The question is no longer whether individuals age in recovery. The question is whether existing data support treating them as a distinct population requiring a different model of care. The answer is yes. Current research provides a clear foundation for this conclusion. An estimated 20.5 million Americans identify as being in recovery from a substance […]
Aging in Recovery: What the Data Already Tells Us Read Post »
For decades, the goal in addiction treatment has been clear: help people get clean, stabilize their lives, and sustain recovery. And for many, that goal has been achieved. But now we are facing a new reality. A growing number of individuals who entered recovery in the 1980s and 1990s are aging into their 60s, 70s,
Aging in Long-Term Recovery: A System We Never Built Read Post »
The development of systems addressing substance use disorders and aging has occurred along separate trajectories. Treatment systems have focused on initiating recovery, while aging systems have evolved to address chronic illness and long-term care. The convergence of these two realities—long-term recovery and population aging—has produced a structural condition that existing systems were not designed to
Aging in Recovery Residential Model (ARRM): What the Evidence Requires Read Post »
Social work has long been a field defined by its response to visible human need—crises, poverty, institutional neglect, and systemic inequality. Over time, influential figures such as Dorothea Dix, Jane Addams, Mary Richmond, and Saul Alinsky shaped frameworks to address urgent social problems. Yet despite this evolution, a critical phase remains underdeveloped in theory: what
Aging in Recovery: Rethinking Social Work Across the Lifespan Read Post »
As the field of Aging in Recovery continues to take shape, one question becomes unavoidable: what does long-term recovery actually require as individuals enter later life? The Aging in Recovery Residential Model (ARRM) offers a clear and practical answer. It is not an abstract concept or a general response framework. ARRM is a structural, residential
ARRM: Rethinking Recovery Through Environment and Continuity Read Post »
Over the past several decades, thousands of individuals have achieved something once considered unlikely—long-term recovery from substance use disorders. Many have sustained that recovery for 10, 20, and even 30 years. Today, they are entering older adulthood. Yet despite this success, there is a problem: no system was built for what comes next. Aging in
Aging in Recovery: The Population We Failed to Plan For Read Post »