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The University of New Mexico

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Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821, scarr@unm.edu

March 13, 2007

UNM Research Associate Professor to be Featured as Part of HBO Documentary

University of New Mexico Research Associate Professor Dr. Robert Meyers will be featured as part of HBO’s multimedia project titled "Addiction," a 14-part series that will air in its entirety on HBO and its affiliated channels Thursday-Sunday, March 15-18. "Getting an Addict Into Treatment: The CRAFT Approach" features Meyers and the highly successful method he created in getting problem drinkers and addicts into treatment.

The segment with Meyers airs Saturday, March 17, at 7:30 (MT) on HBO2, and again on Sunday, March 18, at 4:30 p.m. (MT) on HBO Signature. Additionally, HBO will be available to Albuquerque-area cable subscribers for free during the same time frame as part of a free preview screening of the network.

A book, co-authored by Meyers and clinical psychologist Brenda Wolfe, titled "Get Your Loved One Sober: Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading and Threatening," highlights the compassionate, yet effective and scientifically proven CRAFT or Community Reinforcement and Family Training Model used in the segment. The method helps spouses, loved ones, parents and or children of problem drinkers or drug users improve the quality of their own lives while making sobriety a more rewarding option for their loved ones than drinking or taking drugs.

The series itself, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute for Drug Abuse, defines addiction as a chronic relapsing brain disease that is treatable. More than 23 million Americans struggle with addiction, yet fewer than 10 percent are getting treatment.

The segment on Meyers is part of a supplementary series in the documentary that includes 13 short films that delve deeper into the various dimensions of addiction including in-depth interviews with the nation's leading experts. It was directed and produced by Academy Award winner Jessica Yu. She won the award for Best Documentary Short for "Breathing Lessons," about Mark O'Brien, the poet who was confined to an iron lung.

Her other films include "In the Realms of the Unreal," an acclaimed portrait of outsider artist Henry Darger, and the HBO documentary "The Living Museum," about an art community in a psychiatric center. Her latest documentary, "Protagonist," recently premiered at Sundance. Yu has also directed episodes of "Grey's Anatomy," "ER" and "The West Wing."

For more information on HBO documentary visit: http://www.hbo.com.


The University of New Mexico is the state's largest university, serving more than 32,000 students. UNM is home to the state's only schools of law, medicine, pharmacy and architecture and operates New Mexico's only academic health center. UNM is noted for comprehensive undergraduate programs and research that benefits the state and the nation.

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