INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction today announced the launch of the Recovery Capital Index, designed to measure the sum of resources necessary for an individual to initiate and sustain recovery from addiction and to help track the overall recovery capital of the state and communities.

“People in recovery have been telling us for decades that there is more to recovery than just maintaining sobriety,” said Jay Chaudhary, DMHA director. “A well-rounded, fulfilling life is the key to a thriving recovery. The Recovery Capital Index will help the state measure the quality of life for Hoosiers in recovery and ensure that Indiana remains a great place to recover.”

Recovery capital is the overall measure of internal and external resources available to an individual with a substance use disorder to ensure their continual success in recovery. The RCI provides a comprehensive picture of a person’s whole well-being using an online, automated 68-question survey. Generally, the higher the level of recovery capital, the better the chances of someone maintaining success in recovery.

The state of Indiana has invested more than $45 million of federal State Opioid Response grant funding over the past four years to combat the drug epidemic and improve mental health. DMHA plans to use aggregate and geographically analyzed results from the Recovery Capital Index to drive future decisions about funding and resource allocation. Chaudhary said mapping and measuring recovery capital will also allow DMHA to see the effect of its investment and track it over time.

To complete the Recovery Capital Index survey, text “RECOVERY” to 833-638-3784. All Hoosiers are encouraged to complete the survey, not just those directly affected by addiction.

To help drive participation, Overdose Lifeline, Inc., an Indiana nonprofit dedicated to helping those affected by substance use disorder, will place stickers on over 200 NaloxBox units and 19 naloxone vending machines across the state. The stickers will prompt users to scan the QR code or text “RECOVERY” to 833-638-3784 to access the survey and additional information about naloxone, including training videos.

To find a naloxone distribution site near you, visit www.overdoselifeline.org.

DMHA has contracted with Commonly Well to administer the survey statewide. Commonly Well is a public benefit company that uses technology and data to help communities and organizations employ well-being initiatives.

♪ GEORGIA IS ON MY MIND ♪

GAVEL GAMUT By Jim Redwine

On April 25, 2022 Peg and I were eating excellent barbeque in Pawhuska, Oklahoma when I received a cell phone call from my friend, Benes Aldana, who is the President of the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada. I have been on the NJC faculty since 1995. NJC’s goal is to help good judges to be better judges. NJC’s reach is mainly the United States and its territories but judges from many countries attend classes in Reno and NJC is invited to send judges to many other countries to mentor their judges. I have worked with judges from Palestine, Ukraine, Russia and other places for NJC. Therefore, Benes’ call was not unusual.

Benes started our conversation this way, “Jim, would you and Peg be interested in going to Georgia to mentor its judges?” 

Now, my Grandfather Redwine, born in 1848, was a teenager living in the state of Georgia during the Civil War before he moved to Indian Territory after the war. I have heard all the “Georgia Cracker” remarks I care to hear from Yankee friends over the years. I replied to Benes that my experience with Georgian judges was they were generally good judges and probably did not need any northern elitists, including me, to tell them how to run their courts. 

Then, while Benes kept trying to break in, I loudly gave him a piece of my family’s Georgia history that you may have seen referenced before in Gavel Gamut. After the Civil War, my grandfather became a Baptist minister in what would become the southeast corner of the State of Oklahoma. He and my grandmother had a total of 18 children, enough for their own church congregation. One day Grandfather was preaching at a rural camp meeting while standing on the back of a buckboard hitched to a skittish horse. Some loud noise spooked the horse that then ran away causing Grandpa to fall off, hit his head and die. His immediate family and his church family buried him right there. No one gave much thought to a permanent grave marker as they all already knew where they were.

In the 1960’s America was in the throes of the Viet Nam War with many pro and many anti; from time to time I was both. The federal government ramped up a program that sought support for the war by recognizing all veterans by placing bronze markers at their graves. A federal man contacted one of my numerous first cousins in southeast Oklahoma and told him that even though our Georgian grandpa had been a Confederate he was still entitled to a marker and if my cousin, Paul Redwine, would show the federal man where grandpa’s grave was, he would give Paul a marker for it.

Paul sought information from my Uncle Henry, Grandpa’s oldest son, who was very patriotic but also, unfortunately, was a purveyor of fine moonshine in those southeastern Oklahoma hills. Paul suggested that he and the federal man should visit Uncle Henry at his still to get information about Grandpa’s grave and toast Grandpa with moonshine before going to honor Grandpa’s service. They proceeded to Uncle Henry’s where the three of them raised ♪ A Parting Glass ♪ to Grandpa with such vigor they never found the grave and also lost Grandpa’s marker. Now, I ask you, Gentle Reader, was any of that due to Grandpa being originally a Georgian? I don’t think so.

About this time in my story to Benes he was finally able to interrupt my recitation and said, “Jim, I mean the country of Georgia. You know, the one next to Russia and close to Ukraine?” Peg and I looked at each other and took a collective deep breath. Before I could answer Benes, Peg said, “It’s another Jim’s adventure! Let’s go.” Peg has often supported my somewhat different approach to things. She is no longer phased by my offbeat actions. Heck, she is sometimes even the originator of our on-the-edge activities. What it comes down to is Peg and I were on campus during the 1960’s and have never escaped. We are still captive to the Civil Rights movement, the Anti-War movement, the Women’s movement and probably, most importantly, the Beatles invasion and Paul Simon’s prescient ballad, ♪ Still Crazy After All These Years ♪.

Now before we get into future columns that will deal with the country of Georgia, I want to point out my father’s family was in the South during the Civil War, but my mother’s family was in Indiana. My Indiana Great Grandpa was wounded at both Chickamauga and Shiloh while fighting for the North with the 44^th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Hey, just as many American families in the 1860’s, we covered both sides.

In fact, it has been my position since Russia’s most recent invasion of Ukraine and its 2008 and 2014 invasions of Georgia that one of the main reasons these wars seem to never end is because they are almost like civil wars. Perhaps we can delve into these issues soon.

For more Gavel Gamut articles go to www.jamesmredwine.com

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