The Community Addiction Workshops

Dr. Haak and the Chronic Pain/Narcotics Community Forum held a conference in 2009 called the “Community Conference on Prescription Drugs” at BFA high school in St. Albans, Vermont. Dr. Haak hoped that as many community members as possible would come, and in fact 120 people did attend. Throughout the Conference, however, he kept asking himself the question: “What is it that you want each individual community member to do?”

In 2013, Dr. Haak transitioned from his Medical Director positions with the Emergency Department, and Hospitalist Program at Northwestern Medical Center, into a full time addiction medicine position at the NMC Comprehensive Pain Program. While in that practice Dr. Haak created a “Curriculum,” or series of talks and exercises, that he used to help his patients better understand their disease of addiction.

His patients consistently noted that they felt the talks helpful and the exercises rewarding. After several years of considering his initial question regarding how to integrate individual community members’ efforts, Dr. Haak has been intrigued by one possible answer to that question. And it is with these thoughts in mind that Dr. Haak and his Team have developed the upcoming Program of Community Addiction Workshops.

The Workshop Program is designed to help community members understand, in simple terms, what physically, neurobiologically and psychologically happens in people suffering from addictions. To effectively accomplish that overall goal, the Program has incorporated four different components. First, the Workshops will provide community members informational material to address the “How and Why” addictions develop, in simple, understandable terms and concepts.

Next, attendees will follow a patient scenario and “become that patient” for the duration of the Workshops. Realistic life “updates or injects” will be forwarded to attendees to illustrate some of the real life events that may challenge patients developing serious addictions, and better understand their road to recovery.

A third Program component incorporates break-out “brainstorming sessions,” with a dedicated facilitator, to identify ways that individual community members can become an active part in the support, and possibly an integral component of a recovery solution. And fourth, an optional training session will be available on the use of “overdose kits,” and an opportunity to actually take them home for use in the future if needed.

Through these activities, Dr. Haak will attempt to provide a nonthreatening environment of learning and gather important data to try to help develop a system incorporating individual community members into the treatment and on-going support for their fellow community members suffering from the disease of addiction. This model might then potentially be replicated in other small rural communities that do not have the available treatment and support resources that larger communities might have.