Hazelden Foundation

DEFINITION: The Hazelden Foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides a wide range of programs for alcoholics, drug abusers, and their families. Hazelden has multiple sites in the United States.

DATE: Incorporated on January 10, 1949

Background

The Hazelden Foundation was established in an old farm house in Center City, Minnesota, in 1947 based on a program designed by Lynne Carroll. It began as a treatment program for men who were alcoholics and was based on the twelve-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Initially, Hazelden’s founder, Austin Ripley, himself a recovered alcoholic, intended to treat alcoholic Catholic priests, but this plan was quickly dropped.

Initial implementation of the program proved successful, as 156 men were successfully treated within eighteen months of residency. However, Hazelden struggled to survive until several of its key supporters took over the program. The Hazelden Foundation was incorporated in 1949, but it did not begin to grow until 1952, when the Butler family took over. Hazelden soon began to flourish by providing inpatient care for recovering alcoholics, particularly those who needed extended care. In 1953, the Fellowship House was established in conjunction with Hazelden to serve as a halfway house for those moving out of the program.

In 1953, Hazelden purchased the rights to Twenty-Four Hours a Day, a book of inspirational messages for alcoholics. The publication of this book led the way for Hazelden’s own publications business, which started off slowly and did not become successful until the 1970s. Hazelden has published books related to substance abuse, alcoholism, and codependency.

In 1955, Hazelden opened a facility for women called Dia Linn, which was in Dellwood, Minnesota. During the 1960s, Hazelden began providing a comprehensive approach to the treatment of alcoholics, adding psychologists, chaplains, social workers, and family services personnel to its staff. Also during this time, the Hazelden Foundation more than quadrupled the number of beds for its treatment programs. In 1966, Hazelden began treating men and women together and, in 1968, it opened an extended care treatment center for patients who needed a longer period of residential care.

Around the same time, Hazelden began exploring ways to include medical professionals in their programs as a means of enhancing their treatment and incorporating new approaches. In 1963, Hazelden began a counselor training program, which eventually led to the establishment of the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School of Addiction Studies in 1999.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Hazelden expanded further and opened treatment centers in Plymouth, Minnesota; West Palm Beach, Florida; New York City; Chicago; and Newberg, Oregon. The treatment center in Plymouth serves young people (age fourteen to twenty-five years), whose needs may vary from those of adults. In 1977, they also opened the Butler Center for Research, another means of better understanding the physiology and psychological aspects of addiction.

In 1982, the Betty Ford Center opened in Rancho Mirage, California. This was a crucial opening as the collaboration with former First Ladies Betty Ford and Rosalynn Carter, who promoted Hazelden and their treatment methods in Washington, D.C., brought national attention to the organization. Later, in 2014, Hazelden and the Betty Ford Center merged to form the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, becoming the nation's leading nonprofit addiction treatment provider.

The Hazelden treatment programs use the Minnesota model of treatment, which follows the ideas of Alcoholics Anonymous. The Minnesota model is based on the premise that alcoholism is a physical, spiritual, and mental disease, and not a moral failure on the part of the substance abuser. Accordingly, substance abusers are to be treated with dignity and respect. Primarily, the model includes group therapy because it is thought that substance abusers can be helped by discussing their experiences with other addicts. This is a central concept of the model. The goals of treatment include withdrawal from all mood-altering substances, improving the quality of life of the client, helping the client to achieve feelings of self-worth, increasing spiritual awareness in the client, assisting clients in developing relationships with other clients and with therapists, and educating clients in personal choice and responsibility.

The Minnesota model is based on existential philosophy. Existentialism is a philosophy that professes that the individual person determines the meaning of his or her life through the choices he or she makes. The presence of free will is essential to this philosophy. The role of therapists is to provide a comfortable, nurturing, caring, and client-centered environment for therapy.

The Minnesota model is considered the gold standard of treatment for substance abusers. The model espouses that the client has a disease, contradicting the assumption of personal responsibility for one’s own behavior. Most major medical outlets and associations, including the Center for Disease Control (CDC), recognize addiction as a disease and refer to it instead as misuse, or simply use, as opposed to abuse. For example, alcoholism is contemporarily referred to as alcohol use disorder (AUD), while drug addiction is referred to as substance use disorder (SUD) or, more specifically, opioid use disorder (OUD). Studies now link increased use or overuse of such substances with brain disorders that impair judgement and increase the risk of continued use. In this way, the individual is not blamed with being personally at fault for making "poor choices."

Mission and Goals

The mission of the Hazelden Foundation is to assist persons addicted to alcohol and other drugs in achieving recovery and to assist in maintaining their recovery throughout their lives. The mission includes the goal of helping as many people as possible.

Hazelden intends to achieve this mission through its addiction treatment programs and by publishing books about addiction and codependency, speaking out for persons with addictions, researching addictions and their treatments, providing education for addiction treatment professionals, and sharing research and results with other addiction treatment organizations.

The Hazelden recognizes that alcoholics suffer from a disease affecting them physically, mentally, and spiritually, ideas echoed in Alcoholics Anonymous programs. Therefore, the treatment of the whole humanis vital to the recovery process.

The Hazelden Foundation remains committed to the twelve-step recovery program; to treating clients and their families with dignity and respect; to treating each client as an individual, and not treating their addiction only; and to keeping an open mind to new information and research about addictions. Hazelden continues to maintain a vital presence in the treatment and recovery of addicted persons.

Bibliography

Anderson, D.J., et al. "The Origins of the Minnesota Model of Addiction Treatment—A First Person Account." Journal of Addictive Diseases, vol. 18, no. 1, 1999, pp. 107-14. Taylor & Francis, doi.org/10.1300/J069v18n01‗10. Accessed 14 Sept. 2024.

McElrath, Damian. Hazelden: A Spiritual Odyssey. Center City, MN: Hazelden, 1987.

National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Minnesota Model: Description of Counseling Approach.” Web. 12 Mar. 2012. archives.drugabuse.gov/ADAC/ADAC11.html.

“Our History.” Hazelden Betty Ford, www.hazeldenbettyford.org/about/history. Accessed 14 Sept. 2024.

Spicer, Jerry. The Minnesota Model: The Evolution of the Multidisciplinary Approach to Addiction Recovery. Center City, MN: Hazelden, 1993.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services, 2007: Data on Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities. 2008. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. www.oas.samhsa.gov/nssats2k7/nssats2k7toc.cfm.

The Way Home: A Collective Memoir of the Hazelden Experience. Center City, MN: Hazelden, 1997.