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SOBERING UP
Special events such as Overdose Awareness Day, complete withmocktails, at SoutheasternLouisiana UniversityinHammond bring attention to LION UP Recovery and its work.
Collegiate Recovery Programs to aidthose sufferingwithaddiction
BY JUDY BERGERON Staff writer
Their T-shirts read “Green, Gold and Sober.” Green andgold? Simple —thoseare the university’scolors.
Sober? That’sthe complicated one. Fortunately,students at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond who are searchingfor apathtowardaddiction recovery and support along that road can turn to the Collegiate RecoveryProgram. Southeasternwas oneofthe first Louisiana universities to establish one of the national programs, which isalso available at LSU, Tulane, Southern Law Center,Grambling State andNorthshore Technical Community College. Nationwide, there are more than 160 Collegiate Recovery Programs.
In thebeginning
Before Annette Baldwin,Southeastern assistant director of intervention and LION UP Recovery,details theprogram, she feels compelled to reveal something quite personal.
“So, first of all, I’m aperson in longterm recovery ”saysBaldwin,a licensed professional counselor who’sbeen at Southeastern for 21 years. She holdsa master’sdegreein counseling
With this first-person perspective, Baldwin saw students in recovery coming through SLU’sCounselingCenter seeking support. Their recovery journeys thus far had anegativeshared component,isolation.
“They would come to their classes and as soon as their classes were over,they would leave campus, go back to Baton Rouge, go to their 12-step meeting,gobe with their recovery community,whether it was New Orleans,Slidell, Baton Rouge,” Baldwin said.
At the same time, other students were going to football games,immersed in Greek life, engaged in organizations.
“A lot of it had to do with stigma or feeling uncomfortable with introducing themselves as apersoninrecoveryto other students,” Baldwin said.“Iguess maybe Ihave differenteyesbecauseI’m also aperson in recovery.” Around 2017, Baldwin wrotethe Transforming Youth in Recovery grantfor SLU and got involved withthe Associationfor Recovery andHigherEducation,expanding her understanding of Collegiate Recovery.LION UP Recovery,with anod to the school’scatchphrase,launched in fall 2019.
“Wekeep hearing thatstatistic that of students that don’tcomplete their degree, 40% of those studentsdon’tcomplete because of substance abuse issues So universities across theboard are like, we’re losing money by not supporting this population,” Baldwin said.
Retention is the stepping stone to other positiveeffects
“People in recovery,wheneverthey’re supported in theireducation,our GPAs are higher.Our graduation rateishigher We return to higher education for additional degrees.Webecome professionals in recovery,” she said.
Like Bryan Sadler,LION UP Recovery coordinator,who’s alsoinlong-term recovery.Sadlerwas oneofthe program’s first students.
“I had moved from Texas.Icame here in recovery. When Igot to campus, Iwas isolated as well. Idid not get plugged in to arecovery communityinthe area. I ended up having aslip and Iwas startingtosee negative consequences,” Sadler recalled. “I met Annette and she was just launching this program. And Iknewright away that it was like, OK,this is whatI’ve been missing.”
He was able to engage with other students in recovery who shared some of the exact same issues, like notfeeling welcomed.
“It’seasy to find somebody,you know,to drink with, but it’s hard to find somebody to go to ameetingwithyou because we don’talways talk about that.”
Following through withthe program, Sadler was not only able to graduate, but hasreturned to Southeastern for further study
“I’m amaster’sincounseling student because the Collegiate Recovery Program was here,”hesaid. Howitworks
Southeastern’sisawraparound program spanning individual assessment, to formal meetings called seminars, to more casual sober coaching for students in recovery from arange of addictions beyond alcoholand substances,togambling and eating disorders.
The seminars are weekly (each Tuesdayofthe semester)closedsessionsattended by the students currently enrolled in the program.
“Sometimes we start withatopic, maybe self-care, maybe it’sprofessionalism Maybe it’s somethingthat you might not necessarily find in your recovery community,” Sadler, said. “We’re allonthis shared adventure of tryingtoeducate ourselves, youknow? So I’mable to bring some of theaspects of what collegeislike here. And sometimes they’ll be bring in things.
“Becausethings come up while you’re in college, so this is aspace to talk about that,” he said. “We’ve had students, you know,their recovery’sgoinggreat, and then they have to transitionintoa new job or anew position at their work outside of school. So this is aplace to process that.”
