APA worked with Rep. Paul Tonko, (D-N.Y.), vice co-chair of the congressional Addiction, Treatment, and Recovery Caucus to craft a one-minute floor speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The institute was established in 1970 as part of the Comprehensive Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Act and has served as a primary source of funding for psychologists interested in understanding the prevention, etiology, and treatment of alcohol use disorder ever since. Former Iowa Sen. Harold Hughes was a leading proponent of the legislation, and he worked hard to establish recovery centers and raise awareness about alcohol’s impact on health until his death in 1996. In 2019, NIAAA honored APA staffer Geoff Mumford, PhD, with an award for his advocacy on alcohol research, named for Hughes. The institute celebrated the anniversary with a two-day symposium “Alcohol Across the Lifespan: 50 Years of Evidence-Based Diagnosis, Prevention, and Treatment Research” dedicated to several major advances in our understanding of alcohol use disorder (view Day 1, Day 2).
For more information, contact Geoff Mumford, PhD.