Addiction, Treatment and Recovery

Former First Lady Betty Ford, co-founder of the Betty Ford Center, announced this Fall the establishment of the Betty Ford Institute. It is operating independent of the non-profit licensed addiction treatment hospital located in Rancho Mirage, California.

“As we approach our 25th anniversary,” says Mrs. Ford, “we feel it is an appropriate time to take this initiative. Although we have been involved as a leader in education and training in addictive disease and its treatment, as well as in public policy efforts, the establishment of our Institute will allow us to devote more resources to those areas.”

Seventy-five thousand women and men addicted to alcohol and/or other drugs and their affected family members have received treatment at the Betty Ford Center since it opened in October, 1982.

The Betty Ford Institute’s inaugural “Consensus Conference” was held in late September, 2006. The topic: Defining and Measuring Recovery. In addition to convening carefully constructed panels of professionals (and disseminating their findings), the Betty Ford Institute will also:

• Translate recent research findings into effective treatment practices, in collaboration with the nation’s leading treatment providers;
• Educate health care professionals about the nature of addictive disease;
• Advocate access to treatment and the importance of prevention;
• Serve as a global focal point for public and professional understanding of the disease of addiction to alcohol and other drugs, the role of treatment, and the promise of recovery.

Commenting on the topic chosen for the inaugural meeting, John Schwarzlose, President and CEO of the Betty Ford Center said, “We feel ‘recovery’ is exactly the right subject to tackle during the first Betty Ford Institute conference. The addiction treatment field seems to be struggling with defining recovery, as are federal agencies and others involved in the alcohol and other drug arena. It is our goal with this and future topics to have a diversity of viewpoints represented, even if they do not concur with the philosophy of the Betty Ford Center.”

The first Consensus Conference was moderated by Erica Goode, Health Editor of The New York Times’ Science Times. Distinguished participants (many of whom are pictured on page 1 and above) came from the worlds of politics, addiction and treatment research, and recovery itself.

Several conference attendees wrote background papers, which were distributed to participants and observers in advance of the Institute meeting. The papers included William White’s “Recovery: Its History and Renaissance as an Organizing Construct,” Alexandre Laudet’s “Recovery: Where Are We Going and When Do We Get There?” and Thomas McLellan’s “Measuring Recovery: How Can the Concept be Translated into Numbers?” As Dr. McLellan pointed out in his advance paper, ‘recovery’ is the elephant in the addiction research and treatment room. “A review of published articles from the four most cited research journals reporting treatment research results over the past 10 years produced only 24 titles where the word ‘recovery’ appeared,” he noted. And there were 8,400 studies published in those four journals!

The papers and presentations sparked what was often spirited debate during the two-day-long conference. Discussions often spilled over into lunch breaks and dinners. As Alexandre Laudet later commented, “I can honestly say that it was the most intellectually stimulating and exciting event I have participated in during my professional life. I believe this is only the beginning of an endeavor that will represent a critical contribution to our field.”

Dr. Laudet continued, “This ‘recovery’ conference has the potential of truly helping millions of people in the future by moving our field in a direction it cannot afford to ignore, but has been reluctant to take.”

Perhaps the emotional highlight of the conference was a remarkable presentation by Charlene Belleau and Fred Johnson of British Columbia’s Alkali Lake Band of Indians. (Ms. Belleau is the band’s former chief.) Tears flowed as Johnson and Belleau told of their community’s journey to sobriety.

Thirty years ago alcoholism and other drug use/abuse was rampant on their reservation. Now 95% of Alkali Lake Band members are in recovery.

Aboriginal leaders and band members have been working with the Betty Ford Center for several years. BFC treatment professionals spend time on the reservation; Alkali Lake Indians spend time at the Betty Ford Center.

It is definitely a two-way learning and experiential street. Their story is so compelling that when Alkali Lake visitors are at the Center, they present to staff and patients. When Center professionals travel to Alkali Lake, they actively participate in band recovery activities. BFC staffers have learned a great deal from the Indians about their concept of spirituality, and aspects of it have been incorporated into treatment protocols at the Betty Ford Center.

When Charlene Belleau and Fred Johnson (joined by BFC counselor Patrick Haggerson) played ceremonial drums and chanted incantations in their native language, it provided a suitably dramatic finale to the inaugural Betty Ford Institute conference.

(Editors note: When conference conclusions are edited and released, they will be summarized in a future edition of Findings.)

Related posts:

1. Betty Ford Center Works With Native Canadians
2. Betty Ford Center Collaborates With Partners On Science, Research Projects