Public Health, Population Health and the Self-Help Movement in Recovery

Abstract

The healing process for substance use disorders begins with a serious evaluation of an individual's use of alcohol or drugs. All Change appears to follow a series of stages, which is more spiral or circular than linear. Most people in early recovery progress from sobriety to relapse and back to sobriety. Most growth begins with recognizing guilt, embarrassment, and shame regarding regression (relapses) to previous stages of alcohol and drug use. Therapeutic healing can be accomplished by addressing the social determinants of health that influence many lifestyle choices and keeping our focus on the public health concerns of the community. From a behavioral health perspective, combined population health and public health focus would best be defined by the clinician’s attention to both the biomedical issues and advocacy efforts to intervene and influence these complex social, behavioral, and environmental factors that affect individual members of diverse populations within the communities that one lives and works.