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September is National Recovery Month, when we celebrate the success of people who are on the path toward mental health and recovery from addiction.
We celebrate people like Ray Brown, who overcame years of addiction to get his children, his job and his life back. He now mentors other people who are going through the same struggles he did.
Recovery Month is also when we spread the word that recovery is real. In Oregon, we are building a recovery-oriented system of care, where recovery is the norm and the expectation. We look to a day when people are no longer afraid to get help because they fear stigma and discrimination.
We honor our many partners and providers who offer Oregonians the care, support and services they need to achieve recovery – from medication-assisted treatment to a safe place to live, from peer-delivered services to person-directed, culturally appropriate treatment.
This year, we are also celebrating the new Office of Consumer Activities, which was created to ensure that people who have mental health and addiction histories have a strong voice within the state's behavioral health system.
This office will play an important part as we implement the Statewide Behavioral Health Strategic Plan that is being developed with input from communities across the state. Our goal is to build an integrated, coordinated and culturally competent behavioral health system that provides better health, better care and lower costs for all Oregonians.
In September, we affirm that behavioral health is essential to overall health. Prevention works. Treatment is effective, and people can and do recover.
Thank you for all that you do to make recovery real in Oregon.
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