Recovery

Partners for Recovery (PFR) recognizes recovery as an ongoing process that starts before sustained abstinence is achieved. While the recovery process typically involves common benchmarks, each individual's path is unique.

PFR convenes and seeks input from individuals in the addiction treatment field and recovery support providers to define recovery, refine outcome measures, and develop and disseminate long-term, community-based recovery resources that increase the likelihood of sustained abstinence from illegal drugs and prevent the abuse of alcohol and the misuse of prescription drugs.

The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment's (CSAT's) Partners for Recovery Initiative (PFR) conducted five regional recovery meetings between April 2007 and January 2008, to build on the work on Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care initiated at CSAT's National Summit on Recovery. The meetings were designed to achieve several goals including: informing individuals about the National Summit on Recovery; providing resources related to the operationalization of Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care; allowing States and organizations to share lessons learned; and providing a venue for individual State team planning. Further, the meetings expanded and continued a dialogue across the country about Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care.

The guiding principles and system of care elements developed at the National Summit served as a foundation for the meetings' discussions and for a proposed Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care improvement framework. The framework, which applies a comprehensive public health approach to implement the systems elements, is a tool to support policy development and planning to address substance use problems and related health conditions. Fundamental to the framework is the vision that systems and services should be responsive to the needs and desires of individuals, families, and communities and support health, wellness, and recovery.

Please view our report entitled, "Summary of CSAT's Regional Recovery Meetings" (23pp, PDF, 225KB).

For a working definition of recovery, please refer to our resource handout, Working Definition of Recovery (2pp, PDF, 72KB).

Please see our National Summit on Recovery page for more information.

For information on Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care see the PFR's dedicated page on the subject.

Read about Resources on Recovery.