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Naloxone. Access to treatment. Housing. Employment. Educational opportunities. We’re used to hearing about the need for these aspects of recovery. But what about community? A place to gather with others, especially those with similar experiences? That’s where recovery community centers come in.
My first guest this month is Dottie Greene. She’s the executive director of the first recovery community center in the 8 county region of northeast Tennessee. Dr. Greene is a person in long term recovery and has been providing recovery support since the 80s. As you might expect, she has seen the field of recovery change significantly in that time.
Our second guest is Bettina Hoeppner, who has joined Dottie to talk about her academic research on recovery community centers, or RCCs. Dr. Hoeppner is an experimental psychologist who focuses on substance use disorder, and she directs the Health Through Flourishing Research Program. Her work on RCCs highlight how their unique natures make studying them as complex as launching them.
In this episode, we discuss the ins and outs of recovery community centers and how they fill crucial gaps in the care continuum, as well as how attitudes towards recovery have changed dramatically over the last decade.
Learn more:
Johnson City Recovery Center
Health Through Flourishing