Theprogram also offers open support meetings for thecampus population, a weekly informal recovery book study andcommunity-based activities.
They’ll also go on weekendcamping trips in northern Alabama with students fromotheruniversities in thesoutheast
BryanSadler wears the officialLION UP RecoveryT-shirt. Sadler,37, is the SLU program’s coordinator,a graduate student there and also in long-termrecovery
region.
Back at SLU, the 18 students currently in theprogrammay seem like asmall number.However,Baldwin explains that if it’s taken into the account others including the sober curious, the individuals whoare accessed but don’tenterthe CRP, and faculty and staff across campus who receive training in administering the opioid reversalmedicationNarcan as well as Ally training,thenthe numbersrun from 200 to 500 asemester.Ally training’s focus is changing thenarrative to createsafe environments forthose who may need help withsubstance misuse, andalsoaddresseshow to help connect thosewith substance misuse disorder with assistance.
LSU’sprogram
Adam Singer says thefield of addiction treatment is apassion for him
LikeBaldwin and Sadler,Singer,LSU’s Collegiate RecoveryProgram manager, is in long-term recovery “I have been in recovery since Aug. 13, 2014. Istruggled with heroin primarily, but Ialso had issues with alladdictive substances (crack andalcohol were also of note),” he said. “I was never able to moderate the use of anything, going back to early childhood. Thankfully,getting into recovery saved my life, andIowe more to many individuals than Ican properly explain.” Singer hasbeenpaying it forward since those dark days, first as alicensed addiction counselor,advanced alcohol and drug counselor, and social worker
ä See RECOVERY, page 3G
When friends said they were traveling out of town and needed someone to comebyand “check on their pool” occasionally,Iwas quick to volunteer.Ilove being in the water.Ilove to swim. Ihave my best ideas in water. The reason maybethat’swhen I’m most relaxed —whether I’m with friends or on my own. Having had more time in the past few weeks to be in apool with only my husband nearby, I’ve reflected on why it’sso good for my brain and being. I’ve developeda theory —and it connects to why Ilike watching K-dramas so much. Since April 2020, I’ve watchedKorean dramasalmost every night.
(Sidenote: If you haven’t watched K-dramas and are looking for apleasant diversion, I highly recommend watching the beautiful, easygoing romcom ones. Netflix and Prime have loads of options. The one to start with is “Crash Landing on You.” Yes, the first episode is completely ridiculous, but trust me,the storyline climbs and you’ll grow to care more about a South Korean heiress trapped in North Korea after aparagliding accident than you ever thought possible.)
But Idigress. Back to the topic at hand. Floating in apool and watching K-dramasmay not seem to have anything in common, but they do. The connective thread is that when I’m watching aK-drama, I can’tdoanything else. Following along takes all of my attention. Watching K-dramas hasmade me realize how muchdisdain I have for multitasking. The beautiful thing about being in aswimming pool is that it allows me to do even less. Ican’tbeonthe phone. Idon’teven know if someone is trying to message me All Ican do is be exactly where Iam. If friends are with me,we can be in the water together.If only my husband and Iare there, he generally fishes nearby and I get to float or swim laps. Ifloat more than Ilap. Sometimes, while I’m floating, Igive serious consideration to the waythe ripples distort the drain at the bottom of the pool. Sometimes, I stare into the clouds. Sometimes, Iclose my eyes while hanging nearly weightless on an inflatable, practically gravity-less. This quiet and stillness has been aluxury difficult to describe. I’ve always liked being in the water,but what it’sdone for me this summer has been next level. Ihave spent decades traveling and experiencing as many places as Icould find away to see. Something shifted recently Recently,Icanceled atrip that would have taken me to my 50th country —alandmark Iwould like to reach eventually,but going has become less important. I’m unpacking the reasons why Pico Iyer’sbook, “The Art of Stillness,” has helped me be more thoughtful about this newfound personalrealization. Iyer’s book is about “the unexpected adventure of staying put.” He works to reveal “a counterintuitive truth: The more ways we have to connect, the more we seem desperate to unplug.” Iyerwrote that the idea of going nowhere is “as universal as
of gravity; that’swhy
Singer
PROVIDED PHOTOS
From page to stage
Louisiana children’s book becomesamusical
BY LAUREN CHERAMIE Staff writer
Louisiana native Denise Gallagher was born in New Orleans and is agraduate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She is agraphic designer,illustrator and author of children’sbooks.
