When we speak about mental illness and substance use disorders in a similar fashion as we do about other chronic medical illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure, barriers to diagnosis, treatment and ongoing management will be broken. Carolyn Warner-Greer is originally from Portland, Oregon. She is a graduate of Ball State University and Indiana University School of Medicine. She is board certified in obstetrics-gynecology and addiction medicine and currently is a staff physician at the Otis R. Bowen Center for Human Services and the medical director of the Bowen Recovery Center, a new opioid treatment center in Fort Wayne. She is the President-elect of the Indiana chapter of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and speaks frequently in all topics of medical treatment of mental health and addiction recovery. She serves on the Regional Mental Health Coalition and the Perinatal Substance Use Work Group. She has worked extensively in forensic diversion as well as women’s health care and preventative community programming. She lives in Russiaville with her husband, Jerry, and their four children. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx