I spent a week at the Hazelden Betty Ford Addiction Treatment Center in Rancho Mirage, California. No, not as a patient, but as a member of the Summer Institute for Medical Students Program (SIMS). Here’s what I learned:
Hazelden Betty Ford is the nation’s largest nonprofit addiction treatment center and their goal is to address substance misuse utilizing the bio-psycho-social model of care and 12 step programs. Patients are provided mental health resources including cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, anger management, group therapy, and more. Patients are encouraged to participate in meditation, yoga, and are even given a dietician and a personal trainer to improve their overall health and wellness. Hazelden Betty Ford offers in-patient and intensive outpatient treatment as well as family and children’s programs for the loved ones of those with substance use disorder. Their motto is “If not us, then who?” 
Dr. Brittany Ladson
Our week long experience was funded by The Betty Ford Foundation whose goal is to raise awareness, stimulate interest, and sensitize professionals to the process of recovery for substance use disorders and their family members. The SIMS program is unique in that, instead of participation in a classroom setting, students learn by integration into the daily life of the patients. It has long been said the best way to help those not addicted understand the recovery process is to let them see it happen and this program did just that.
We were 15 allopathic and osteopathic medical students from 15 different universities all out in Palm Desert to learn more about the disease of addiction. Many of the students had personal or family histories of substance use disorder, while other’s exposures were from drunk drivers taking the lives of their loved ones. For me personally, my exposure was through research I have been conducting in the understanding of vaping and opiate misuse disorder in high school students and an additional project studying EM residents Naloxone rescue kit prescription habits to patients who have overdosed. I had imagined participating in this week would help me learn what more I can do for my future patients, but as the week progressed, I saw myself aligning more with the patients themselves.
At the beginning of the week, it was clear that the medical students were seen as outsiders looking in during the patient’s small group therapy. Many of the patients expressed they felt like “lab rats” while we listened to their stories without actually experiencing addiction ourselves. As the week progressed, patients and students began fraternizing at meal times and in the hallway in between sessions. It was astonishing how fast the patients went from feeling like strangers to people we knew for a lifetime. It was like learning about a patient by looking through a keyhole- having a short period of time to understand all the things they think about and have experienced. At the end of the week, I didn’t feel like I was leaving a small group of four patients in recovery, I felt like I was leaving a creative artist, an intelligent future RN, a strong businesswoman, and a caring mother. It truly shows you that addiction is ubiquitous. It is just like gravity, it is all around us. Addiction is an equal opportunity disease.
Our experience in group therapy was becoming a shared experience. I was learning to treat the patient, not just the disease. Patients in rehab are so generous; they really taught us so much and answered so many of our questions better than any textbook could. Doctors spend a lot of time with patients during their lifetime, but very rarely in this capacity. The experience was transformative for the patients as well. Many times patients expressed that they have felt that doctors have not done anything for them in the past. Some patients also expressed hatred of rehab centers because they see it as doctors making money off of their addiction and then sending them off into the world to relapse and present back to rehab. Having future physicians in the room pledging to be a force of change for the future of addiction medicine helped change their perspectives. Patients will see doctors differently and doctors will see their patients differently because of this experience.
Further, the most commonly stated wish expressed by the patients during the week was to take care of ourselves. They all understand how hard it is to complete medical school and work as a physician for the rest of our lives. It is too easy to chase prestige and work yourself to exhaustion. Many patients expressed a similar reason for ending up with a substance use disorder and they didn’t want to see that for the next generation of working professionals. The patient whose words most resonated with me on this subject was an emergency medicine physician in treatment for opiate use disorder. He knows better than anyone what the challenging world of medicine can do to a person. He reminded me that my life comes before my career no matter what. All it takes is one left step or one right step for you to become a patient at Hazelden Betty Ford.
