Iowa City Press-Citizen from Iowa City, Iowa • Page 10

Saturday, October 26, 2002 10A Iowa City Press-Citizen NATION Betty Ford Center marks 20th anniversary Former first lady believes giving back is important By Francesca Donlan Gannett News Service Former first lady Betty Ford recalls the days back in 1978 when she first went public with her addictions and how she feels Gannett Photo Network Above: Betty Ford sits in the serenity room, one of her favorite spots, at the Betty Ford Center on the Eisenhower Medical Center campus Oct. 11 in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Right A view of the Cork Family Pavilion at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif. about her role today, 20 years after co-founding the Betty Ford Center, a drug and alcohol treatment facility. Ford simply believes in giving back: "Somebody helped me find my way, and all I want to do is help somebody else," she said.

She shares her thoughts in this Q-and-A. QUESTION: Twenty years later is it everything you imagined? ANSWER: Oh, it's much more than I ever imagined or dreamed of. All we had planned on was a 60-bed center for patients for alcoholism and drug dependency. And here we are with nine buildings and 100 beds and a lot of outpatient services. We have a fabulous children's program with Jerry Moe (executive director of the children's program).

It's just been unbelievable how he has been able to help these children who come from homes where drugs and alcohol are a problem. Jerry Moe said it was really your vision that children get help who wouldn't normally get it. I could see it in the circumstances of a lot of the people we were treating. We needed to treat as many in the family as possible. The problem with the family (program) is that it only reached the adults; and for the youngsters, there was nothing.

They were the forgotten little ones. We wanted them to realize they are not alone. What do you envision for the next 20 years? Do you have J'lwfrww, t' mJ Mimh 'jj i By Francesca Donlan Gannett Sens Service RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. In 1978, one year after leaving the White House, former first lady Betty Ford checked herself into a treatment facility for drug and alcohol addiction. She had grown dependent on "the sleeping pills, Tnflv'c pain pills, relaxer uua a pjs md the pjUs tQ TopiC! counteract the side effects of other Nation pills," she writes in her memoir, "Betty: A Glad Awakening." Add to that the vodka and bourbon she drank before and after dinner.

Her family felt she had a serious problem and intervened. Fords candor about her drug dependence broke the silence for women alcoholics and drug addicts. One year after seeking help, she joined forces with Leonard Firestone, Joseph Cruse and Jolin Schwarzlose to create the Betty Ford Center here. This month marks the center's 20th anniversary. "It's much more than I ever imagined or dreamed," Ford said.

More than 56,000 patients from around the world have sought help at the 14-acre center, which boasts nine buildings, dozens of medical professionals and 100 volunteers. Executive President Schwarzlose has shared Ford's vision since the beginning. "When I reflect on these years, what overwhelms me is the number of lives that have been touched by the center today," Schwarzlose said. "How many people are able to get up in the morning and live a productive life because they chose to get into recovery, and they chose to enter recovery at the Betty Ford Center." Providing a place for recovery in California's Coachella Valley was the dream of those who created the Betty Ford Center. Three recovering alcoholics did this.

Joe Cruse, Leonard Firestone and Betty Ford built this out of Joe's dream and a patch of desert," Ford recalled in her 1987 memoir. The center treats close to 160 patients at different levels of care and has about 100 beds on campus. Patients ages 18 to 84 stay about 28 days. Besides the residential program, the center offers a family program, a children's program and a variety of outpatient services. More than 1,000 medical students as well as hundreds of alcohol and drug addiction research and treatment professionals have come to the center during the past the hallmarks of having people become aware not only in their own circumstances but in the circumstances of those that are close to them.

They never considered it a family disease before, when you talk about it from the family standpoint, but that was more than 20 years ago. What do you feel like when somebody thanks you for paving the way? I only tell them the truth, and that is: Somebody helped me find my way, and all I want to do is help somebody else. Do you feel like you opened the door for women alcoholics and drug addicts to talk about their disease? Well, it wasn't totally closed. I was fortunate to be able to be in a place here I could make my recovery something that would open doors for others, and that was because I married the right man. When I had breast cancer, nobody ever talked about breast cancer, and suddenly it was on the news.

And I chose when I decided to go to treatment for my alcoholism. I chose to tell the press because the press was very closely following my husband and because of the possibility of his running for office. It was at a political time, and I didn't want the press to think I'd gone off for a month and they would immediately think, "Oh, her breast cancer has surfaced." Now, we don't recommend that to everybody; but in my case, it worked. What do people ask you most often when they meet you? In the beginning, they asked me, "How did you do it?" In other words, "How did you get sober?" It was through people who wrote me, sent wires, made contacts, that I realized, because I had no intention of doing anything like this when I left treatment, there was a great need out there. How active are you at the center? I try to talk to patients every four weeks.

I really like to come over and get around the campus and just visit when I'm there out on the patio. Sometimes they're surprised. Sometimes they don't know who I am. I ask them, "How's everything How are you doing1?" Sometimes I sit down and have a cup of coffee. And I also try and keep an eye on the campus because I'm kind of fussy about everything being in good shape.

My feeling is if my name is going to be on the center, I am responsible to make sure that things are up to speed. mm 20 years. Ford, ho is chairman of the board, does not sit quietly behind closed doors. one. "She loves it when the counselor asks, and she spends 15 or 20 minutes with a patient," Schwarzlose said.

"Those are the any other dreams for the cen ter? I have the dream that this is "I really like to come over if i can WJien I reflect on and get around the these years, what campus and just visit when overwhelms me is (patients are) out on the the number of lives patio," Ford aid. that have been 'ti1 touched by the cen- an eye on the ter today. 11 campus, a times that are so meaningful that she'll remember forever." No one can deny the impact Ford has on alcoholics and drug addicts on and off the center's cant-pus. Ford's family confronted her going to continue in all the aspects that we're helping people in all ways that they are dependent and need to turn their lives around. It's very important that "In opening up the center, it has allowed tens of thousands of people to come here without the stigma and shame and participate in treatment and in their own recovery.

It legitimized the disease." Alum's testimonial Actress Ali McGraw appreciates the miracles that happen at the Betty Ford Center. "I think it cannot be said enough that this beautiful, smart, interesting woman had the guts 20 years ago at the highest public moment of her life to say, This is what is going on, and I'm going to do something about said McGraw, who was a patient in 1986. "It is just one of the most important things that happened in the 20th century. To sit in the biggest spotlight in the whole U.S. and to have the follow-through she has had, and to make her life's work these 50,000 of us and more to come.

"Lives have been dramatically improved by her vision." the public understand the disease. That was important to me right John Schwarzlose from the very beginning when I about her prescrip- because I'm kind of fussy about every executive president J0" drus 311(1 first started speaking. I spoke to groups that were there out of IIVI 1.4. IV 111 A. i U.

She immediately sought help at a U.S. naval hospital in Long Beach, curiosity more than to learn about alcoholism. But if they would come I could carry that message, and what it was, the disease of alcoholism and drug addiction and how it affected the family and even employees, co-workers as well. thing being in good shape. My feeling is if my name is going to be on the center, I am responsible to make sure that things are up to speed." Ford's impact Sometimes Ford shares her experiences with patients one on Calif.

She was 60. "For many people, it opened a door," said Dr. Steven Ey, medical director at the Betty Ford Center. "If the first lady could be an alcoholic, maybe I could, too. Do you think education is still really important? Absolutely.

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