Dear Hossein,
My congratulations to the two Didebans who completed serving their four-year terms of service. I am pleased to hear that my nomination to serve as the international Dideban for Congress 60 was accepted by those attending the Dideban meeting. I do consider this a great honor and a great responsibility and hope to continue working to disseminate information to countries outside of Iran on how Congress 60 has successfully integrated time-limited medication support via the DST method within a vibrant culture of recovery that provides sustained physical, psychosocial, and spiritual support. I hope the public announcement of my acceptance in this position was warmly received by all members of the Congress 60 family. I will await your guidance and our continued discussions on how I can best fulfill this role.
The news that more than 8000 have signed up for the latest co-guide examinations is living proof of the strong service ethic that is at the very heart of Congress 60. Such a service ethic permeated many early addiction treatment programs in the U.S., but that ethic has weakened in the ensuing years and is need of revival. An excess of administrative regulations imposed by federal and state agencies pushed many volunteers out of recovery support roles in the U.S., although there are present efforts to reverse this trend.
I am pleased to have a partner in this aging process that we are both undergoing. I was able to get an earlier than scheduled appointment with a specialist and have high hopes that I will be back with Rita doing our daily walks very soon.
I have communicated with Dr. Galanter since our last communication. He has been traveling in Europe to attend several psychiatric conferences. On his return, I will set up a time to brief him on the work of Congress 60 and our interest in future research collaborations.
I am also doing the final preparation on my panel presentation at the 50th anniversary meeting of NAADAC: The Association of Addiction Professionals on the integration of medication support and psychosocial and spiritual (worldview) support in addiction treatment. I am doing this with Drs. Seppala and DuPont. My portion of the presentation will provide an excellent opportunity to highlight much of what I have learned through our communications over these many years.
Please extend my warm regards to your family and to all members of Congress 60.
Friends and Brothers Forever,
Bill