Shannon’s talk carried a lot of valuable information about recovery housing in the Philadelphia area. With her heavy work involvement in several recovery facilities, she was able to provide interesting anecdotal and statistical knowledge. Shannon talked about how throughout the 1990s, and even up to now to an extent, recovery treatment was very demeaning.

There was a negative stigma attached to being involved with drugs and in general, Shannon noted how even recovery housing employees would treat those struggling with addiction like another number or statistic. Shannon said inpatient really helped out by breaking this general thought and humanizing patients. She added that treating those in recovery with respect and care is vital for making them feel like actual people and further encourages the recovery process.

An eye-opening statistic Shannon shared was out of the 196 recovery housing facilities in Lower Bucks County, only three accept people who use Suboxone or methadone to assist their recovery. Mainly, she believes this is because people are still uninformed and misinformed about medically assisted treatment with these substances. Shannon said, “people are afraid of what they don’t understand,” and the next step in trying to make this form of recovery more acceptable is by holding events to educate the public about it.