Thus began his 13-year career in the recovery business. After leaving the first facility, he had a few stints as a program director at an adult and adolescent treatment center, as well as developing programs as a consultant. While each position enriched his knowledge and breadth in the field, “I wanted to settle down and get a regular job,” he states. “I gave myself the goal of doing five job-search activities a day. One day, my last task was posting my resume to Monster.com, which I truthfully thought no one actually got jobs from,” he recalls.

And then CRC Health called. The largest provider of chemical dependency treatment in the United States was looking for a Marketing Director for all 22 West Coast programs, and Suzmeyan, as it turns out, was their man. In his current position, he “talks to a lot of people and goes to a lot of meetings”, listening to what each facility’s marketing needs are and coming up with creative solutions for them. Currently, he is working on a method to identify likely callers looking for treatment and market to them.

Thanks to the modern-day virtual capabilities, he travels far less than he used to, using email, Skype and the like to conduct meetings up and down the West Coast. “I make a lot of initial contacts in person, but now I’m able to follow up and maintain relationships via email and phone,” Suzmeyan states. “Basically, I find electronic means to make connections these days.”

Suzmeyan is quick to point out that his success at CRC was largely enabled by the support of Kathleen Rodriguez, John Peloquin and Ryan Franke. These people, Suzmeyan states, “shared my vision and believed we could achieve growth. They helped me get where I am, and I am so grateful.”

In addition to Suzmeyan’s commitment to the recovery field, he is equally passionate about making a positive impact in his own backyard. To that end, he is councilman in his East Hollywood neighborhood of Little Armenia. “I have to say I’m most proud of my service work,” Suzmeyan says. “I’ve been able to create opportunities for learning for low-income kids and adults. Additionally, our neighborhood had very little green space – we didn’t have one park. But now we have taken over a former maintenance space and are turning it into a community park.” For a man committed to bringing people together, building a community park is a poetic conduit to that goal.

From the proverbial ashes to budding trees and flowers where concrete once choked out any natural beauty, and planting the seeds for recovery in the drug- and alcohol-addicted, Suzmeyan reflects, “I sleep well now knowing I help instead of hurt.” Undoubtedly the true mark of a successful life.

This is the scenario Craig Gordon encountered when his oldest son, Chris, became addicted to drugs in his teens. After several trips to the hospital for drug-related issues, Gordon knew he had to find his son a treatment center. With limited resources at his disposal, he found a center in Utah – a significant distance from their Phoenix home. Chris stayed a total of 10 months, and in that time, Gordon made the 12-hour roundtrip drive twice a month to meet with Chris’ treatment team and stay abreast of his progress. Sheer frustration about the lack of communication while he was home in Phoenix fueled this trek of love.

Once out of treatment, Chris thrived for a solid year. However, unbeknownst to Gordon and their family, Chris remained involved in drugs, eventually overdosing and dying in 2006. Shortly thereafter, Gordon went to his childhood home in Columbus, Ohio, to surround himself with his family and lifelong friends. It was then that he reconnected with Neil Moore, a friend since 1964.

Moore had worked for 24 years in health care on the Information Technology side of things, most recently in senior health care. “The communication families received from providers was poor to non-existent,” Moore recalls. “My personal experience with this was so unfulfilling that I thought, ‘I can fix this by using what I know’”.
Moore created the company’s first product, Connect for Healthcare™ with a very simple premise: To be a portal between family members and inpatient and outpatient treatment providers for status updates that are distributed to everyone simultaneously, via email or text. Initially, the system was directed toward senior health care, connecting families to their loved ones in nursing homes and the like.

When the childhood friends reconnected, it became clear that their respective experiences aligned their desires to improve the way inpatient facilities currently communicate. When Gordon came on to do business development, he had a strong desire to expand to serve drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities as well.

“Immediately after we began to delve into the addictions field, we had met with many consultants, who all thought we had a great idea, but needed to focus on communication with referral sources who don’t know what happened to the people they referred to treatment centers,” Gordon explained. “So we see our primary value now as not only informing the families about their family member’s status, but also keeping the referral sources up to date on the status of the referee.”

Connect for Healthcare for Behavioral Health™ makes the process as simple and user-friendly as possible. “Once you tap into the service, it is all automatic,” Gordon states. Treatment providers can customize the status criteria for each patient. To complete an update, they simply click on a spectrum of progress and add comments. The service automatically notifies the referral source and approved family members (as appropriate) that a new status update is available on the patient’s highly secure Web page. The entire process usually takes no more than five minutes, making it painless for the treatment provider and invaluable to those receiving the updates.

“Some providers also use the system as an easy way to organize all their patients and monitor their progress at a glance,” Gordon states. Though the circumstances that brought Connect for Healthcare™ to behavioral health are heartbreaking and frustrating, it is this very personal association that drives it forward, potentially saving other families from the same experience.

For a limited time, the company is offering a no-risk trial of the service to qualifying treatment centers. To learn more about Connect for Healthcare for Behavioral Health™, visit, www.connect4healthcare.com, or contact them directly at 480.251.8124, or craig@connect4healthcare.com.

