Biography
Biography: Scott H Silverman
Abstract
Confidential Recovery was founded five years ago as an alternative to the current abstinence model of treatment that was based on an 80-year-old philosophy. While effective for its time in treating addiction, it did not transfer well to poly users. This was also buttressed by studies that demonstrated that detox and residential treatment programs alone, still yielded a 95% rate of relapse. We knew we needed to change the paradigm. Our core beliefs were built around harm-reduction to ease clients’ transition into sobriety. Methadone and suboxone were currently and commonly in use for certain parts of the SUD population. We were challenged by a number of issues we had not anticipated: (a) Fellow treatment providers were strongly wedded to the total abstinence model and were reluctant to make referrals to us. (b) Identifying physicians and psychiatrists who supported the benefit of medication assisted treatment that supported the non-biological aspects of SUD. In other words, they viewed their medical support as a companion to a psychosocial treatment approach. (c) Identifying SUD treatment providers who believed in the integrative approach of medicine evidenced-based treatment to aid in the physical transition to sobriety. (d) There were no pre-existing adaptive models of medically assisted treatment(MAT) that existed and were readily available at the time. Integrating all of these have allowed us to create what we believe to be a replicable model that we can share with others wishing to make the transition from abstinence-based treatment to harm reduction, medically assisted treatment.