National Alliance for Medication Assisted Recovery
Press Release
Contacts Persons:
Carmen Pearman-Arlt, President, carlt@porterstarke.org♰
Phone/Fax: 1.212.595.NAMA
(1-212-595-6262)
For Release
May 6, 2019
Dr. Joseph was one
of the important influences on addiction and criminal justice during the latter
20th and early 21st century. For more than 50 years he has worked as a
social research scientist in the interrelated fields of addiction, treatment,
criminal justice, street studies, homelessness, basic research and program
development at the NYC Office of Probation, the Rockefeller University and the
NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS).
In the early 1970’s Dr. Joseph
negotiated services, both personnel and facilities and developed in a citywide
network of five probation methadone clinics. In these programs he developed the
first vocational guidance and employment service for unemployed probationers,
and, with the NYC Department of Health, the first urine testing service in probation.
These initiatives changed heroin addiction from an intractable problem for
probation into a manageable issue. He was a member of the team that developed
the first ‘in jail’ methadone maintenance program, known as KEEP, for addicted
prisoners in Rikers Island Jail; an intervention that has been implemented
across many countries throughout the world.
In the mid-1970s Dr. Joseph joined
Dr. Vincent P. Dole at The Rockefeller University to plan, conduct and
supervise the first detailed large-scale follow-up study of patients who left
methadone treatment (Dole and Joseph, 1978).
In the mid 1980’s he joined the NY
State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) and a member of
the research team. During the AIDS epidemic prisoners that were drug users and
HIV positive were put in an old building at Riker’s Island. The building was awful. The windows were
sealed and temperatures rose in he Summer and during he cold months there was
often no heat, it was infested with roaches and rats and sometimes the inmates
did not get their medication. Dr. Joseph
and other OASAS employees brought bagels to the inmates every Saturday morning.
Eventually the group went on a Food Strike to get the attention of the city and
the result was a new building.
He organized the Crack Cocaine
Research Working Group, later known as the Chemical Dependency Research Working
Group (CDRWG) in the mid-1990s with the support of grants from the Aaron
Diamond Foundation. Dr. Joseph organized a series of symposia and conferences
covering major aspects of addiction, research and treatment, including a
consortium of major medical centers to study neonates exposed to cocaine/crack
in utero. Other projects and studies included addressing the HIV epidemic in
NYC including: the need for harm reduction services and the spread of HIV, HBV
and HCV among street/homeless population who used shelters, soup kitchens and
medical vans; presenting the first conference on chemical dependency and
disability as well as the first conference on hepatitis C and the chemically
dependent patient; assisting mentally ill homeless to obtain housing; studies
of the biology of crack cocaine, pain management and chemically dependent
patients, and helping to set up and evaluate methadone medical maintenance programs
in NY State.
During the 1990’s he also set up
several Medical Maintenance Programs (Office Based Opioid Treatment) throughout
the state.
He also authored a major study on
social stigma targeting the methadone program and patients and worked at introducing
the use of the buprenorphine-naloxone combination in harm
reduction and at Rikers Island jail.
Dr. Joseph authored or co-authored
over 125 published papers and government reports and, with David Courtwright
and Don DesJarlais, co-authored the book, Addicts Who Survived.
With Dr. Barry Stimmel he edited the book, The Neurobiology of Cocaine
Addiction. He was editor of special issues of the Mount Sinai Journal
of Medicine and the Journal of Addictive Diseases and has
also given numerous presentations on addiction and other topics at national and
international conferences.
Dr. Joseph has served on NAMA
Recovery’s Board of Directors and Advisory Board and was our Ambassador at
Large.
Commendations and Awards: Sen.
Jacob Javits had Dr. Joseph’s paper on probation methadone clinics entered into
the Congressional Record (1971); Commendation in 1974 from the commissioner of probation,
John Wallace, for developing the probation methadone clinics and the Vocational
Guidance Program in the Bronx; Nyswander/Dole “Marie” Award (1991); Life-time
Legacy Award and Proclamation from City of Cleveland (1999); NAMA Recovery
Award as Honorary Patient (2003); and Award from International Association for
Pain and Chemical Dependency (2007).
We at NAMA Recovery will miss Dr. Joseph he was a friend to
patients and professionals.
References
Dole,
V.P. and Joseph, H. 1978. Long term outcome of patients treated with
methadone maintenance. Annals of
the New York Academy of Sciences 311: 181-189.
Courtwright, D., Joseph, H. Des Jarlais, D 1989. Addicts Who
Survived. Univ of Tennessee Press; 1 edition.
Joseph, H., Simmel, B. 1997.
The Neurobiology of Cocaine Addiction: From Bench to Bedside. Routledge;
1 edition.
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