Information about NA for Professionals
Public Relations (PR) and Hospitals & Institutions (H&I)
Public Relations (PR)
Narcotics Anonymous sprang from the Alcoholics Anonymous program of the late 1940s, with meetings first emerging in the Los Angeles area of California, USA, in the early fifties. The NA program started as a small US movement that has grown into one of the world’s oldest and largest organizations of its type.
Today, Narcotics Anonymous is well established throughout much of the Americas, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Newly formed groups and NA communities are now scattered throughout the Indian subcontinent, Africa, East Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Narcotics Anonymous books and information pamphlets are currently available in 49 languages.
For more information about our program, we invite you to review some of the items described below.
Membership Survey – Our 2018 survey of 28,495 NA members.
Information about NA – Includes facts about the history of NA, organizational philosophy, and membership demographics.
NA: A Resource in Your Community – This pamphlet provides information about local NA services that may be available such as public service announcements, phonelines, literature sales, and NA presentations for health fairs, schools and professional conferences.
In Times of Illness – This relied-upon booklet was revised in 2010 to reflect members’ experiences with challenges such as mental health issues, chronic illness and pain, and supporting members with illnesses. It includes section summaries in the table of contents.
NA Groups and Medication – Our Twelve Traditions remind us that medication use is a member’s personal decision, and is an outside issue for NA groups. This piece is intended for groups as they consider this issue. It does not address members’ personal decisions, nor does it try to change members’ opinions about medication. Groups are often better able to carry the message and welcome everyone when members come together to discuss this issue.
For Those in Treatment – This pamphlet offers some suggestions and a basic plan of action to help recovering addicts in the transition from treatment to continuing recovery in Narcotics Anonymous.
By Young Addicts, For Young Addicts – This pamphlet was developed by young members of Narcotics Anonymous to illustrate the fact that young addicts around the world, speaking many different languages, are getting and staying clean in NA.
An Introduction to NA Meetings – Offers a welcoming introduction, and explains practices unfamiliar to those at their first meetings, and provides tips for groups to preserve an atmosphere of recovery.
Narcotics Anonymous and Persons Receiving Medication-Assisted Treatment – This pamphlet is intended for professionals who prescribe medication to treat drug addiction. The service pamphlet NA Groups and Medication contains a broader discussion of NA Members and other medications.
Hospitals & Institutions (H&I)
Hospitals & Institutions committees carry the NA message to addicts who, due to incarceration or institutionalization, do not have full access to regular Narcotics Anonymous meetings. H&I is an important service in our public relations efforts in NA.
- H&I Basics: A simplified version of the information in the H&I Handbook, recently updated to reflect current service practices. – English | Portuguese (Brazil) | Spanish
- H&I Handbook: Developed based on extensive input from H&I subcommittees throughout the Fellowship, this handbook contains material and suggestions that will work in most H&I settings.
- Sample H&I Presentation in mp3 Format: Side A | Side B
- Reaching Out: Quarterly newsletter of hope and inspiration for incarcerated NA members. The section “From the Inside” features letters from incarcerated members and provides a vital link to the NA Fellowship. “From the Outside” demonstrates that members who find NA inside can become responsible, productive members of society, showing criminal justice professionals that NA is a credible program of recovery.