Alcoholics Anonymous, Government / Law, Social Work Ethics

Letters and Petition Sent to NASW-NY, NYS EDUCATION COMMISSIONER, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, SAMARITAN INSTITUTE

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update Jan 20 2020: Samaritan Institute is now called Solihten Institute.

letters

We have over 140 complaint notes, petition signatures, and letters asking health workers to acknowledge the problems with 12-step coercion in therapy, the rehab industry, and Alcoholics Anonymous itself as the ‘preferred mode of treatment’. It has proven all too often to cause psychological damage. Samaritan Counseling Center of the Capital Region has not acknowledged any of this. The worst part is that there is seemingly no way to complain about it, which reinforces a sense of powerlessness and is actually part of the 12-step so-called treatment. The tactic of ‘professionals who are also members of Alcoholics Anonymous’, also known as ‘two-hatters‘ is to go silent and refuse to respond, much like AA itself tried to do in response to requests for safety guidelines and transparency about third-level sex offenders being plea-dealed to the meetings, the same meetings where honest people are unknowingly sent after paying big money to rehabs for ‘treatment’. A recent lawsuit brings the problems into legal focus.

Petition to Health Workers and Academics About Alcoholics Anonymous (148 current signatures and comments)

Here are the letters we sent, and we will send these, and more, to more and more government agencies, law firms, and health workers until this is resolved completely.

Check out, especially, the admission to 4 days of drinking that led to 3 more YEARS of “monitoring” for a nurse who is mandated to AA to keep her license.

Here’s a very brief description of the case this blog is based on (by me):
tomgleason

Here is a letter explaining the legal issues with Samaritan Counseling coercing AA attendance:
juliet

Here is a letter from a Pilot whose license been terminated because he voluntarily entered into the HIMS program and found no real help, but a lot of bills:
jonathandillard

Here is a letter from a woman who has pinpointed AA as a retraumatizing influence:
silver1

silver2

Here is a letter from a nurse being extorted into AA to keep her medical license:
lillyrose

Here is a letter from someone who found AA completely incompatible with his religion and it took him 13 years to escape the AA ‘treatment’ system.
Full PDF
excerpt

Here is a letter by a woman who found 12-step rehab unhelpful and made her suicidal, and like me, she feels compelled to tell about it:
“Didn’t have the right God”

Here is a letter from an Operation Iraqi Freedom combat veteran who found AA worsened her PTSD:
pride1

Pride2

Here is a letter from someone who, like me, found it impossible to complain about the abusive treatment he was getting (ARISE Intervention):
IMAG0023_1
IMAG0024_1
IMAG0025_1

Here is another example of the AA extortion contracts that have been revealed in the HIMS program, Physicians Health Programs, and in therapeutic contexts (this last link is to a book about the emotional extortionist method devised and promoted by my own ARISE interventionist and related to one letter above).

Check out, especially, the admission to 4 days of drinking that led to 3 more YEARS of “monitoring” (meaning any positive test would result in ‘consequences’)
nurselicense

Here is a letter that Silver Damsen sent to Samaritan Counseling requesting to have a discussion, including my signature. It was completely ignored.
lettercensored

Here is a letter from someone who grew up with the 12-steps and saw disaster all around him, and started connecting the dots:
Growing Up In a 12-step home (PDF)

140 petition signatures and letters like this should not be ignored. There are more, and the complaints will continue to be collected, sent, and documented.

Here is the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights’ response.