About The Houston Recovery Initiative

The Houston Recovery Initiative is an effort to work toward a Recovery Oriented System of Care for those in our community who are affected by alcoholism and addiction.

This initiative is based on the recognition that addiction is a chronic health disorder, similar in many ways to other chronic health conditions such as diabetes or hypertension which are usually disorders of life-long duration.

Chronic disorders sometimes may require treatment for acute symptoms to resolve the immediate crisis. However, this treatment does not cure the disorder. Following the crisis, and before discharge, patients are educated about how to maintain their recovery. This requires life-long attention to health and wellness practices in order to achieve and remain symptom-free. Failure to maintain diet and health regimens will ensure recurrence of life-threatening symptoms.

Achieving and maintaining recovery from alcoholism and addiction also may require occasional treatment for acute problems, but more importantly, it requires lifelong work to maintain health and wellness in all areas of life, including peer and family social support for recovery.

Support for long-term recovery is the emphasis of this initiative. It is a paradigm shift which moves beyond thinking of treatment as the cure for addiction; treatment may help people start the process of recovery, but the work of recovery is a broader and longer term commitment. This shift requires changes in the way we think about the role of treatment, the importance of linkages with other community service agencies, and the contributions that can be made by peers-in- recovery as recovery coaches.

Treatment providers, heath agencies, customers, peer coaches and other key stakeholders in the Houston community are meeting together to develop plans to transform our existing programs and services to make them more recovery-friendly. Our hope is that our systems and actions will support long term recovery instead of merely being focused on short-term treatment as a "cure".