About two and half years ago I began a journey, and to be honest, I’m not sure I knew what my destination was. I saw a problem, and I wanted to help find the solution, but I’d be lying if I said I knew what that solution was, or what it looked like, because I’m crippled with the disadvantage of having seen the world through a single set of eyes, and from the perspective of one, single person.
This can be a problem when trying to find a solution for an epidemic that kills so indiscriminately, that doesn’t care how old you are, what race you are, where you were born, how much money your parents have. Those caught in this epidemic are cut from a wide and diverse swath of the American social fabric, and that’s made finding solutions difficult.
Every person affected by addiction has a story, and maybe if they became willing to share it, that story could empower and support someone else going through something similar. My goal became to provide a place that facilitated that connection. That’s how Addiction Unscripted was born- a place for people, to help people, using shared experiences to connect with one another.
I envisioned thousands of people sharing their stories about addiction and recovery, discussing how their lives were impacted by addiction to opioids and other drugs, and once and for all, shed the negative stigma tied to addiction. It seemed like everyone was impacted, but they were too ashamed to talk about it publicly. I wanted these stories to become the new lens through which the world saw addiction, a lens that so accurately captured addiction as a disease and not a moral failing.
Sounds like noble, altruistic cause, yes?
Well I have a secret…
I have to make a living doing this, which immediately turns some people off. For some, the prospect of profiting in an industry that treats those dying from a disease is horrifying. I’d counter that were it not profitable, then I couldn’t devote my life to its creation and its maintenance, because I’d be forced to do something else, meaning the site wouldn’t exist in the first place.
However, I also realized early on that there was an ethical line I could only walk by being as honest and transparent about what we did, and why we were doing it. This is a theme that i’ve seen many in the treatment industry struggle with.
Thankfully, the site caught on. Thanks to the stories of our readers, people were able to share and connect, and it was a beautiful thing to watch. People in recovery, people in active addiction, spouses of those affected, parents of children taken too early, all finding some sort of relief in seeing that they weren’t alone.
Eventually, word got out that the site might be a good domain to partner with to help a company build revenue, and continue some altruistic branding. Just a year after launching the site, there was no shortage of emails and phone calls and from rehabs and ancillary companies that wanted to see if a partnership or even an acquisition was possible.
Fortunately, I ended up leasing the rights of the site to a reputable treatment center that hoped to earn a profit while also promoting the social good that inherently came with the site. Like in most business endeavors, things took a curve, and the actual monetary value that the treatment center ended up getting, came from my decision to take on their internal marketing, branding and PR duties. As an independent contractor, I created different marketing channels and implemented a few innovative ideas that helped to make a decent profit.
My work, in collaboration with others, has since gained enormous exposure, including national TV broadcasts, mentions in big publications like USA Today and Forbes. Eventually it even caught the attention of a little startup in Silicon Valley you may have heard of, and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
Emails and calls from other treatment centers began once more. This time, the exposure allowed me to see the side of the industry that, if we all collectively don’t do something about, is going to put everyone out of business. You know, the slimy, shady, often-times illegal business practices that go on in an industry that has no shortage of demand (see: Opioid Epidemic). It’s a demand that has an all too high potential for “professionals” to exploit and an unknowing public, to get wealthy using downright criminal tactics that rely on misinformation, inept models of care, and lies.
Many have heard the stories, or read the articles exposing the bad operators. The spectrum of bad rehabs range from not following industry-recognized best practices to criminal negligence resulting in death. This is an industry where non-recidivism hovers around 20 percent- and those are the good, ethical, and honest facilities. So can any of us really say we’re doing a great job?
This isn’t an attack of an indictment. It’s a recognition and acknowledgement of where we are currently, because only then can we decide where to go next. Because I do believe we can all do better. I believe we must do better. If we allow this industry to be identified by the worst of us, who’ll then come to represent the whole of us - because let’s face it, the horror stories will be the ones told by the press – and we won’t stand a chance.
It’s time for us to take a stand and show the American public that we are here for them, we are here to help, and we’re on their side. With their help, we will continue to study the disease of addiction and evolve in our practices as our understanding of addiction evolves. More Americans are affected by addiction than by cancer, and the mortality rate is equivalent. Addiction is now the number one cause of death for Americans under the age of 50. Americans facing addiction need partners, and for this industry to survive, they need to know that we’re on their side.
There are indeed many good operators in this industry whose positive impact will never be covered in a Mother Jones article, because those stories aren’t as juicy. There are millions of Americans today living normal lives with years of sobriety that began their journey in a treatment center. I know this because I’m one of them, I also work with over 50 people in long term recovery of which are also a product of treatment. If we sit idly back, and let the programs using unreputable, unethical practices with rampant fraud continue to operate while we sit back in silence, the public will find us complicit in our silence. They will take us down with them.
It’s time for action. From here forward, it’s time that we in the treatment industry take it upon ourselves to show the American public, where one in three families are directly affected by substance use disorder, that we’re here to help.
It’s time for us to build a sustainable business model that also demonstrates our commitment to saving lives and restoring families, to serve the communities torn apart by drug addiction. By forming community groups and think-tanks that include both addiction specialists and medical experts, we can begin to rid the arena of the criminal and unethical facilities and their approaches, raising the bar for care and treatment and offering solutions in this fight.
As the saying goes, if you aren’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. There is nothing wrong with profiting in the healthcare industry when done right, but we need to get on the same page, what is “right”?
There is a reason doctors get paid what they do, we all know that there are plenty of great clinical resources in the health sector who profit from treating other health conditions like cancer, diabetes, and just about every other disease. Addiction shouldn’t be held to a different standard.
We know that much of the American pharmaceutical and health insurance industries make profit margins that out perform what this industry makes by many factors more, and we don’t want to become like them either.
We need to make sure that we never value profit over patient care.
Profit, we mustn’t forget, while should be a catalyst that opens the door to better our understanding of this disease, leading to better care for our patients, better understanding for us, and a better relationship with the community.
So I’m going to do what I do best, which is to create a platform for this dialogue to take place. This is an urgent call to action, to create and foster a community that engages one another and helps lead an open discussion about solutions.
There is no secret, there is no hidden agenda. I’m calling on all professionals in the treatment arena who are interested in preserving this industry, ridding ourselves of the bad players before they take all of us down with them, and coming together to figure out how to beat this thing.
No judgement. We can all do better, we can all improve, and we can all begin by cleaning up our own practices to start with.
My call to action for you today is this:
First, join me here in a recently created Facebook group Addiction Professionals United For Better Solutions. This group is intended to be used as a discussion form, because I believe the one thing no one wants to admit, is that no one in the treatment industry has is ALL figured out.
Next, help become a leader in this movement by joining our first collective campaign titled “100 days, 100 lives,” which will be aimed at providing 100 treatment scholarships from 100 accredited treatment centers, to those who otherwise couldn’t afford inpatient care and who don’t have insurance that will cover the costs. More on this will be answered in the group, and we will make sure that this initial movement and your overwhelming generosity gets the press coverage it deserves.
It’s time for America to hear about the good we’re doing. To make that happen, I need your help. Let’s take control of our industry and partner with the American public to re-shape how the treatment industry is perceived, save lives, and find a solution for drug addiction and treatment in America.