DEAR NATIONAL ALCOHOL AND DRUG
ADDICTION RECOVERY MONTH PLANNER:

The 16th annual National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month (Recovery Month) in September will recognize the collective effort that goes into achieving recovery from substance use disorders. From health care professionals who proactively recognize and treat these disorders, to employers and insurers who provide affordable treatment options, to community and family members who offer acceptance and encouragement, meaningful recovery often involves a group of caring individuals who support the recovery of both the person experiencing dependence or addiction and the person's family members, who also are affected.

This year's Recovery Month materials highlight three areas that communities can continue to improve:

• Assessing addiction problems and referring people to the treatment and support services they need, and providing their families with support programs that can help them



• Helping them gain access to those treatment and ongoing recovery support services



• Promoting measures that can make treatment more affordable, equitable and available

Each year, Recovery Month campaigns across the country build on the successes of previous efforts. Whether this is your first Recovery Month campaign or you are continuing your efforts from years past, the special events and activities you hold in September 2005 make an important contribution to raising year-round awareness about issues related to substance use disorders and their impact on the family members of people with these disorders.

To help you reach your target audiences throughout the campaign, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), through its Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), has created this comprehensive, user-friendly planning toolkit in conjunction with its national planning partner organizations and treatment providers.

You will find everything you need to prepare for your events and activities in this planning toolkit. It includes materials tailored to key constituent groups with steps to improve treatment and recovery programs, templates of media outreach materials that you can customize to publicize your events, and suggestions for educating your community about addiction treatment and recovery. Using these materials, you can plan and launch an effective Recovery Month campaign in just five simple steps:

1. Target two or three constituent groups in your community, such as employers and health care providers, whom you believe will benefit most from your campaign.



2. Select and plan activities/events that involve these audiences. You can use the "Promotional Event Ideas" fact sheet enclosed in this planning toolkit for ideas and tips on planning your events.



3. Publicize your event(s) in advance by customizing the media outreach templates provided in this planning toolkit and distributing them to your local media outlets, and by posting your event(s) on the Recovery Month Web site at www.recoverymonth.gov.



4. Conduct your event(s) and distribute the relevant constituency fact sheets provided in this planning toolkit to attendees.



5. Share the success and key lessons learned from your campaign by returning the customer satisfaction form enclosed in this planning toolkit.

You can download electronic versions of Recovery Month materials from the CD-ROM in this planning kit or at www.recoverymonth.gov.The Web site also provides additional planning resources, media updates and alerts, Web events, and news about Recovery Month activities across the country. To order additional hard-copy planning toolkits at no cost, call 1-800-662-HELP.

Your invaluable efforts at the local level, in conjunction with those of others across the country, will affect the lives of millions of individuals and their families. Thank you for your support.

MEDIA OUTREACH – Here you will find event ideas and sample materials to help you generate local media interest in your Recovery Month events. The first two items are for your reference:

• Promotional Event Ideas – will help you plan your events



• Speaking Effectively with the Media About Recovery Month – will help you prepare for media interviews about your events

The remaining items are media outreach materials and can be customized with specific information about your Recovery Month activities. Please refer to these documents for instructions on when and how to use them, as well as suggestions about how to tailor the information to your events. You can print them on your organization's letterhead or copy them onto the camera-ready letterhead provided. You also can customize your materials using the camera-ready logo sheet provided. These materials include:

• Media Advisory



• Press Release



• Opinion Piece



• Official Proclamations



• Radio Public Service Announcement Scripts



• Camera-ready Letterhead



• Camera-ready Logo Sheet

TARGETED OUTREACH – These materials provide background information about substance use disorders. These fact sheets can be distributed at your Recovery Month events. Some materials also may be appropriate for distribution to members of the media.

Both general background information and audience-specific information are provided. The audience-specific fact sheets contain suggested action steps your target audiences can take to help support Recovery Month, as well as to promote recovery throughout the year. You can use just the fact sheet designed for a particular audience or a combination of fact sheets, adding selected materials from the "Resources" section of this planning toolkit to create an information packet to distribute. A list of fact sheets follows:

Background information:

• Overview – Discusses the importance of assessment and referral, as well as treatment options and access to treatment services



• Commonly Misused Substances – Highlights the major substances misused in the United States



• Join the Voices for Recovery – Personal stories in the words of those in recovery

Audience-specific information:

• Helping Workers with Substance Use Disorders Start a Path to Recovery: A Guide for Employers



• Ensuring Access to Treatment: A Guide for Private Insurers



• Screenings, Referrals, and Affordable Addiction Treatment Options: A Guide for Health Care Providers



• The Role of the Community: Families, Clergy, Recovery Communities, and People in the Social Services, Child Welfare, and Justice Systems

RESOURCES – The comprehensive set of resources included in this section can help you plan your Recovery Month activities, and some of these materials also may be useful to the audiences you wish to target with your events. To help you prepare for and evaluate your Recovery Month activities, the following resources are provided:

• Planning Partners List – Groups you may consider collaborating with when planning Recovery Month activities



• Customer Satisfaction Form (PDF format) – A valuable way to share the successes of your Recovery Month events and provide your reactions to this year's planning toolkit to influence the continued improvements of these materials

The remaining resources may be distributed as part of an information packet to the audiences you target for your activities. They include:

• Additional Resources – Lists of a variety of substance use disorder resources, which you can distribute as part of an information packet at your Recovery Month activities



• Single-State Agency Directory – State-by-state substance use disorder office contacts for local information and support

PDF versions (download Adobe Acrobat Reader)