Watch HBO’s “Addiction” Online

HBO’s “Addiction” documentary is available for viewing on their web site. I recently got a chance to watch it and thought it was very well done. There are some powerful stories that are worth seeing whether you’re familiar with addiction or not. These stories are told by the people who lived them in their own words, which really humanizes the subject matter.

If you haven’t seen "Addiction" yet, you can watch it here. I recommend these segments:

A Mother's Desperation: Her daughter was doing whatever it took to get heroin. Donna would do whatever it took to save her.




The Science of Relapse: Interesting discussion of the brain’s “stop” and “go” impulses.




Opiate Addiction: A New Medication – Acadia Hospital is featured in this segment about Suboxone. Like BCI, they are an organization leading the way toward better patient access and retention; in fact, we’ve collaborated with them for national presentations.

Once you've seen the film, drop us a comment to tell us what you thought.

Homelessness and Addiction: Four Clients' Stories

The Cape Gazette featured Project Renewal in one of a series of articles about homelessness in Delaware. Four clients in various stages of recovery share their stories.

Other articles in this four part series look at Casa San Francisco, the struggle for the homeless to find shelter, and what the state proposes to do about homelessness.

Health Professionals Summit on AIDS and Injection Drug Users

Chris Zebley, Nurse Practitioner at the Lancaster Center, attended the Health Professional Summit on US Global AIDS Policies for Injection Drug Users, sponsored by Physicians For Human Rights on 3/5 and 3/6, and sent this report:

We discussed current US global polices related to the HIV pandemic throughout the rest of the world including southeastern Europe, China, Russia and India due to intravenous drug users (IVDU). I was able to speak with Congressmen from Delaware, Maryland and Virginia advocating that current U.S. polices along with funding PEPFA-(President's Emergency Plans for Aids Relief) must include, based on evidence based practice, not only condoms and HIV medicines but sterile syringe exchanges, opioid substitution, outreach, and mental health.

IVDU's are very stigmatized in other countries and in some countries are not given HIV medicines. For every person given HIV meds there are 3 new infections. One third of all HIV cases outside Sub-Sahara Africa are caused by IVDU. 80% of all HIV cases in Russia are due to IVDU.

This was a wonderful opportunity to have several voices speak for the voiceless while advancing human health, dignity and justice.

BCI Receives Heroes of Humanity Award

BCI was awarded the Heroes of Humanity Award by the Delaware Chapter of the Art of Living Foundation March 3 at their Silver Jubilee celebration. The award was presented by Wilmington Mayor James Baker.

The Art of Living Foundation is dedicated to serving society by strengthening the individual. They do this by offering programs that eliminate stress, create a sense of belonging, restore human values, and encourage people from all backgrounds, religions and cultural traditions to come together in celebration and service.

The Heroes of Humanity Award honors organizations helping to uphold Human Values through compassion, respect and upliftment of the individual, and through actions that generate harmony in our society. Brandywine Counseling thanks the Foundation for this honor.

For more information on the awards and to learn more about the Art of Living Foundation, visit www.uplifthumanvalues.org.