CONTACT: Leslie Eikleberry, Director of Public Relations, 785-827-5541 ext. 1127

November 3, 2004

Nutrition and Substance Abuse will be the topic of the next Addiction and Recovery Workshop at Kansas Wesleyan University.

Dr. Anne Hatcher, Director of the Center for Addiction Studies at Metropolitan State College, Denver, will present “Nutrition and Substance Abuse: What We All Need to Know.” The workshop is scheduled for 9 a.m.-4:15 p.m. Friday (November 5) in 201 Peters Science Hall on the Kansas Wesleyan campus.

The event is sponsored by the Kansas Wesleyan Behavioral Sciences and Human Services Department’s Addictions Counseling Program and Salina Regional Health Center.

One of the foundations of the problem of substance abuse and dependence from a biopsychosocial perspective is the complex set of biological/chemical factors influenced by our genetic makeup and our life experiences. A related and key area that has often been neglected or not well-understood in terms of its importance to prevention, treatment, and long-term recovery is that of nutrition. Physical and chemical differences in our brain and our body functions profoundly influence our relationship to foods, our food choices and our substance choices. At the same time those same brain and body functions are greatly affected by our foods and nutritional intake.

A goal of this workshop is to provide alcohol and drug counselors and health professionals and dietitians with accurate information related to the nutritional impact of psychoactive chemical abuse and to increase understanding of appropriate nutritional treatment at each stage of recovery. Few people are as experienced and knowledgeable as Dr. Hatcher in gathering and summarizing this information for counselors and professionals working in the substance abuse and addiction field.

Dr. Hatcher is a registered dietitian as well as a certified substance abuse counselor. As an approved trainer of courses for substance abuse counselors, she teaches workshops in basic counseling skills, pharmacology of drugs and alcohol, and ethical and legal issues. She designed and has taught a course related to nutrition, behavior and substance abuse at the college level for 20 years. As a dietitian who has worked in treatment facilities, had a private practice, and taught student counselors, Dr. Hatcher is able to approach the subject of nutrition and treatment from a practical as well as a theoretical viewpoint. She has just completed a six-year term as Resource Professional on Nutrition and Substance Abuse for the Dietetics in Developmental and Psychiatric Disorders Practice Group of the American Dietetic Association. In this capacity, she corresponded with dietitians having questions about working with this population. In addition to being a known workshop presenter on these areas, she is the author of a number of newsletter articles and will soon have her new book, “Links Between Substance Abuse Disorders and Nutrition,” published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

For more information, please contact Gerald Gillespie, Associate Professor of Psychology at Kansas Wesleyan, at 785-827-5541 ext. 2320.