Josie and Jim Herndon would like to honor their dear friend and brother in spirit, Charley Narcomey, who God took for His own Sunday, June 27, 2010.

J. Charles Narcomey (Citizen Band Pottawatomi/Muscogee Creek) honored his heritage by incorporating traditional ways into every aspect of their lives.  Charley and his wife, Sparrow, were called upon many times to open conferences and offer blessings on behalf of the people as well as facilitating their “Healing the Circle” workshops.

The Shinnyo-en Foundation, of San Francisco Ca., recently invited Charley and Sparrow to share in prayer and blessings, at the 2010 Memorial Day Lantern Floating Ceremony, in Honolulu, Ha.,  led by Her Holiness Keishu Shinso, the spiritual head of Shinnyo-en.

As recently as 2008, Charley was invited to Washington D.C., and recognized by the “Universal Peace Federation” founded by Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon, as an Ambassador for Peace.

Sherman Indian High School, Riverside, Ca. have bestowed upon Charley and Sparrow the “Golden Eagle Award” in recognition of their support, work and generosity that has benefited the lives of young Native Americans.

They are the founders of YvHv NeNe (Wolf Road). For over 20 years they have developed their workshops for both Native and non-Native communities that assist adults and adolescents,  affected by drugs, alcohol, eating disorders and mental illness,  by incorporating traditional arts and spirituality as tools for change, growth and recovery.  Charley and Sparrow have both been trained in White Bison’s “Fire Starters” program, “Daughters and Son’s of Tradition” as well as Coalition Building using Clan Knowledge.

Charley was recognized by his peers for his business development techniques and consulted on many Native American projects throughout the United States. He was chosen to serve as a part of the ‘head staff’ at Pow Wow’s throughout the Southern California area and currently is the Secretary/Treasury for the Golden State Gourd Society, a Kiowa warrior society established in 1971.

They conducted ”Healing the Circle” workshops which include drum circles, talking circles and medicine wheel teachings that present the 12 steps of recovery regularly at a variety of treatment facilities throughout the Southwest, as well as Sherman Indian High School, the San Diego American Indian Health Center, and Conferences that are wellness and spirituality based.

They also facilitated workshops in Cultural Diversity training, focusing on working with the Native American population.

Many corporations brought Sparrow and Charley in for staff development, offering a reprieve from the daily grind, thereby relieving burnout.

Charley will be missed by all.

Target Audiences/Topics:  Physicians, Nurses, Social Workers, Psychologists, Mental Health Counselors, Alcohol/Drug Educators, Military Topics (WCSAD only), Marriage &Family Therapists,  Employee Assistance Professionals (Workplace issues), & Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (WCSAD only).

The number of workshops may be decreased so we will have limited slots available.  It is the Planning Committee’s policy to rotate faculty ever 2-4 years.  We appreciate your past support look forward to an even more successful future with your continued support.

Submission requirements are located at both  WCSAD.com and CCSAD.com .  Please be sure to submit all requested information or the Committee will be unable to accept your proposal.  All submissions must be electronic.

Submissions are accepted year around but must be received by August, 1, 2010 for WCSAD and November 1, 2010 for CCSAD 2011 and emailed  to Deemcgraw@ameritech.net

Dee K. McGraw, MSW

Director of Education & Event Services

C4 Recovery Solutions

Join us for CCSAD 2010 September 9-12!

Join us for West Coast Symposium on Addictive Disorders  June 2-5, 2011

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We are celebrating the life of our dear friend Charley Narcomey. Charley loved Pot Lucks!  Getting Friends and Family together was one of his favorite things to do.  In this spirit, we would like to gather together for a Celebration of His Life by having a Pot Luck in his honor.  Charley would not want us to be saddened by his passing, but rather rejoice in living.  We would like to invite all of his Friends and

Co-workers to join us for this special Pot Luck Celebration.

Location: Sherman Indian School

Address: 9010 Magnolia Avenue, Riverside CA 92503-4431

Date: July 10th

Time: 4:00PM – 7:00PM (PST)

Parking: Enter through the guard shack off Jackson.

Seating: Limited seating so, please bring fold up chairs or blankets to sit on.

***Please Bring a Pot Luck Item*** sign up with Alicia V. (951-254-3449) or Regina V. (951-505-2818)  or Email : CharleysPotLuck@ymail.com.   Please sign up by Thursday, July 8th 2010.  Coffee and Water will be available.

If you have a photo of Charley please bring it.  We will have a designated area to write a note, attach photos and poems, etc.  Items will be put in a Keepsake Book for Sparrow.  Please bring something special.

Please Bring A Drum Or Instrument Of Your Choice To Help Celebrate.

Charley’s Last Wishes:

Charley’s last wishes were to be taken home to Arkansas City, Kansas for his final resting place. In lieu of sending flowers, we will have a Blanket available to receive donations to help cover travel cost for bringing Charley home.

There will be a PA System available to all who wish to use it for saying Kind words to the family, tell funny stories about Charley, read a poem, say a prayer, or sing a song in his honor.