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Social Inclusion

Know Your Rights brochure cover

The Partners for Recovery (PFR) leadership has made the reduction of discrimination and promotion of social inclusion a priority. In support of this initiative, PFR and the CSAT Office of Consumer Affairs have sponsored the development of an English and Spanish version of a Know Your Rights brochure. To view these brochures, please see the archive section in the Resources Page.

The Legal Action Center prepared the PowerPoint presentation Know Your Rights-Legal Rights of People with Alcohol and Drug Histories and Criminal Records (202pp, PDF, 1.2MB) and an accompanying brief User's Guide (3pp, PDF, 65KB) for the Partners for Recovery Initiative. The presentation is intended to be used as a training tool by alcohol and drug treatment professionals and provider associations, government oversight agencies, recovery support providers and organizations, attorneys with an interest in these topics, and other allies of people in recovery. The training is for people with or in recovery from alcohol or drug problems, people in treatment or recovery with criminal records, and anyone supporting the rights of people with current/past alcohol or drug problems or criminal records.

The training objectives are to educate individuals about their rights under federal and state laws and to provide information about how to exercise those rights when necessary. The training covers laws prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities in: employment, housing, public accommodation, e.g., health care, schools, etc., and government benefits and services.

The presentation is divided into six parts to allow flexibility in presenting the information. They are as follows:

  • Introduction: What is Discrimination?
  • Which Laws Prohibit Discrimination against People with Alcohol/Drug Histories?
  • What Rights Do These Laws Give People with Current or Past Alcohol/Drug Problems?
  • Responding to Violations of Your Rights under Under Anti-Discrimination Laws
  • Medication Assisted Treatment: Special Issues
  • Legal Rights of People with Criminal Records

Parts 1-4 provide a cohesive overview of the rights of people with alcohol/drug histories and should be presented together. Also, it is recommended that Part 1-5 be shown together and that Part 6 be used with Parts 1-4 or Parts 1-5, or used separately. You may download a copy of the PowerPoint presentation and/or request an electronic copy.

The PFR initiative produced a KYR Brochure designed to assist individuals in Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) and to educate and inform others. Individuals in MAT often face discrimination despite laws that clearly prohibit it. This discrimination is largely due to a lack of knowledge about MAT's value, effectiveness and safety, and a lack of knowledge about the anti-discrimination laws that protect people in MAT. The "Medication-Assisted Treatment Know Your Rights Brochure" (21pp, PDF, 415KB) presents and explains the Federal laws that prohibit discrimination against individuals with disabilities and how they protect people receiving MAT for opioid addiction. This brochure aims to reduce discrimination by providing people in MAT (and their advocates) basic information necessary to exercise their rights or, at a minimum, know where to turn for help. It also seeks to reduce discrimination by educating those who might discriminate (e.g., employers, housing providers, and government agencies) about such laws, as well as about MAT itself.

PFR also produced a series of five Know Your Rights Webinars that were conducted and repeated once. Five PowerPoint presentations and supporting materials that included audio links to the presentations, question and answer handouts, and a resource handout were prepared and made available. The presentations focused on individual rights and areas of discrimination for people with alcohol and drug histories.

The PowerPoint presentations are shown below:

To access the PowerPoint presentations with audio, please click on the links below.

The four factsheets that correspond to the four presentations are listed below:

A resources handout, "Helpful Resources to Address Discrimination Against People in Medication-Assisted Treatment" (1p, PDF, 50KB) is also available.

PFR and the Legal Action Center have further collaborated on a series of four Webinars exploring how to apply the Federal alcohol/drug confidentiality regulations - 42 C.F.R. Part 2 - to Health Information Technology (HIT). Topics covered included which programs must follow 42 C.F.R. Part 2, situations in which patient information may or may not be disclosed, different HIT patient choice models, issues relating to patient consent and information-sharing agreements, and current SAMHSA HIT programs and activities. Two of the Webinars further explained FAQs on 42 C.F.R. Part 2 prepared by PFR, the Legal Action Center, and SAMHSA.

The Webinar PowerPoint presentations and audio can be accessed on the Legal Action Center website, along with the 42 C.F.R. Part 2 confidentiality regulations and FAQs.

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