He’s a renowned surgeon, one of the two doctors who performed the world’s first human organ transplant (a kidney). He later completed advanced studies in psychiatry and taught at the University of Chicago. He became physician director of the Betty Ford Center when it opened in October, 1982, and served as Medical Director of the world-famous treatment hospital for several years after that.
He’s authored any number of scientific treatises, as well as “The Betty Ford Center Book of Answers,” a source for lay people wanting information about the disease of addiction. His video, Addiction, Treatment, Recovery: Questions and Answers, has sold thousands of copies.
As a recovering alcoholic physician, he developed the system in Illinois to assist physicians impaired by alcohol and drugs.
Until a few weeks ago he served as Physician Director of Outpatient Services at the Betty Ford Center.
His name is James W. West, M.D., F.A.C.S.
He’s 93 years old.
Dr. West is not at all comfortable with what he calls “the ‘r’ word.”
In a recent wide-ranging conversation, he wants folks to know he is not retiring.
He’s keeping an office on the Betty Ford Center campus. As an emeritus member of the Center’s Board of Directors, he’ll continue to attend monthly Board meetings. He also attends – and actively contributes to – the Center’s Executive Medical Committee meetings.
The self-effacing Dr. West is reluctant to talk much about himself. But he is not reluctant to talk about the Betty Ford Center.
“What I’m most proud of,” he says, “is that we have not moved one iota from the principle that treatment here is based on the 12-Step program. That was our foundation back in 1982, and it remains our foundation a quarter-century later.”
But while the bedrock treatment principle has remained constant, Dr. West emphasizes that the scope of treatment at the Center has evolved over the past 25 years.
“I’m excited by the fact that we’ve added several vital new programs for certain populations,” he says.
He speaks specifically of the Residential Day Treatment (RDT) program, for licensed individuals working in safety-sensitive positions who are addicted to alcohol and/or other drugs. “Lawyers, judges, physicians, nurses, pilots,” says Dr. West, “we’ve been able to help hundreds of them get well and stay working. I consider this program to be a vital public service.”
Dr. West also speaks enthusiastically about the Clinical Diagnostic Evaluation (CDE) program, developed under the leadership of the Center’s Chief of Psychiatry, Dr. Garrett O’Connor.
“Just imagine,” he says, “people with probable – but not definitive – addiction issues come here for an intensive two to three days to be assessed by nurses, physicians, psychologists, psychiatrists and counselors to determine if they are, in fact, addicted to alcohol and drugs. And – if they are addicted – to determine what the wisest course of treatment will be.”
The Center’s new Ninety Day Program (NDP) is also enthusiastically endorsed by the un-retired Dr. West.
“For so many years,” he says, “the whole treatment field was fixated on ‘the 28-day’ model. Yet more and more studies have emerged that clearly indicate that outcomes improve significantly with longer stays in treatment.
“Only recently have we seen the development and implementation of formal programs that offer longer-term treatment.”
Dr. West is obviously enthusiastic about what he laughingly calls “the new alphabet soup (RDT, CDE, NDP) programs.” But he becomes downright emotional talking about two older Betty Ford Center initiatives: the Family Program and
Children’s Program.
“We in the field have always known addiction is a family disease,” he says, “but we were one of the first treatment facilities in the country to do more than pay lip service to the notion. Early on, we developed a formal program to bring patients’ loved ones to the Center for a week of treatment themselves. And if they can’t afford to come, we try to provide financial assistance.”
The Betty Ford Center Children’s Program, developed by National Director Jerry Moe, provides four days of treatment for children ages seven to 12 who live in a family environment where the disease of addiction is present.
“Again,” says Dr. West, “we’ve always known children are the silent victims of this insidious disease. But thanks to the Children’s Program we can actually bring young people here to learn that it is not their fault, they are not to blame, and to teach them coping and survival skills.
“When I look at those children I’m reminded all over again of just how cunning, baffling and destructive this disease is. But I’m also reminded that there is hope, that we can break the generation-to-generation legacy of this disease.”
Asked to comment on how perspectives on the disease have changed over the past several decades, Dr. West says, succinctly, “There’s been no change in the concept. It is now clearly recognized as a brain disease, a bio-psycho-spiritual-socio disease. Now these facts are more widely known and accepted by the public.
“Addiction is a complex, potentially fatal disorder. But it is treatable. That’s the message we have to keep communicating to the world.”
