Hear Phoenix Programs  Board of Directors President Steve Smith along with Prevention Specialist Heather Harlan  in their interview on the David Lyle Show (with Renee Hulsoff filling in) on  KFRU 1400AM,  Apri 19, 2013. The discussion centered around how employers can help their businesses save money by referring employees to treatment. The interview MP3 is located here: KFRU 4-19-13 Steve Smith & Heather Harlan Interview

A survey team from CARF will be visiting our premises on April 22 – 24, 2013. CARF is an international, not-for-profit organization that accredits human services providers. Founded in 1966 as the Commission on Accreditation for Rehabilitation Facilities, the accrediting body is now known as CARF.

We invited the CARF surveyors to evaluate how well our services meet international standards for quality. The survey team will be looking at many things about us and our services. The survey will tell us what we are doing well and ways we might improve. As a result of this survey, our services may earn or continue CARF accreditation.

As part of the survey, the surveyors will interview people who use our services, their families, our staff, and others. Some questions the survey team members might ask people are:

· Are our services provided in a clean and safe setting?
· Do you receive the services you need and want?
· Are you treated with respect?
· Do you take part in planning your services?
· Are you told what you need to know about your services?
· Are your questions answered in a way you understand?
· Do you know where to go with questions or concerns?

If you would like to talk with one of the CARF survey team members or want to learn more about CARF, please let one of our staff members know.

You may also contact CARF directly.

· Internet: www.carf.org
· E-mail: feedback@carf.org
· Mail: CARF, 4891 E. Grant Road, Tucson, AZ 85712
· Toll-free telephone: (866) 510-2273
· Fax: (520) 318-1129

Heather Harlan spoke on the show “Radio Friends with Paul Pepper” this past Wednesday sharing the first steps of getting help with substance abuse. Heather is featured in the video here
http://www.kbia.org/post/compost-workshop-phoenix-programs-inc starting 4:45 in.

Heather Harlan Prevention Specialist is featured at the end of the video portion of this KOMU-TV news story  encouraging parents with positive actions they can take to prevent prescription drug abuse:

http://www.komu.com/news/hold-for-release-prescription-drug-monitoring-program-may-curb-missouris-prescription-drug-abuse-problem/

This article was published on page E3 of the Sunday, December 16, 2012 edition of The Columbia Daily Tribune.

Phoenix Programs to offer smoking-cessation program

By Caroline Dohack

Columbia Daily Tribune

Sunday, December 16, 2012

It’s no secret that quitting smoking is no easy undertaking.

READY TO QUIT?

Phoenix Programs will offer 8-week smoking cessation programs starting Jan. 4. Cost is $125. For more information or to register, visit www.phoenixprogramsinc.org or call 875-8880.

To help, Phoenix Programs is offering a series of eight-week smoking-cessation group clinic called the Freedom From Smoking starting Jan. 4. The clinics are based on research from the American Lung Association.

Heather Harlan, a certified reciprocal prevention specialist at Phoenix Programs, said the addiction recovery facility started offering smoking-cessation clinics in 2007 because research indicated people who quit smoking at the same time they quit using other substances have higher rates of success for long-term abstinence. Since then, about 300 people have completed the program.

Harlan said the program differs from others in that it guides participants not only through the weeks after they quit, but prepares them to quit.

During the first four weeks, a trained facilitator leads sessions on such topics as understanding the withdrawal process and what it will feel like, learning various coping strategies, getting through cravings and building a support network. Each person also learns to identify the top three triggers that make him or her crave a cigarette.

Another important aspect to the program is the group dynamic.

“There’s a quit date when they quit together. Within 24 hours of the quit date, they have another session so they immediately have group support,” Harlan said.

For Shannon Guest, a bookkeeper at Phoenix Programs, the group dynamic was one of the components she found especially helpful.

Guest signed up for a clinic in the fall of 2009.

“I just got tired of spending my money on cigarettes and my clothes smelling like cigarettes,” Guest said. “And I wanted to be healthy.”

Guest, who had been smoking on and off for 10 years, had tried to quit three times before signing up for Freedom From Smoking.

“It was just not the right time in my life. I found I was smoking to deal with different stressors in my life,” Guest said. “I didn’t know how to handle my stress otherwise.”

In addition to learning to deal with the stress, Guest said having a sense of accountability to others in the group helped her stay on track. In addition to signing contracts with one another, participants are paired up with a buddy to provide encouragement when they need it.

“I just had a plan for who I could call if I had any triggers” and “a great list of activities I could do, like go on a walk or call a friend and exercise,” Guest said. “That was a big one for me. I started running again. I’ve always been a pretty avid runner but hadn’t been doing that so much at that time,” Guest said.

Coincidentally, Harlan drew a parallel between smoking cessation and exercise. Retraining the brain to resist addiction, she said, is a lot like training the body.

“It’s kind of like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it’s going to get,” Harlan said.

Reach Caroline Dohack at 573-815-1727 or e-mail cedohack@columbiatribune.com.