Hazelden

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Hazelden is a non-profit organization based in Center City, Minnesota that pioneered the model of care for alcoholism and drug addiction that is now the most widely used in the world. It is an international provider of addiction treatment, a publisher, a research center, and an educational facility.

Hazelden has facilities in Minnesota (Center City, Plymouth and Saint Paul), Oregon, Illinois and New York. It offers assessment and primary residential addiction treatment for adults and youth, including extended care and intermediate care, as well as outpatient treatment, aftercare services and a family program. Hazelden's treatment philosophy is based on the disease theory of addiction and stresses that abstinence is the best way to manage the condition. Residential treatment is delivered by a team of professionals representing many disciplines including nurses, physicians, psychologists and psychiatrists, substance abuse/addiction counselors, fitness and recreation specialists and spiritual care advisors.

At Hazelden's main campus in Center City over 150 beds are available for their intense 28-day in-patient addiction recovery program. Additional beds for extended care are available as well. Hazelden offers a four-day family program to help families to begin their recovery process. Hazelden realizes that many of the negative emotions felt by addicts also afflict their family. The family program gives family members the tools and concepts by which they can recover their lives and mental health. Concepts such as: detached love, care of body and soul, higher power, personal recovery plan, and 12 step principles are discussed and taught. Families learn how to be supportive and loving without enabling their addicted family member. Everyday ends with an evening lecture (personal story from a recovering addict) that is attended by all the patients and family program members in the Bigelow Auditorium.

The Center City campus is situated on 500 acres (2.0 km²) of rural wooded land with walking trails and abundant wild life. The core campus is composed of 14 main buildings. The Admissions Building is where patients and family visitors first enter. The Cork Center contains the Family Program, recreation center, counseling clinic, Serenity bookstore, pool, and graduate program. The Butler Building contains the world headquarters and administration for Hazelden. The Richmond Walker Building contains the publishing arm of Hazelden. Hazelden is the world's leading publisher of materials on addiction and recovery. The Lavinia Neill Meditation Center offers patients, family, staff and alumni a quiet place for reflection and spiritual growth. The patient units at Hazelden include eight primary care units and one extended care unit, with each serving about 25 patients. The three women's units are Dia Linn, and the new Women's Recovery Center which houses the Simpson and Simmons units. The five men's units are Shoemaker, Cronin, Promises, Silkworth, and Tiebout. Ignatia Hall is the co-ed medical unit where patients detox before transferring to a primary unit. Jellinek is co-ed and is the extended care unit. Construction is underway on a new women only extended care unit.

Since its 1949 founding in a rural Minnesota lakeside farmhouse, Hazelden has grown into one of the largest private alcohol and drug rehabilitation centers in the United States. Dan Anderson was vice president of Hazelden from 1961 and president between 1971 and 1986. Ellen Breyer is currently president and CEO.

History

In 1947 Austin Ripley, a recovering alcoholic, envisioned a treatment center in Minnesota to treat alcoholic priests. The idea evolved with the help of Lynn Carroll and other key supporters to be for alcoholics from all walks of life. The name Hazelden comes from Hazel Thompson of the Thompson family who had acquired the property in 1925.

Hazelden began as a simple farmhouse retreat called the Old Lodge. It was limited to male alcoholics. The original program designed by Carroll was based on Alcoholics Anonymous principles. In the first 18 months 156 men were helped. The first three years were shaky until the Butler family assumed control in 1952. In 1953, the Fellowship Club was established as a halfway house to provide additional help for patients after attending the Center City program. In 1954, Pat Butler acquired the rights to Twenty-Four Hours a Day – a daily meditation book for alcoholics. This was the beginning of Hazelden’s publishing and educational efforts.

The Minnesota model of multidisciplinary treatment saw many innovations during the 1960s. Treatment beds increased from 26 to 157 in the mid-1960s. All women units were created in 1956 with the founding of Dia Linn in Dellwood, Minnesota. The Dellwood site was later moved to the Center City campus.

1999 saw the opening of the Hazelden Graduate School of Addiction Studies in Center City. Research and publication of new methods continues to published by Hazelden’s highly talented staff.

In November 2006, Hazelden announced plans to build a new treatment center to serve young adults and their families in Kerhonkson, New York.