Topics:

• Opioid Crisis
• Pain Killers
• Mental Health
• Addiction
• Chronic Pain
• Treatment Facilities
  

In this episode, Michael introduces you to Tim Ryan, the Founder of a Man in Recovery Foundation. Join us as we learn more about how opioid addiction impacted Tim’s personal life and how he is striving to help others’ suffering from addiction and bring awareness of the opioid epidemic.

Here’s a glance at what we discuss in this episode:

• Tim’s story as a successful consultant, entrepreneur and his journey from heroin addict to convict to becoming the founder of A Man in Recovery Foundation
• The types of drugs that fall under the umbrella of opioids
• Why 90% of individuals who are addicted to opioids will either succumb to an overdose or will be incarcerated  
• How 75% of addiction begins with prescriptions and overprescribing from providers
• How insurance coverage plays in role in inadequate options for treatment of addiction
• How a lack of treatment facilities and short duration of treatment via insurance coverage impacts the ability for recovery
• While there are over 30,000 treatment centers in the U.S., there is huge variation in quality of care and limited resources to guide people to higher quality facilities
• Examples of how opioids don’t discriminate against different socio-economic classes
• Dope Man, an A&E documentary on Tim’s work helping addicts get into quality long term treatment centers to aid in recovery
• The challenges of raising money for Tim’s foundation and why people may be more likely to donate more money to other sources than to help people with drug addiction
• How drug and alcohol abuse costs the taxpayers over a trillion dollars a year
• The cost of incarceration vs. addiction treatment
• Why employers should care about the opioid crisis and tactics to help employees struggling with addiction
• Why employers should quantify the prevalence of opioid utilization within the medical carrier, pharmacy benefit managers and workers compensation
• Three key steps that employers should be taking to combat the opioid crisis
• How an employer can identify quality treatment facilities for directing employees
• How we can shift the conversation from opioid crisis as a moral failure to a chronic condition
• To learn more, contact Tim Ryan at www.timryanspeaks.com, 312-502-8671 or maninrecovery@gmail.com