Understanding Recovery

This collection includes resources that define and explain recovery from many perspectives. Within this collection, users will find links to the following information:

  • The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) web page for Recovery and Recovery Suppport Information
  • A one page document from the National Summit on Recovery which details the 12 guiding principles of recovery
  • A patient guide to sustaining recovery the first 30 days after withdrawal management/detoxification and strategies for maintaining recovery in the long term from SAMHSA
  • Chapter 5 of the 2016 U.S. Surgeon General’s report on addiction with focus on recovery
  • A report from SAMHSA that describes the many pathways to recovery and presents findings from focus group and interviews with individuals in recovery on their perspectives of the process
  • A 2009 report from the Institute from Research, Education and Training in Addiction that provides recommendations for how to improve the research done on recovery from substance use

Note: If you know of other resources we should include in our understanding recovery collection, please let us know through our call for submissions page.

Policymakers & Community Leaders
Payers & Providers
Patients & Caregivers

SAMHSA Recovery and Recovery Support Information Page

Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service’s web-page on recovery which provides basic information and emphasizes the need to incorporate cultural competence and actively work to reduce health disparities when providing recovery support services.

External Website
Patients & Caregivers

The Next Step Toward a Better Life

Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

This patient guide details what happens after completion of withdrawal management/detoxification with advice for how to sustain sobriety in the first 30 days after withdrawal management and how to sustain recovery in the long term. Provides specific strategies patients can use to avoid return to use and sustain their new path.

Document
Policymakers & Community Leaders
Payers & Providers
Patients & Caregivers

The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health – Recovery: The Many Paths to Wellness

Source: Office of the U.S. Surgeon General

In 2016, the U.S. Surgeon General’s report on addiction in American included this chapter with detailed information about recovery. The chapter discusses what recovery as a concept means and reviews the published research on mutual aid groups and recovery support services.

Document
Policymakers & Community Leaders
Payers & Providers
Patients & Caregivers

Pathways to Healing and Recovery: Perspectives from Individuals with Histories of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems

Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

Authors of this 2010 report convened 4 focus groups and conducted 9 in depth interviews with individuals in recovery to document their perspectives on the process. The report describes many recovery pathways, identifies different terminology used by individuals in recovery, and identifies barriers to and

Document
Policymakers & Community Leaders
Payers & Providers

Building the Science of Recovery – Research Brief

Source: Institute for Research, Education and Training in Addictions and Northeast ATTC

A 2009 guide to improving the science of and research on recovery from addiction from the Northeast Addiction Technology Transfer Center. The guide poses questions for researchers to answer and describes a research framework for recovery research with high scientific standards.

Document