Betty Ford Center
The Betty Ford Center, now part of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, is a nonprofit treatment facility for alcohol and drug addiction located in Rancho Mirage, California. Founded in 1982 by former First Lady Betty Ford and Leonard Firestone, the center emerged from Ford's own experiences with addiction and her commitment to address the needs of women in recovery. The facility offers a range of services, including inpatient treatment, residential day-treatment, and intensive outpatient therapy, emphasizing a structured program with daily lectures and counseling.
The center aims to create a serene and supportive environment for recovery, integrating natural resources from its surroundings. Since its merger with the Hazelden Foundation in 2014, the organization has expanded to serve approximately 23,000 patients annually across multiple locations. It is known for its commitment to professional training, research-based care, and educational initiatives, including programs designed for medical students and community prevention efforts. The foundation also prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion in its mission, striving to provide accessible treatment options grounded in evidence-based practices. Overall, the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is recognized as one of the leading rehabilitation organizations in the United States, with a reported patient success rate of around 80%.
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Betty Ford Center
DEFINITION: The Betty Ford Center is a nonprofit alcohol- and drug-addiction treatment hospital located in Rancho Mirage, California. As of 2014, after merging with Hazelden Foundation, it is known as the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.
DATE: Established in October 1982
Background
Upon its opening, the Betty Ford Center focused on a singular mission: to provide effective treatment services for alcoholism and other drug dependencies. The center, founded in 1982 by former US First Lady Betty Ford and by Leonard Firestone, a businessman and former US ambassador to Belgium, provides residential treatment services for persons recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. Ford’s decision to undertake such a project followed her own treatment for alcohol dependence and opioid analgesic addiction. Following her release from the Long Beach Naval Hospital’s Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Service in 1978, she pursued the goal of creating a treatment center that emphasized the needs of women.
The founders hoped to utilize for care the natural resources available in the area of Rancho Mirage, the original center. In a 2011 interview, Ford said, “Leonard Firestone and I realized we wanted a recovery hospital that would be less institutionalized and more of a relaxed setting in these mountains with their serenity and the beauty of them where people would be able to reach a spiritual feeling about their recovery.”
However, in 2014, the Betty Ford Center merged with the Hazelden foundation, another institute devoted to the treatment of alcohol and substance use disorders, to form the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. The nationwide centers serve 23,000 patients annually in fifteen facilities across eight states.
The foundation's mission is to provide low-cost treatment usually unobtainable in acute-care hospitals. Inpatient treatment, residential day-treatment, and intensive outpatient treatment form the core of the nonprofit center’s therapy. The licensed recovery hospital facilitates a structured program including daily lectures, group therapy, and counseling sessions. Physicians, nurses, psychologists, spiritual care counselors, activity therapists, registered dietitians, and other staff work together to create individualized treatment plans for each patient and to evaluate their progress.
Specialized support groups are available on an individual basis. From its earliest days, the center has treated women and men suffering from chemical dependency and substance use disorders (SUDs). The inpatient center is gender-specific, as women and men reside in separate halls. Following discharge, patients receive a continuing care plan and participate in the focused continuing care program, staying in close contact with the staff for a full year after leaving the center.
The center also prides itself on professional and medical training and education. In 1963, the center established a counselor training program that eventually lead to the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School of Addiction Studies in 1999. In 1977, the center opened the Butler Center for Research as a means of providing research-based care and treatment for patients. Furthermore, as a means of welcoming residents and young professionals, the center began a Summer Institute for Medical Students in 1988. The center has been ever-expanding and evolving in order to meet the needs and growing understanding of substance use disorders.
In September 2010, the center introduced a pain management track that allows patients to gain insight into the ways in which pain has changed their ability to think and approach life. The pain management track treats various types of chronic pain, including arthritis, chronic tension-type headaches and migraines, general headaches, fibromyalgia, neuropathies, orofacial pain, and post-laminectomy syndrome.
In 2015, the course Addiction and Recovery Education (CARE) launched, which is an online curriculum for medical students to better understand patient suffering from addiction.
The Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation was also instrumental in demonstrating the importance of prevention and intervention by helping educate children about the dangers of use disorders and by involving families of those who are suffering from use disorders.
In 2021, the foundation launched a $30 million expansion on the original facility in Rancho Mirage, California, to accommodate more patients, update infrastructure, and meet rising demands for treatment and education.
The foundation's patient success rate is around 80 percent, meaning that 80 percent of patients do no relapse or continue alcohol or substance use once treatment has finished. Across the United States, the various foundation centers rank as the most well-established rehabilitation facilities. Its medical schools and programs, too, rank among some of the best in the country.
Mission and Goals
The Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is a mission-driven, community-oriented behavioral healthcare organization. The foundation is a non-profit dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion, which it applies to its fully accredited graduate school of addiction studies, publishing division, addiction and recovery research center, professional and medical education programs, professional leadership programs, community- and school-based prevention programs and resources, and specialized programs for family members, loved ones, and children.
The foundation's goal is to provide alcohol use disorder treatment and drug rehabilitation to patients through a variety of treatments which are based on the spiritual principles embodied in the twelve-step recovery program and are integrated with the latest medical and therapeutic treatments.
Bibliography
“About Us and Our Mission.” Hazelden Betty Ford, www.hazeldenbettyford.org/about. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.
Ford, Betty. Healing and Hope: Six Women from the Betty Ford Center Share Their Powerful Journeys of Addiction and Recovery. New York: Putnam, 2003.
“Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.” National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers, www.naatp.org/resources/addiction-industry-directory/233/hazelden-betty-ford-foundation. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.
Knopf, Alison. "Betty Ford Center Launches $30 Million Expansion and Renovation." Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly, vol. 33, no. 21, 2021, p. 8. Wiley Online Library, doi.org/10.1002/adaw.33083. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024
West, James W. The Betty Ford Center Book of Answers. New York: Pocket, 1997.