Introducing: The Thread

As of last week, I started a weekly internal newsletter of sorts for my colleagues at Face It TOGETHER. The goal was simple: instead of posting every super interesting article, podcast, video, or insightful tweet about the great technology and innovation that is happening in healthcare, behavioral sciences, economics, design, etc., I would select a few things, tie them together, and give the team the week to digest what’s being shared.

Nothing that I’m sharing is trade secret. It occurred to me as I was preparing this second edition that this could simply stand as an internal and external offering. And, presenting it here would make it much easier to post in Slack for my teammates.

This weekly post will be called “The Thread”. Thread is defined as:

“something continuous or drawn out, such as a line of reasoning or train of thought that connects the parts in a sequence (as of ideas or events).”

From time to time — like this time — the connecting ideas or thoughts may not seem obvious. Nonetheless, we’ll play with this concept as a way to organize and connect a small set of items worth considering, especially in the addiction, healthcare, technology, social change spaces.

Disrupting the status quo: 38 AGs support change to 42 CFR Part 2.
Last week, 38 Attorney’s General signed a letter urging the repeal of 42 CFR Part 2. Once upon a time, a layer of privacy regulations was conceived to address potential discrimination resulting from the stigma associated with addiction or mental health conditions. 42 CFR Part 2 essentially restricts the use and access to your mental health information. As a result, many people receive conflicting or non-responsive care. At a time when most medical records and activity is digitized; at a time when mobility across systems and geography happens often; and at a time when tens of thousands are dying from addiction … it makes little sense that such information about you shouldn’t be available to other health professionals likely engaged in a life-saving act.

Sadly, the opposition to repealing 42 CRF Part 2 is largely the recovery advocacy movement. In many ways, the recovery advocacy moment stands for change, but in this respect, it would much rather live in the past. This stance is costing lives.

I see your degree and raise you my lived experience: Peer-delivered trauma treatment is not inferior to clinician-lead treatment.
Research is being conducted to see whether or not peers can delivery an intervention or treatment with better outcomes than a clinician. This research is being conducted because in almost every corner of mental health and addiction care (with few exceptions), treatments that are clinician-led have dismal outcomes. The jury is still out but research is mounting to suggest a person who is trained to deliver the treatment BUT has a same or similar lived experience can effectuate better outcomes.

Let me tell you where to stuff your stuff: Why companies should turn services into experiences.
Walt Disney and Howard Schultz were well ahead of their time. Despite selling a lot of merchandise and food goods, Disneyland and Starbucks sell you an experience — an experience worth repeat visits. This is known as the experience economy. Younger generations — and even more enlightened older generations — have come to realize that money is best spent experiencing joy and building memories. If more businesses stopped selling stuff and started selling experiences … would the level of despair decrease?

The ultimate pursuit: “Happiness: The True Measure of a Successful Society”.
A couple years ago I had the unique pleasure of walking around the Copenhagen Lakes with the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute, Meik Wiking. This was a walking conversation about how to build the collective happiness of a society in the context of my work in addiction. This “Talks at Google” takes a deep dive into happiness as a metric but more importantly, what are the root elements all good societies must have for individual and collective success.

You do not know the rules: Apple’s latest ad isn’t just for the arts.
Around every corner is an expert or a gatekeeper that knows the rules. Possibility can only live within those rules. Innovation and progress occurs because people who don’t know the rules or think the rules are bad create something different. The addiction industry and healthcare, generally, needs a major dose of what this Apple ad is handing out — because, you know, people are dying.

I serve as Face It TOGETHER’s Chief Innovation Officer.