She has written two picture books and is busy working on even more. Gallagher is proud to be apartofthe Teaching Artist Program from the Acadiana Center forthe Arts, teaching lessons about art and literature to studentsthroughout Lafayette Parish.
She loves to share her passion for books and art and has participated in readings and speakingevents for numerous audiences in schools, libraries and book festivals. Alsoavisual artist, Gallagher’sfine arthas been exhibited in museums and galleries in Los Angeles, New York, Portland, Indianapolis and throughout Louisiana.
“A TipTap Tale: The Musical!”isDenise’sfirst foray into theater writing and production.
Can you tell us about your book,A TipTap Tale, which wascreated into achildren’smusical?
Ialways had the dream of writing and illustrating for children, so Iwrote “A Tip TapTale” as somethingto practice illustrating apicture book. In 2016, the book was published with UL UniversityPress afterworking with Barry Ancelet —a folklorist here whocollected aCajun folk tale and was looking foranillustrator.
“A TipTap Tale” follows ahound dog, BouZou, who lives in the swamp and loves to play music. The crawfish,
egrets, frogs and allthe animals love him, but SlickJim Jack, acat from New Orleans, comes to ask him to play in the big city BouZou gets agoldguitar, aCadillac, and he’sonstage with all these fancy dogs and catsinthe big city.Everyone is enjoying the show until aflea biteshim. He drops his guitar and starts to scratch the fleas. He goes back to the swamp and starts to bounce between the swamp and the city with the help of Flea be Gone aflea powder that he brings with him. What wasthe process in developing the book into amusical? Fast forward to last fall, afriend of mine suggested my name to Alison Brandon, who owns Wonderland PerformingArts in Lafayette.Wemet for coffee to talk about the Art Smart Grant —which is given by theAcadianaCenterfor
the Artsand funded by Lafayette Economic Development Authority and National Endowment for the Arts —because she wanted to apply.Ibrought acopy of “A TipTap Tale,” and Alison thought it would make a great musical. Ialways had this tiny dream, but Ididn’tthink it was arealistic dream, to see my book produced on a stage on alarger scale. Alison suggested that Iapply for the Art Smart Grant too, so Idid, and Igot it. Iwas able to hire Alison with the grant money,and Irewrote the picture book as atheatrical performance. Idid alot of research watched everything from Junie B. Jones to Chicago —wrote music, scenes and dialogue. Ihireda lighting director,set designers, costume designers and amusic director.The grant allowed me to hire ateam, which
was another way of pushing me outside of my comfort zone.
The Art Smart Grant is the reason why the musical exists —tobring artists together and to push artists outside of theircomfort zonestocreatesomething that’sbigger or in adifferent vein than what they’re used to working in.
What is the importance in doing things outside of your comfortzone?
Doing so teaches you that you can do it. Youlearn that there are different sides of you. Iwanted to make sure that my team had everything they needed, so Iwas really focused on thedetails —and Ididn’treally know that about myself until the musical. Then, people have something else to be proud of. I learned that Ihave thecapabilitytodosomething that I didn’tthink was possible. Like Imentioned, creat-
ing achildren’sbook wasa dream —itwas really more like awhisper,but now it’s true. How do you think artcreates solutions, whether that’sthrough music, theater or visual arts?
This musical brought kids together whodidn’tknow each other,and it was avery diverse collection of kids ages 8-13. While they didn’t know each other,they had to work together and follow direction. Some of the kids had never been in aplay before,sotheydidn’tknow what to expect, butthey loved it.
The kids also had to audition, which gave them confidence because they were chosen to do this part. Being chosen, they took it very se-
riously Some of the moms came to me afterward and said that, in school, the kids are expected to behave acertain wayand notbesobig and loud. But in this camp, they were excited that they were expected to dance, sing, be loud and over the top. The musical brought the opportunity to students who may not have had theopportunitybefore, and it made art accessible and attainable for these children. This interview hasbeen editedfor length and clarity Email Lauren Cheramie at lauren.cheramie@ theadvocate.com.
‘A TipTap Tale: The Musical!’ is Denise Gallagher’s first forayinto theater writing and production.
