Sandy Rivers opens July's Author of the Month with a family story about grandparents forced to protect children during a daughter's opioid use disorder. The piece explores love, safety, court, peer support, and the hidden burden families carry alone.

Damon R. Postle, Ph.D., writes with brutal honesty about surviving the suicide death of his brother Matt, the last words between them, missed goodbyes, hospitalization, stroke, and the unbearable silence left when a musician is gone. A raw grief essay about guilt, trauma, love, and staying alive.

Melissa Fors Shackelford, an author and keynote speaker, discusses why trust is crucial in behavioral health, highlighting gaps in substance use treatment caused by stigma, cost, and fear. The article connects national trust trends to everyday organizational moments that build or lose trust, emphasizing that trust is built through intake, telehealth, peer follow-up, language, discharge, billing, and care consistency.