Search Results
John Bell, 2015 March 11
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Bell begins with a discussion of his initial turn to drug use as a coping mechanism for dealing with academic stresses. After multiple arrests and stints in jail, Bell eventually winds up at Phoenix House, having resolved himself to getting and staying clean. Bell takes great comfort in the therapeutic community, likening it to the community he grew up in. He discusses his growing attachment to Phoenix House and to the people there during his time in-program. Eventually, Bell narrates how he got a job at the payroll department in Phoenix House and the insights he has gained during his time in the organization.
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Chris Policano, 2015 March 11
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Chris Policano details his pathway to Phoenix House and shares backstory about the building that was slated to be the Nancy Reagan Center and the process of establishing good relations with the Lake View Terrace community. He discusses the therapeutic community method and Phoenix House's role in explaining the crack epidemic to stakeholders during the 1980s. He narrates the challenges of de-stigmatizing the images of addicts, and of defending long-term residential care to the public, funders and doctors. He then speaks on organizational culture and leadership.
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Norwig Debye-Saxinger, 2015 January 7
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Debye-Saxinger tells of his involvement with Rockefeller's Narcotics Control Commission beginning in 1971, and the state's effort through that agency to contract out the provision of direct services for addicts to third party agencies. Phoenix House's practice of "hiding" privately raised funds in sister organizations is discussed. He chronicles two major policy changes he helped orchestrate that were critical for Phoenix House-welfare checks could be signed over to a residential institution directly, and money from the sale of a facility owned by an institution could be reinvested within a year and not counted against funds provided by the state. He narrates a shift in addiction treatment from forming a part of the criminal justice system to a more medical issue. The waning of appreciation for the therapeutic community model affected both his and his colleague Julio Martinez's roles in state government and his role in Phoenix House in the ensuing decades.
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Herbert Kleber, 2015 January 23
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Kleber describes his experience working at the "narcotics farm" in Lexington, Kentucky after completing his residency at Yale University. He then describes his return to Yale with a heightened interest in exploring pharmaceutical treatments for addiction, such as Naloxone. Kleber moves on to his tenure as the Deputy for Demand Reductions in George H. W. Bush's White House. Particular attention is given here to his struggle to secure more government support for methadone treatment, and the interaction of national and New York City politics surrounding substance abuse treatment. He recalls his convictions as a board member of Phoenix House. Finally, Kleber discusses the future of narcotics treatment, which, he asserts, will largely depend on the funding structure.
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Conrad Levenson, 2015 January 16
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Levenson narrates his early childhood in Brooklyn and attendance at Columbia College and School of Architecture. He then describes his path into designing and overseeing low-income housing projects during the 1970s. Moving to Phoenix House, Levenson discusses at length his vision for the relationship between the therapeutic community method and the built environment of the facility, especially with respect to the Riverside Plaza Hotel. In this vein, he describes legal restrictions on this work by the state. He also speaks on his use of sweat equity with the Phoenix House residents.
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Barry McCaffrey, 2015 April 2
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McCaffrey describes his first encounters with substance abusers in the military during the 1960s and the subsequent pathway to his position as the Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He discusses the politics of White House agencies and controversies over their respective jurisdictions. He speaks extensively on the nexus of mental health issues and substance abuse, and the role of the family in instilling anti-drug values in children. He narrates his own education on the "drug issue," from drug courts to methadone to therapeutic community methods. He gives his impressions of Phoenix House's work amid this discussion. McCaffrey also details the issues surrounding government funding of substance abuse treatment programs. Finally, he discusses the scientific controversies of using medication in treatment for addiction.
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Ronald Coster, 2015 April 15
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Coster discusses his "conversion" to the self-help model and his experiences managing increasingly complex financial matters in Phoenix House, whose largest sources of income at that time were government contracts. He explains tensions with the New York City government, which resulted in an eviction from Hart Island, among other issues. Coster chronicles the expansion of the organization including how it gained national stature, the various consulting firms it hired, its relationship to Corrections, the maintenance of government donors, and increased medicalization.
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George De Leon, 2014 September 8
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De Leon discusses his work in clinical psychology at the Veterans Hospital as both his introduction to therapeutic communities and to Mitchell Rosenthal. He discusses the international and national growth of therapeutic communities as well as the policies and research that have made them what they are today. De Leon also examines different training and rehabilitation techniques popular in Phoenix House, and the future uses he sees for therapeutic communities.
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Tony Endre, 2014 September 30
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Endre discusses the evolution and subsequent decline of the therapeutic community model. He details the establishment of Odyssey House in 1967. He chronicles his tenure at both Phoenix House and New York City's Addiction Services Agency, describing life as a City employee. He narrates his involvement in setting up new facilities, and how he ran them.
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