Addiction, Treatment and Recovery

Addiction to alcohol and other drugs is, of course, not limited to the United States, or to North America. It’s a disease that does not respect national boundaries. It’s everywhere.

At the Betty Ford Center, we’ve served patients and their families from more than 50 countries world-wide since we opened our doors in 1982.

The International Society of Addiction Medicine was actually born at the Betty Ford Center, in 1999, when a prestigious group of physicians specializing in addiction medicine from around the world were hosted by Mrs. Ford. The American Society of Addiction Medicine provided important early support for that effort.

Since 1999, ISAM meetings have been held in such far-flung locales as Slovenia, Finland, Iceland and Egypt. This summer we’ll assemble in Portugal.

The history of the Betty Ford Center’s international outreach is interesting. In 1986, I was invited, along with the then-president of Hazelden, Dan Anderson, by the government of the Soviet Union to travel to Moscow to discuss treatment for alcoholism. Russian physicians and scientists made a return visit to the Betty Ford Center the following year. BFC leaders Dr. James West and Anne Vance returned to the Soviet Union in 1988.

Also in the late 1980s, we consulted with programs in Sweden and Finland, sharing our expertise in the treatment area – particularly the necessity of involving the family in an alcoholic or addict’s treatment.

In the 1990s we trained professionals in the treatment field from Calcutta, India. We also undertook a major consultation project with Oceanica in Mazatlan, Mexico. This Spanish-language residential treatment facility has made a real difference for the hundreds of men and women from throughout Latin America who have gone there for multidisciplinary, 12-Step-based treatment.

For several years now we’ve also opened our doors to psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and other health-care professionals from Japan. They come here for an intensive two-day-long series of lectures, discussions and observation sessions, and then they head home to “spread the word” about the levels of care we provide at the Betty Ford Center. BFC staff also travel to Japan to provide on-site training.

Our international outreach is literally world-wide. Jerry Moe, national director of our widely-respected Children’s Program, will soon meet with members of the British Parliament to emphasize that addiction is a family disease, and that it’s imperative we reach out to children age 7-12 who are directly impacted by this insidious disease.

We’ve just finished welcoming addiction treatment professionals from Singapore. They participated in a specially-designed Professional in Residence program. Working with Dr. Muni Winslow and staff from the CAMP treatment program has been educational for all of us.

We’re currently considering an invitation from the Chinese to help with an International Addiction Training effort in Beijing next summer.

I’ll conclude by mentioning that our involvement in the international arena is not a one-way phenomenon – i.e., folks coming from around the world to visit us and learn how we’ve provided treatment to nearly 70,000 individuals and family members over the past 24 years. At the Betty Ford Center, we’re always learning, we’re always open to making refinements to our treatment modalities – and being exposed to professionals from around the world is a great way to facilitate that.

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