Substance Use and Misuse

Access to Recovery Project Overview

The Access to Recovery (ATR) project was initiated as a means to provide   education and awareness about the issue of substance use and abuse  among    people with disabilities. Current research has found that persons with disabilities   are more at risk for substance abuse than are members of the   general   population. Higher levels of stress due to poverty, abuse, and isolation, search    for pain relief, and higher use of the health care system that can lead to over-prescription of medication are some of the contribute to these findings.

Yet many barriers impede persons with disabilities from seeking treatment. For example, a recent Canadian study noted over two thirds of treatment services rate themselves as completely inaccessible to persons with disabilities, and those programs that are accessible may not offer accommodations such as access to attendant services, accessible transportation, or information in alternate formats, and follow-up supports may be lacking.

Through Access to Recovery, IL Canada will implement a promotion and prevention strategy to clearly identify the substance abuse needs of persons with disabilities. During a three phase process it will produce tools and resources for the Independent Living network, persons with disabilities, and for mainstream substance abuse professionals. These resources will enable more appropriate supports and accommodation options to be developed for persons with disabilities who experience substance abuse problems and who choose to seek treatment. We have provided national train the trainer sessions for member ILRCs, will continue to hold national training teleconference calls, and have produced 11 themed fact sheets. As well throughout the ATR initiative, IL Canada and IL Centers are working to build national and local partnerships within the disability and service provider communities.

The following resources were assembled to provide consumers and service providers with information about a variety of topics, all related to substance use and disability.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the members of the Substance Abuse Advisory Committee, (Barbara Collier from the Augmentative Communication Community Partnerships, Jennifer Barr from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Karine Plouffe from the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, Ray Cohen from the Canadian Abilities Foundation, Renée Ryan from Department of Health and Community Services for the province of Newfoundland, Céline Michaud from CRVA Bas-St-Laurent, Donna Greene from ILRC St.  John's and Jihan Abbas, Traci Walters and Mary Jane Clinkard from CAILC (now IL Canada) the delegates from the ILRCs who participated in the Access to Recovery training during the CAILC  AGM 2006 and have taken part in conference calls, the CAILC board and staff and everyone else who helped out even in the smallest way.  A big Thank you goes to Drug Strategy Community Initiatives Fund for generously funding this project.  This project would not have been possible without all the support we received while doing this project.