Stronger Together – The Science of Community Healing

In this session, Jacki Hillios, MSW, PhD will share the theories and science underlying the Healing Community Model, related outcomes, and discuss implications for the future.

In America today there are 40.3 million individuals struggling with alcohol or drug use, yet only about 10% can access the care they need to recover. With a recent 30% increase in overdose deaths and 26% increase in alcohol related fatalities, we lost 195,000 of our loved ones just last year, that is the equivalent of one life lost unnecessarily every 3 minutes. While treatment saves lives, it isn’t accessible, it isn’t enough, and innovation is essential to stemming the tide and ending the crisis.

Over the last 15 years Dr. Hillios has developed and evaluated the Healing Community Model as both as a strategy for sustaining self initiated recovery and as an adjunct to treatment. During this session, people will learn about the powerful role that community plays in healing from substance use disorders and how when paired with meaningful activities like music, fitness and outdoor adventure, people’s lives are transformed. We will review theories underlying the model, including social cognitive theory, behavioural economics and more. During this session we will discuss the importance of psychological safety in promoting healing in community and through the lens of The CHIME Framework we will explore how community influences recovery capital. Physical and neurological health implications will also be discussed.