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The University of New Mexico

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Contacts: Steve Carr, UNM (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Mike Hopper, HBO, (214) 356-5430

March 2, 2007

UNM Professor Teams With HBO for Documentary With Albuquerque Premiere
Mayor Martin J. Chávez to host premiere screening

In partnership with HBO, the University of New Mexico and Comcast Cable, Albuquerque Mayor Martin J. Chávez will host a special premiere in Albuquerque featuring the UNM Research Associate Professor Dr. Robert Meyers and the documentary, ‘Getting an Addict Into Treatment: The CRAFT Approach.’ The event will be held Tuesday, March 6 at the South Broadway Cultural Center located at 1025 Broadway S.E.

The segment featuring Dr. Meyers is part of the multi-media project titled, ‘Addiction,’ a 14-part series that will air in its entirety on HBO March 15-18. Check your local listings for times. The series defines addiction as a chronic relapsing brain disease that is treatable.

The evening will feature the premiere screening at 7 p.m. It will be followed by a panel discussion at 7:30 with UNM Psychology Professors Robert Meyers and Jane Smith, and Brenda Wolfe, a clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of substance abuse, and a post reception at 8 p.m. with a book-signing of ‘Get Your Loved One Sober: Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading and Threatening.’

Co-authored by Meyers and Wolfe, the book highlights the compassionate, yet effective approach to help spouses, loved ones, parents and or children of problem drinkers or drug users can improve the quality of their own lives while making sobriety a more rewarding option for their loved ones than drinking or taking drugs. The book is based on the scientifically proven CRAFT or Community Reinforcement and Family Training Model. Dr. Meyers created the CRAFT approach, which has proven highly successful in the treatment of problem drinkers and drug users.

Albuquerque was hand-selected to host a special premiere because of the contributions of Meyers, as well as the City of Albuquerque’s commitment to develop and maintain a comprehensive behavioral health services system.

Albuquerque has been in the forefront of funding behavioral health services for adults and adolescents since the early 1900s, currently funding substance abuse treatment in the amount of $6 million, with an additional $3 million in mental health services added recently as a result of the Mayor’s Behavioral Health Summit in 2003.

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