Our Approach
Who We Are
Benton Franklin Recovery Coalition was founded in 2018, to help combat the epidemic of Substance Use Disorder (SUD or addiction). It is an educational organization that connects community partners, advocates for changing practices, and promotes opportunities for recovery.
Our Story
What We Do
Benton Franklin Recovery Coalition believes in a “warm hand-off.” Every encounter with an addicted person should be an opportunity to connect them with treatment, counseling, medication and sober housing. We work to ensure no one struggling with addiction is turned away without being referred to treatment. We advocate for modified practices in medicine, the legal system and other areas to address addiction as a disease. In addition, we provide educational materials and hold meetings and forums to teach about addiction, and thereby remove stigma, shame and secrecy from it.
Why We Formed
- SUD is expensive to our communities.
Many current practices in encountering and dealing with addicted individuals involve simply a “revolving door” approach that uses time and resources but does not solve problems. When the fundamental disease of addiction is not addressed, the efforts of police and medical and jail personnel bring no long-term benefit and have to be repeated. - SUD or addiction is a disease, and not a moral failing or character flaw as has been thought throughout history.
Today, studies of brain science have concluded definitively that addiction changes the brain in ways that impair self-control. The American Medical Association, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Surgeon General and essentially all other reputable professional medical groups name addiction as a brain disease. - The current SUD epidemic is the largest disease epidemic in American history.
Drug addiction killed 93,000 Americans in 2020 (not counting deaths from tobacco and alcohol), and many more people died of indirect, addiction-related causes. This number represents more deaths of Americans than occurred in the entire Vietnam War, Iraq War and Afghanistan conflict combined! Between 1999 and 2020, more than 900,000 Americans died of drug addiction. Today, an American dies of addiction every 5.6 minutes or 254 people per day.
Washington Recovery Alliance
Benton Franklin Recovery Coalition is an official member of the Washington Recovery Alliance (WRA), which exists to promote opportunities for recovery and remove barriers to recovery for people with substance use disorder (addiction). The WRA is a statewide, grassroots organization driving change in two spheres related to behavioral health recovery: public policy and public understanding.
In Memoriam
