Voices for recovery: UGA students promote addiction recovery through website
Athens, Ga. – A group of students in the University of Georgia School of Social Work is making a difference in the lives of those who have been affected by addiction. Under the direction of Donna Leigh Bliss, a UGA associate professor, 14 student volunteers from her Clinical Practice with Addictive Disorders course will launch a website for the Augusta community. The site compiles all available resources related to addiction into a one-stop source for information seekers. RecoveryAugusta.org will go live on Tuesday, Sept. 13 as part of National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.
“Addictions weave their way into a large majority of American lives,” said Maggie Hughes, an MSW student working on the project. “I am so excited to offer these resources to the Augusta community.”
Addiction is the nation’s number one health problem, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and millions of Americans are affected by it, including children and families.
RecoveryAugusta.org is the fifth in a series of websites that have been developed by Bliss’s students. Each year, Bliss and her students select a city in Georgia and work together to compile information, photos and resources for each community. Bliss initiated the idea five years ago as one of five inaugural Service Learning Fellows at UGA. The first website, RecoveryAthens.org, was targeted to the UGA and Athens community. The class also has developed sites for Atlanta (RecoveryAtlanta.org), Savannah (RecoverySavannah.org) and Macon (RecoveryMacon.org).
“This is about students taking a leadership role, which I think is very important,” Bliss said. “Some of the students utilize the websites in their practices, which I think is a very good thing to do.”
“I think this is a fantastic initiative put forth by the University of Georgia,” said MSW student Alexandra Thompson. “I am so proud to be a part of it.”
National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month is an annual observance that takes place during the month of September to promote the awareness of addiction in the U.S. The initiative encourages citizens to take part in the observance through an activity that will help improve addiction awareness in their communities. The National Recovery Month initiative is supported through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. For more information, see www.RecoveryMonth.gov.
For more information on the UGA School of Social Work, see http://ssw.uga.edu:8091/plone.
