Recovery High Schools are paving the way for young people in recovery

I remember some of my high school time.  Not much.   I started drinking and using drugs at a pretty young age.  I was in between 7th and 8th grades when my substance use disorder begin taking shape. After the death of a man who I called my father at the end of my 7th grade year I gave up up on school.

I think about that time period, and the years after, while I was still in school.  I wonder, if there would have been a thing called a recovery high school where I lived could my trajectory have changed?     My belief, and this is based on what we are seeing with the massive positive impact recovery high schools are having for young people, is, it could have. If there would have been the protective factor of a recovery high school, and all of the resources that are inside a recovery high school to help young people, I could have been saved years of pain and misery that followed me from my youth right into my adulthood.     Many years of pain of misery could have been circumvented.

A recovery high school, set within a school districts alternative high school program, is for students who are in recovery from a substance use disorder.    Students are with their peers, who have all started their journey in recovery.    There are professionals on staff who are at the ready to help this unique student population.  Mental health professionals, substance use disorder professionals, teachers trained in the arena of substance use disorders, and, others, who have the education and training to ensure students are able to graduate high school and stay in recovery.  Students in recovery lead their own support group meetings.   Alternative peer groups, twelve step groups, SMART recovery groups, and others, can all be part of the program within the recovery high school setting.  The research on the success of recovery high school is clear.   When students in recovery are supported they have a higher level of success earning a high school diploma and transitioning from  early recovery to long term recovery.   The ripple effect of this in the community is a huge benefit in many ways.

We are about to click send on a recovery high school grant for our local school district.    I believe it is not a matter of if, but, when this will happen for our area.    Recovery high schools have proven themselves across the country through their evidence based methods of providing the resources necessary to ensure all students in recovery are supported in their goal of attaining a high school diploma and sustaining their lives in recovery. 

For to long students with substance use disorders have been cast aside and not allowed the same resources that many other students with other issues have enjoyed.    Students have been marginalized and cast out of the entire school system.  The recovery high school model stops that negative cycle and ensures students with substance use disorders are treated in a fair way so they can have the same chance as all their peers to walk across a stage and enjoy the feeling of graduating high school. 

I am looking forward to the day we open our doors to Ellensburg's first Recovery High School.

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