WMU News – Growing need for drug abuse counselors

“The whole field is shifting to a paradigm called ‘recovery oriented system of care,’ ” Simpson says. “That goes away from the old model of just doing acute care and then putting the person back on the street, to a conceptualization of understanding that in fact substance abuse, and especially substance dependence, is a chronic condition. It is a relapsing condition, and it can repeat over time. So we have to look at a lifetime type of event.”