Choices
is the only network of sober living homes to be certified by both the Sober
Living Coalitions of Los Angeles and Orange County, and the Orange County
Sheriff's Department - Adult Alcohol and Drug Sober Living Certification.
> View All Certifications and Honors
Never interested in how other program/organizations were structured, Choices is viewed as a living, changing, and perfecting recovery community. Not looking to create something revolutionary; but rather, looking to improve existing systems; Choices adopted and adapted principles from a variety of existing models of governance. What developed was a model which utilizes existing systems in unique ways. This approach looks to mature Choices from an outcome driven recovery-oriented perspective, always mindful of its fundamental vision, mission, values, and objectives.
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A couple years ago, the owner of an innovative residential treatment program dreamed of building a recovery-oriented cafe. This cafe would not only serve the needs of its community, but also its residents. The cafe was also designed to be a hands-on vocational work experience program for its residents; offering intensive work experience training for some, and a chance to receive life skills training within the community for those re-entering the community after extended periods of hospitalization, incarceration, or homelessness.
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There are implications here for the treatment of addiction, as each addict is an addict for his or her own reasons. It follows, then, that an addict who is also a member of a marginalized subgroup of society, such as the GLBT community, may have related issues that play a part in his or her addiction; and therefore, that consideration of those issues may expedite recovery.
Contact Us to Request Full ArticleOn September 14, 2007, councilmember Suja Lowenthal convened a Multi-Disciplinary Taskforce to discuss the community impacts of Sober Living (SL) homes within the City of Long Beach; specifically those within the 2nd District. This paper looks to re-examine this question and to draw a few conclusions on the over-concentration of these
facilities.
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On March 4, 2008, a Choices' staffer walked into a smoke shop on 7th Street and Walnut Ave in Long Beach with the intent of purchasing a crack pipe. He went the counter where a middle-aged woman stood up and asked if she could help him with anything. He stated that he wanted a "stem" ("stem" is used to indicate a glass tube open on both ends used for smoking drugs). After a momentary pause, from behind the counter, she produced a box containing the item pictured below. My staffer then asked about the selection (of various stems) clip board (that he picked from the previous visit). She stated they didn't have it any longer, and this was the only pipe they currently sold. Lastly, he asked about Brillo/steel wool (used as a screen), and she said that they no longer carried that item for sale. He left with his pipe, no receipt or bag.
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This paper outlines the current misuse of sober living homes by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in Long Beach, California. Examining the challenges, and the local parole office's current utilization strategy, this paper attempts to answer these basic questions and offer a few suggestions that address this crisis.
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An outreach, engagement, and education (PEI) proposal focused to address the needs of those experiencing the onset ofmental health and substance use recovery challenges (Co-occurring Disorders). This proposal utilizes existing 12-step clubhouses "Alano Clubs" throughout Los Angeles County as service locations.
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In January, 2007 theMental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission (MHSOAC) issued policy recommendations to the California Department of Mental Health for the purpose of developing the MHSA county level Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) Plan requirements.Within that report the Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Transgender (GLBT) communities were clearly identified as: under-served, stigmatized, discriminated, and at-risk. Their recommendations included requiring focus-specific attention within County PEI Plans addressing this inequity. This paper identifies possible GLBTQ2-S service needs and disparities currently existing within Los Angeles County's Department of Mental Health.
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An innovative PEI proposal suggesting the use of "Mental Health Enhanced" county-wide Sober Living (SL) Homes as a viable housing option for those with diagnosed and undiagnosed co-occurring recovery challenges. This proposal addresses both prevention and early intervention strategies targeting individuals with cooccurring recovery challenges that reside in Sober Living Homes. A variety of (LA County MHSA PEI Plan) indentified communitymental health needs and priority populations are addressed within this proposal.
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Briefly, today's Sober Livings (SLs) started during the early 50s in Southern California. The early history of AA developed in Akron, Ohio and New York, but SLs developed in response to the lack of recovery-oriented housing options available to AA members on the West Coast. The East Coast AAs were utilizing various existing housing options including: private homes where AA members would take in newly sober individuals from meetings, missions and shelters utilized for the care and treatment of the homeless and alcoholic, hospitals, clinics, and sanatoriums for those needing medical care for alcoholism. Today's West Coast SL's developed from twelve-step homes, sober boarding houses, recovery homes, cooperative living homes, satellite houses, halfway houses, three-quarter way and re-entry houses. Over the years, these pre-SLs have evolved or closed leaving the SLs we find today.
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This paper will first examine some of the challenges encountered by Choices of Long Beach, Inc. dba Choices Recovery Services "Choices" in its desire to establish partnerships/meaningful collaborations with agencies during the past five years. A few of these challenges include: the pitfalls of pseudo-Memorandums of Understanding "MOUs", empty promises by other agencies, and the deceptive business practices of some agencies at the expense of new/naive providers. These practices are utilized for the primary purpose of obtaining a grant/contract. Furthermore, some agencies will aggressively solicit "partnerships" in the form of MOUs for the purpose of packaging a Request For Proposal "RFP" solicitation. These agencies bank on the belief that a knowledgeable agency would never participate in this activity (unless there was an agreed reciprocity established for these situations), and that only those agencies naive enough will devote any of their limited resources to pursuing a pseudo-partnership for an unlikely gain. Their actions indicate they have no issue with using their program participants as pawns to be used to further the program's administrative gain. An ethical agency would be reluctant in having its program participants shoulder the consequences of a program's unethical management by program directors.
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Choices Program Model (CPM), the therapeutic model utilized within the Choices Recovery Services' ("Choices") innovative substance abuse/mental health treatment and rehabilitation program makes use of current industry research, industry best practices, and its own organizational research in developing its facility design guidelines. These guidelines are implemented throughout the Choices organization. This paper will give examples of those design elements, how they are implemented at Choices, and desired/observed outcomes. Photographs are used to illustrate the concepts discussed and various research studies are sited.
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Transforming the Delivery of Community-Based Rehabilitation 