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Recognizing September as National Recovery Month in Philadelphia and celebrating the 19th Annual PRO-ACT Recovery Walks! to promote recovery and work to end the stigma surrounding drug and alcohol addiction.
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WHEREAS, September 2020 marks the 31st Annual National Recovery Month. This month celebrates the gains people with mental and/or substance use disorders have made towards living healthy and rewarding lives by utilizing substance use treatment and mental health services. The 2020 National Recovery Month theme is "Join the Voices for Recovery: Celebrating Connections" which reminds people in recovery and those who support them, that we all have victories to celebrate and this year, as we face the challenges of a global pandemic, those connections are more important than ever; and
WHEREAS, According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 47.6 million American adults, or 19.1% of American adults, experience mental illness. Meanwhile, 20.3 million Americans aged 12 or older, or about 7% of the population, have a substance use disorder. Of these, 9.2 million American adults have co-occurring mental and substance use disorders; and
WHEREAS, Across the country, millions of Americans have transformed their lives through recovery. Each September, tens of thousands of prevention, treatment, and recovery programs and facilities celebrate the accomplishments made by those who have sought treatment; and
WHEREAS, Nationally, only an estimated 25 million people in the United States are in need of treatment for substance dependence, with only 2.7 million receiving any kind of specialized treatment. In Philadelphia, an estimated 55,591 individuals misused prescription opioids within the past year, and an estimated 9,656 individuals in Philadelphia used heroin in the past year. The Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services as a City agency provides a wide ran...
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