Articles - Compliance and Legal

The Partners for Recovery (PFR) leadership has made the reduction of stigma a top priority. In support of this initiative, PFR and the CSAT Office of Consumer Affairs have sponsored the development of a Know Your Rights brochure  (16pp, PDF, 183KB) and Webinars to spread the word that Americans cannot be discriminated against for suffering from substance use disorders.

A Spanish version of the Know Your Rights brochure is now available: ¿Está Recperándose de Problemes Con El Alcohol O Las Drogas? Conozca sus Derechos(18pp, PDF, 193KB). Learn more about the brochure.

The Legal Action Center prepared the PowerPoint presentation Know Your Rights-Legal Rights of People with Alcohol and Drug Histories and Criminal Records (202pp, PDF, 1.2MB) and an accompanying brief User's Guide (3pp, PDF, 65KB) for the Partners for Recovery Initiative. The presentation is intended to be used as a training tool by alcohol and drug treatment professionals and provider associations, government oversight agencies, recovery support providers and organizations, attorneys with an interest in these topics, and other allies of people in recovery. The training is for people with or in recovery from alcohol or drug problems, people in treatment or recovery with criminal records, and anyone supporting the rights of people with current/past alcohol or drug problems or criminal records.

The training objectives are to educate individuals about their rights under federal and state laws and to provide information about how to exercise those rights when necessary. The training covers laws prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities in: employment, housing, public accommodation, e.g., health care, schools, etc., and government benefits and services.

The presentation is divided into six parts to allow flexibility in presenting the information. They are as follows:

• Introduction: What is Discrimination?
• Legal Rights of People with Criminal Records
• Medication Assisted Treatment: Special Issues
• What Rights Do These Laws Give People with Current or Past Alcohol/Drug Problems?
• Responding to Violations of Your Rights under Under Anti-Discrimination Laws
• Which Laws Prohibit Discrimination against People with Alcohol/Drug Histories? 

Parts 1-4 provide a cohesive overview of the rights of people with alcohol/drug histories and should be presented together. Also, it is recommended that Part 1-5 be shown together and that Part 6 be used with Parts 1-4 or Parts 1-5, or used separately. You may download a copy of the PowerPoint presentation and/or request an electronic copy.

The PFR initiative produced a KYR Brochure designed to assist individuals in Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) and to educate and inform others. Individuals in MAT often face discrimination despite laws that clearly prohibit it. This discrimination is largely due to a lack of knowledge about MAT's value, effectiveness and safety, and a lack of knowledge about the anti-discrimination laws that protect people in MAT. The "Medication-Assisted Treatment Know Your Rights Brochure" (21pp, PDF, 415KB) presents and explains the Federal laws that prohibit discrimination against individuals with disabilities and how they protect people receiving MAT for opioid addiction. This brochure aims to reduce discrimination by providing people in MAT (and their advocates) basic information necessary to exercise their rights or, at a minimum, know where to turn for help. It also seeks to reduce discrimination by educating those who might discriminate (e.g., employers, housing providers, and government agencies) about such laws, as well as about MAT itself.

PFR also produced a series of five Know Your Rights Webinars that were conducted and repeated once. Five PowerPoint presentations and supporting materials that included audio links to the presentations, question and answer handouts, and a resource handout were prepared and made available. The presentations focused on individual rights and areas of discrimination for people with alcohol and drug histories.

The PowerPoint presentations are shown below:

• "Employment Discrimination Against People with Alcohol/Drug Histories"(97pp, PDF,526KB)
• "Housing, Health Care, and Other Forms of Discrimination Against People with Alcohol/Drug Histories" (111pp, PDF, 572KB)
• "Medication-Assisted Treatment: Special Anti-Discrimination Issues"(116pp, PDF, 619KB)
• "Legal Rights of People with Criminal Conviction Histories" (114pp, PDF, 878KB)
• "New Federal Parity Legislation for Insurance Coverage of Addiction Treatment" (70pp, PDF, 522KB)

To access the PowerPoint presentations with audio, please click on the links below.

• Employment Discrimination Against People with Alcohol/Drug Histories
  
• Housing, Health Care, and Other Forms of Discrimination Against People with Alcohol/Drug Histories
  
• Medication-Assisted Treatment: Special Anti-Discrimination Issues
  
• Legal Rights of People with Criminal Conviction Histories
  

The four factsheets that correspond to the four presentations are listed below:

• Employment Discrimination Against People with Alcohol/Drug Histories - Q&A session (10pp, PDF, 76KB)
• Housing, Health Care, and Other Forms of Discrimination Against People with Alcohol/Drug Histories - Q&A session (3pp, PDF, 50KB)
• Medication-Assisted Treatment: Special Anti-Discrimination Issues - Q&A session (5pp, PDF, 51KB)
• Legal Rights of People with Criminal Conviction Histories - Q&A session (4pp, PDF, 60KB)

A resources handout, "Helpful Resources to Address Discrimination Against People in Medication-Assisted Treatment" (1p, PDF, 50KB) is also available.

Read about other Resources on Stigma Reduction.

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Courtesy of samhsa.gov

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