This is post from Jack Stem at APECS (Addiction Prevention Education Consulting Services) in Cincinnati, Ohio. See his website at http://www.jackstem.com/rants-and-raves.htm. Rev. Stem is Peer Assistance Advisor for the Ohio State Association of Nurse Anesthetists. This appears on his website.
October 29, 2007
What an amazingly frustrating weekend.
After meeting with the treatment staff and the board members of Glenbeigh Treatment Center in Rock Creek, Ohio, I was feeling pretty darn good about addiction treatment and the progress that has been made over the 17 years since I entered treatment for the first time. But then that good feeling quickly dissolved over the past 24 hours.
I have a friend in treatment at the present time and she is doing well from the information I have received from her family. Unfortunately, the safety net that used to be in place for recovering nurses in the state of Ohio has disappeared. The group that had been following a nurse's progress through treatment and charged with monitoring the nurse's after care activities no longer provides that service. And as yet, I haven't been able to find anyone who has replaced the original organization or even knows of an entity in Ohio that I can contact about considering taking on this important service.
Chemical dependency in health care professionals is no surprise. After all, these dedicated professionals develop cancer, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and all of the other chronic diseases everyone else is subject to in their lifetime. Having an alternative to discipline program available for health care professionals with substance abuse issues and the DISEASE of chemical dependency is essential in discovering those individuals early and getting them into treatment before they can harm others or themselves. A punitive system assures prolonged periods while the practitioner is being investigated but is still practicing. When the loss of licensure is threatened, it prevents the impaired individual from seeking help early, if at all. It also makes it less likely a colleague or family member will report the individual because of fear of reprisal (i.e. lawsuits) or being held responsible for the loss of an individual's career and ability to provide an income for themselves and their family.
With today's "drug war" mentality, individuals who need treatment for this chronic, progressive, ultimately fatal disease will not seek that treatment until a major disaster occurs. Arresting the user and incarcerating them assures they most likely will NOT receive the medical treatment they deserve and need. Hopefully, that disaster isn't the death of a patient or of the practitioner.
Until society changes their view that addiction is a character flaw or moral weakness, the substance abuse/addiction epidemic will continue to grow, and society will continue to lose some of the best and brightest people in our communities.
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State Boards of Nursing vary in how chemical dependency complaints are resolved. I practice law in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana and there is a huge disparity just among these three states in how chemical dependency complaints are resolved between the Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana Nursing Boards.
Some Nursing Boards take a punitive and discipline-oriented approach. The nurses being monitored by these Nursing Boards state its worse than criminal probation and some eventually surrender their nursing license.
Then there are some State Boards of Nursing that recognize chemically dependency is a disease and truly work with nurses in an alternative program type situation to return to practice. Relapses are not punished and the public is still protected.
If you are chemically dependent and you want to seek assistance; consider contacting your State Nurses Association or Specialty Nurses Association for assistance first. Then contact a licensure defense attorney to determine how chemical dependency complaints and the Nurse's Alternative to Discipline Program (if your state has a program) works and should you apply.
Speak with professionals (mental health, counselors, attorneys, etc.) and don't exclusively on the advice you receive from peers. Afterall your license is your livelihood and its becoming more difficult every year to retain an unrestricted and unencumbered nursing license as a chemically dependent nurse in some states.
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