Addiction and Recovery: Examining Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care and Recovery Management

Abstract

This capstone explores addiction and recovery. The first chapter explores the history of substance use within North America to provide context to modern perceptions of addiction. The moral and disease models of addiction are explored, which are contrasted against a modern perspective called dislocation theory. Briefly stated, this theory claims that addiction is a bi-product of free-market capitalism and is fueled by disconnection. Chapter two explores recovery from addiction, specifically looking at recovery-oriented systems of care (ROSC) and recovery capital. ROSC looks at recovery from a societal level, exploring how each level of the 'system' impacts a person in recovery. A significant focus of the chapter is on the system that immediately surrounds an individual recovering from substance abuse, exploring topics such as the role of community, peer-support, identity formation, and how people can be integrated and connected to their community via relationships. Recovery capital is then explored, which outlines a way of conceptualizing an individual's internal and external resources to sustain their recovery and how this conceptual framework is essential when understanding how an individual will experience recovery. Chapter three combines the concepts laid out in chapter one about the different perspectives on addiction and uses the research developed from chapter two on ROSC and recovery capital to outline a pragmatic model of working with individuals in recovery, called recovery management. Recovery management structures an addictions program with concentration on the long-term recovery of its clients. Within this chapter, specific suggestions are made to a recovery program operating within the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia.