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Resources
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The Way Home
A Collective Memoir of
the Hazelden Experience
Hazelden
A Spiritual Odyssey
History of a pioneer in the treatment of alcoholism & addiction. Describes early treatment, how the principles of AA were woven in & the development of the Minnesota Model.
Further Reflections on
Hazeldens Spiritual Odyssey
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Booze Goes on Menu at
Famed Celeb Rehab Clinic
Drink Your Medicine
The Smithers rehab center stuns the AA faithful by cutting out a few steps.
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In the contentious world of drug & alcohol treatment, dissent is never tolerated & all apostates are ruthlessly cast out. After a recent 20/20 episode described the debate over the new controlled drinking trend among some recovering alcoholics, the Betty Ford Center was quick to respond with letters to ABC charging that the show was sensationalistic, simplistic & unbalanced & that people would die as a result.
But now, in a move tantamount to the Catholic Churchs reversing its position on abortion, the legendarily hard-line Smithers Addiction Treatment & Research Center on Manhattans West Side, best known for treating troubled Met Daryl Strawberry & Pulitzer Prize winner Nan Robertson, has decided to break with the two other treatment pioneers the Hazelden Foundation & the Betty Ford Center & abandon the lifetime-abstinence approach.
In the fifties, Smithers was one of the first to adopt the Minnesota Model, in which total abstinence is compulsory from day one anything else, even if accompanied by major life improvements, is failure. Attending twelve-step meetings is considered the only route to recovery. Acceptance of powerlessness over drugs & surrender to a Higher Power (generally God) are vigorously promoted. Resistance is confronted. Patients who dont comply are said to be in denial & are often expelled.
In the old days, counselors told patients that prayer & AA meetings were their only hope for avoiding jail, institutionalization, or addiction-related death. But under the new dispensation, they let patients decide for themselves how to recover. Cut down rather than quit? No problem: Moderation Management meets on-site. Need medications? Weve got everything from methadone to Prozac. Want to quit crack but not marijuana? We have techniques. Prayer? Not necessary.
No matter how you put it, its pretty damn radical, says John Bellamy Taylor, director of evaluation services for Smithers. It is radical for addiction treatment, but its really a return to traditional medicine, argues Dr. Alex DeLuca, chief of addiction medicine for St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital, which runs Smithers. In medicine, if treatment doesnt work, you change it. I humbly submit that this is the way alcoholics should be treated.
Why has Smithers broken ranks? Pressure from managed care, for one which has resulted in the closure of half of U.S. rehabs over the past fifteen years & is forcing the survivors to prove that what they do actually works. Comparative research hasnt been kind to them, either. We do find that people who go to twelve-step meetings do better, says DeLuca. But it doesnt work for some & Im not going to tell them, Come back after you have suffered some more & are ready to do it our way. I cant operate that way as a physician. DeLucas predecessor, Dr. Anne Geller, puts it more bluntly: Would you want surgery done now the way it was in the fifties?
The change has been so dramatic at the new Smithers that its as if the inmates have taken over the asylum. AA & abstinence are recommended, not required. Counselors cajole rather than confront. The kinder, gentler Smithers aims to improve relationships, productivity & health even if lifetime abstinence cannot be achieved.
None of this makes sense to traditionalists. Anything but total abstinence is viewed by them as a slippery slope, enabling continued denial & compulsive use. Asked to comment on the new Smithers, Christine Anderson, a spokesperson for Hazelden, expresses shock. Radical? Boy, Id say so, she says. Despite the research, Hazelden will stay with our current model. We are sticking strictly with the AA concept. The Betty Ford Center did not return calls.
Kenneth Lewis, a Smithers counselor for eighteen months, admits he found the change difficult. It conflicted with my training, he says. (Many counselors recovered through AA themselves.) But it gave me a chance to rethink what I believed. I found that my belief system was faulty.
The Minnesota Models traditional assumptions are under enormous challenge, says William White, author of Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment & Recovery in America. People are moving away from This is our program to offering a menu, real options. As for Smitherss patients, most seem to prefer those choices to old-style coercion. Some people melt, says DeLuca. Theyre so relieved that its not the nightmare they thought it would be.
Having gotten sober in 1988 at smither's and a year later sharing my story celebrating one yr clean I am kind of shocked after reading this.
Just goes to show you many ways to get clean. Find what works for you and work it.
Jeff
Wow Jeff...It is good to see progression. Where did you find this?
I went to smither's in 1988 and read a post within the past week about a book ann geller wrote. Trying to find it and googled smithers.
this is some change for one of the oldest and most prestigious rehabs in the country.
Jeff
this is some change for one of the oldest and most prestigious rehabs in the country.
Jeff