PROVIDED PHOTOS
Louisiana nativeDenise Gallagher was borninNew Orleans and is agraduate of University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She is agraphicdesigner,illustrator and author of children’s books.
Not shown are CynthiaReed and Kimberly Decker
they’reinterested.
prior to being hired by LSU about 18 months ago.
“I have worked in treatment centers since 2015 (when Igot oneyear in recovery), and Ihave been able to see countless people get better,and sadly,too manydeaths to count,” Singer said. “I knew that thiswas an amazing opportunity(at LSU) for asubstance abuse counselor,and I couldn’tturn it down.”
LSU’sCRP offers three meetings per week and encourages students to attend outside recoverymeetings, too, as does SLU.
“This helps to connectwith other folks in recovery.Stayingconnected to peers who have asimilar experience (and help each other) is vital for the recovery process, and addiction cannot get better in avacuum,” Singer explained. His staff alsoworks with the Student Health Center on campus so students have access to therapy if
“Sowewill not mandate that anyone does anything, but we always make sure that folksare at least aware of the resources available,” he said.“Lastly,self-care and stress management is vital for recovery Stress=craving, so making sure to have fun is, in my opinion, potentially amatter of life and death.”
ATulanecommunity
Jacob Goldberg brought 10 years of experience in the behavioral health and addiction/recovery fields when he became the DirectorofRecoveryPrograms at TulaneUniversityinNew Orleans in 2019. The Tulane RecoveryCommunity (TRC) officially began offering regularrecovery supportmeetings in January 2020.
stakeholders, Iplayed aformative
roleinthe early efforts to establish collegiaterecovery at LSU.”
Goldbergsaid if astudent is interested, theyare encouraged to reach out to him directly or simply attend one of TRC’smeetings.
“Our modelisopentoall students,” Goldberg said.
Goldberg
“My passion for working with collegestudentsstems frommyown lived experience, as Iwas fortunate to find recovery in January 2008,” Goldberg said. “Alongside other
Readytogrow
Southeastern is now project-directing atwo-year, $1.3 million-plus federal grant to create or sustain such programs at thesix universities—continuing theSRPs at SLU,LSU and Tulane,and creatingthose at Grambling State, Southern Law and Northshore Technical.
“It kind of helps educate those campuses on what Collegiate Recovery can do fortheir campuses, and alsotrain their staffand give them some resources to find space andhopefully traina coordinator,” Baldwin said. “So they can have what we have.”
The grants are made available
through funding fromthe U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant (SUPTRS BG)-American Rescue Plan Act(ARPA). Additionalsupport came from the Louisiana Department of Health’sOffice of Behavioral Health andFlorida Parishes Human Service Authority Roomie’s MerryMarket LIONUPRecovery’s annual holiday fundraiser 9a.m.-5 p.m.Saturday,Nov.2 SLU’sPennington Student Activity Center,1350 N. General Pershing St., Hammond $5 The SubstanceAbuseand Mental HealthServices Administration defines recovery as “a process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live aself-directed life, and strive to reach theirfull potential.”
Email Judy Bergeron at jbergeron@theadvocate.com.
wise souls from every tradition have spoken of it. ‘All the unhappiness of men,’ the seventeenthcentury French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal famously noted, ‘arises from one simple fact: that they cannot sit quietly in their chamber.’ When Itold my 22-year-old daughter Piper,about how muchI wasenjoying being still this summer,she explained that her generation has anamefor doing just that.
“Sometimes we all need to stay in bed and not go anywhere or do anything,” she said to me this week. “Wecall it ‘bed rot,’ Mom.” Ineed to let her know that her generation didn’tcorner the market on the idea of bed rot. Pascal described it about 400 years ago. As the world seems to speed up, life twirls, twists and spirals in so many directions. Ibelieve this is why some of us, myself included, enjoyed the pandemic lockdown.
Much has been written and said about the compulsion society has with the inflated value of busy-ness. Being still, even for an afternoon, whetherathomeinbed or in afriend’spool, is a tiny reset.
Resist the hollow allure of busy
Find your equivalent of K-dramas, or better yet —floating in apool. Embrace doing nothing on occasion. It’sgood for your brain. Iyer writesthat in Kyoto,Japan, they have asaying, “Don’tdosomething. Sit there.”
Email Jan Risher at jan. risher@theadvocate. com.
PROVIDED PHOTO
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