A New Approach To Addiction

According to federal data, in 2019 more than 20 million Americans needed substance use treatment. But only about 1 in 10 people received the care they needed. And a record 72,000 lost their lives that year to substance use. And now, with the added effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, too many Americans are at a crisis point, facing addiction and mental health conditions that are exacerbated by isolation, anxiety and hardship.

Seeing and feeling the dire need to change the direction of these statistics — which for every family impacted by the disease of addiction represent the lives of people they love — in collaboration with Emory Healthcare, former CNN CEO Tom Johnson, Mohawk Industries Chief Financial Officer Frank Boykin, and the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation's executive William C. Moyers, conceived the idea for a comprehensive approach to addiction in the state of Georgia.

What followed was the coming together of a wide-ranging, nonpartisan group of community and professional leaders to discuss rising addiction rates in Georgia and possible solutions. After more than a year of cooperative discussion and analysis, a unique strategic alliance was formed between Emory Healthcare and the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.

The Addiction Alliance of Georgia is a collaborative, community-based model that integrates addiction-focused treatment, prevention, research and educational initiatives to give patients and families a place where they’ll be accepted as they are and where their addiction will be viewed as a treatable clinical disease.

Emory Healthcare is the most highly ranked health care system in Georgia, offering expertise in discovery, patient care and education to improve people’s lives across the state.

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine is among the nation’s leaders in federally funded research. The Addiction Alliance of Georgia is in partnership with Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health, which includes expert resident researchers specializing in various aspects of addiction and its impact on individuals, families, and communities.

The Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is the nations largest addiction treatment and recovery service provider and integrates addiction research discoveries into practice across 17 locations nationwide.

The Butler Center for Research at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation was established in 1974, and facilitates the implementation of best-practices and measurement-based care to improve patient outcomes and advance the field of addiction prevention, treatment and recovery. Their partnerships with researchers and community-based providers help to bridge the gap between emerging developments in clinical science and the continuum of care.