Leadership” Award in 2019, the 2021 Trail Blazer award from the Department of Human Services, and the 2023 Arkansas Peer Legacy Award, his transformative journey is a beacon reshaping reentry and recovery efforts across the nation. Featured in numerous articles, Jimmy’s narrative is actively reshaping perceptions and driving change on a national scale.

Danielle Wilson is a Peer/Recovery Support Specialist in the Harm Reduction program at the Whitley County (Kentucky) Public Health Department. She was born in California and grew up in Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, and New York before finishing high school. Danielle attended nursing school in Yuma, Arizona. She worked as a Registered Nurse in the NICU and Labor and Delivery for five years. In 2005, after a car accident, she had her own lived experience with addiction and quickly lost her job, home, car, and then her freedom. At the end of 2005, with the help of probation, she entered a residential treatment program and Drug Court. Danielle says her purpose in life has always been to help others. When she could no longer do that through nursing, she felt lost.

As a Peer Support, Danielle found a new way to help others and developed a new sense of purpose. She has now worked in the recovery field for over 16 years. She has worn many hats in the recovery field, including Peer Support Specialist, Behavioral Health Paraprofessional, Behavioral Health Technician, Family Support Partner, Case Manager, Crisis Mobile Team Member, Transition Coordinator, and Advocate. However, her role as a peer has always shone through, no matter the title.

Danielle has developed and facilitated curriculums for several peer support trainings. She has also presented at national and international conferences. She is very proud of her work with the Arizona Department of Corrections and its Peer Support Training Program, where individuals receive their certification and have the opportunity to work as a peer while incarcerated as well as post-release. This program has certified over 1,000 men and women.

Danielle says, “Today, I can say that I’m grateful for my active addiction because it brought me to my recovery, which has allowed me to find healing not only for myself but for my family and community as well.”

Brandon Conlin is Registered Alcohol and Drug Peer Support in the State of KY. He is currently working with Archway Institute as the Director of NPRA-KY, The Kentucky affiliate of the National Peer Recovery Alliance.

Michael’s life journey is a testament to resilience and transformation. Having battled a 20-year struggle with addiction, he faced the consequences of his actions with 7 drug-related felonies, leading to almost a decade behind bars and in rehabs. However, a pivotal moment came in 2016 when he found solace in faith while incarcerated, heralding a radical turnaround.

Since that turning point, Michael’s life has been a beacon of hope. With 8 years of unwavering sobriety under his belt, his commitment to personal growth led him to earn a pardon from the governor. He grasped educational opportunities with determination, not only graduating from the University of Kentucky but also obtaining a seminary certification from Kentucky Christian University. Embracing the role of a dedicated family man, Michael, alongside his wife Wendy, is the proud parent of two children and a stepchild. His journey took him to uncharted territory as he assumed the mantle of a pastor at Whitesburg’s Rooted Church, where his powerful story resonates with congregants seeking inspiration and guidance.

Michael’s impact extends beyond the pulpit. Since 2018, he has been an integral part of Addiction Recovery Care, serving as a compassionate community liaison. His past struggles have become a source of strength as he supports individuals navigating the challenges of addiction, sharing his story as a testament to the possibility of redemption and renewal.

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