While attitudes about addiction to drugs and alcohol are changing to reflect more acceptance and understanding, the industry is not keeping pace with the cultural shift, a recent nationwide study concludes.

“The challenge now is that our policies, systems and institutions have not fully caught up with what the public already believes,” Faces & Voices of Recovery’s CEO Patty McCarthy noted.

The shift is characterized by a move away from moral judgment toward a public health perspective, increased personal connection and growing support for government funding, according to the report.

Leaders of Serenity Recovery Connection in Colorado Springs say the organization is seeing the same trends as the national advocacy group.

“The redirection is really important because the more people that realize there could be an opportunity to be in recovery, the more people we can help,” said Serenity Recovery Connection CEO Sheri Trahern.

The nonprofit organization was founded in 2014 and trains and provides recovery assistance to former and active drug and alcohol users and their families in El Paso, Teller, Park, Fremont, Custer and Chaffee counties. It’s the only “recovery community organization” in Colorado to be accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Peer Recovery Support Services.

The Hart Research 2.0 survey of 846 likely voters in February by Recovery Insights Lab compares public attitudes toward addiction and recovery in 2004 versus 2026.

Negative bias toward people who have past drug use was cut in half by respondents, from 41% in 2004 to 20% this year.

And just 16% indicated they still see addiction as a “moral weakness,” compared with 34% in 2004.

Stigma persists, though.

A large majority – 85% – think that stigma against people who are addicted or in recovery remains in society. Nearly half of study participants recognize discrimination, particularly in employment and insurance coverage.

Fifty-two percent, up from 25% in 2004, say lack of affordable treatment is the main barrier to getting help.

Though the Pikes Peak region has 61 sober-living programs and other organizations that offer addiction recovery support, only a few treatment centers accept Medicaid.

One problem, said Lottie Elliott, a certified peer and family specialist and recovery coach professional and facilitator who works for several organizations including SuPEERior Connections, Life Skills and Bridges of Colorado, is that available programs usually serve specific people.

“That doesn’t mean they’re for everybody – if I don’t manage my mental health care well and I need a higher level of care, not one of those programs will suit me,” she said. “A lot of people coming out of displacement will  have psychosis, especially coming off drugs at first. They can start with recovery agencies, but often times they just go back out.”

A study conducted in 2023 by University of Michigan researchers showed that one in four families in the United States has a caregiver that has a substance use disorder, which means 19 million children are living with an adult who has the disease, which puts the kids in the household at higher risk of developing addiction themselves.

Serenity Recovery Connection is returning to focusing on youth and families, Trahern said. The organization has programs to empower youth to prevent addiction and address it with their parents, educate students in schools and help families of juvenile offenders. It’s also expanded peer support to rural communities, which often lack services.

An analysis of statistics from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health by The Dawn Rehab Thailand, a treatment center in Thailand, shows Colorado ranked eighth highest of states with the top rates of alcohol use among ages 12 to 20 years old.

And chronic alcohol abuse was the second-leading cause of natural deaths autopsied by the El Paso County Coroner’s Office in 2024, according to the annual report, behind cardiovascular-related fatalities.

Forty-two adults countywide died of chronic alcohol abuse, while 154 residents died of accidental drug-related deaths in 2024.

Using trained peer coaches, all of whom are recovering addicts, leads to a greater chance of success for adult and adolescent clients because the experience “normalizes recovery,” said Frank Montesano, program manager for Serenity Recovery Connection.

“It makes it easier for them to ask for support they need, which reduces stigma as well,” he said.

The organization is continuing its quest to build a community-wide recovery center where several agencies offer services related to sobriety at its headquarters at 985 W. Fillmore St.

Eight support groups, from yoga and meditation to adult children of alcoholics, meet regularly on the Serenity Recovery Connection campus.

Homeward Pikes Peak is a partner that’s contracted to set up shop at the office regularly to help people who are homeless work on returning to stable housing while attending to their sobriety.

Homeward Pikes Peak assists with obtaining birth certificates and government-issued identification, as well as other requirements for being rehoused, said CEO Beth Roalstad.

“We were collaborating before – if they had a need they called our outreach team that went to their building – but as of this spring we have a formal agreement,” she said. “The team reports they’re having regular engagement.”

Montesano said housing is one of the biggest gaps Serenity Recovery Connection faces when working with people because “it’s not a quick process” to get people rehoused once they lose a permanent roof over their heads.

Trahern said her organization also has made progress by sending peer coaches into homeless encampments with police to coax people into getting treatment for addiction.

“We know addiction is widespread,” she said, “and there is knowledge of the issue.”

Federal and state funding for programs and services has been “rocky” lately, she said. Services are delivered through grants and contracts, as well as referrals from places such as hospitals.

“Collaborating is the only way we can survive in this space, whether helping train other organizations and peers or promoting our peers into those spaces,” Trahern said.

The community has numerous options for addiction treatment, maintenance, prevention and ongoing recovery.

The Colorado Agency of Recovery Residences lists 61 sober-living programs in El Paso County. Roalstad said when her organization became certified through the agency about seven years ago, there were five to eight organizations countywide on that list.

“For it to jump to 61 is a huge increase, and to me that speaks to the need for transitional housing and the openness to providing this level of support in the community,” she said.

It’s still not enough to meet the need, said Elliott, who just passed four years of sobriety.

“Locally we’ve got more handouts going on than ever before, which is dynamically changing it. We have people willing to help people up, opening programs where people can find themselves,” she said.

But the stigma scares people into not seeking treatment, she added.

“The majority of people won’t get help because as humans we live in fear, and walking into a job interview you can really feel the vibe if you tell the person you’re in sober living.”

Elliott offers this analogy. If a surgeon who has an addiction problem but is seeking help, managing the condition and doing well, it’s a wonderful life. But if that surgeon has some type of mishap, that person’s “whole life is going to be torn apart,” Elliott said.

“People have stopped looking away,” she said. “They’re willing to walk through this with people who never thought someone would walk through anything with them.”