Getting the Worms Out of the Apples in Florida

Recent media reports including one earlier this week on Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly and a report in last week's New York Times drew national attention to what those of us who provide legitimate and effective treatment in Florida have been fighting for the past few years – unscrupulous practices branded as addiction treatment that not only fail to deliver the treatment promised…they can be deadly.

Sadly, this profiteering is not new to the addiction treatment industry, nor is it unique to Florida. As a not-for-profit behavioral healthcare provider with more than 60 years of experience treating addiction, Caron Treatment Centers has seen this exploitation before and it is damaging to an industry trying to help people struggling with the disease of addiction.

As state budgets expanded to support the war on drugs, the number of addiction treatment centers grew from 500 in 1970 to more than 9000 in 1991. The industry saw the rise of many unqualified centers promising hope, but delivering little more than empty promises. Similar to now, as speculators came into the industry, patient care fell by the wayside in some cases as the focus on profit grew. When states cut back support for addiction treatment and instead began to send those suffering with the disease of addiction to jail, the speculators left the industry, leaving behind qualified treatment centers that have spent the last thirty years developing the evidence-based addiction treatment practices that we know work – including the Florida model.

When delivered as it was designed, the Florida model, where a person lives in one location while receiving treatment in another, is an effective treatment model. The Florida model fosters independence, confidence and maturity to help patients learn to respond to life's events without picking up a drink or drug, or engaging in other addictive and destructive behaviors. Despite the State Attorney for Palm Beach County’s assertion that “most of the apples are spoiled,” there are legitimate treatment providers in Florida, including Caron, helping patients and their families find wellness.

Regulations for addiction treatment centers vary state by state – and in some states regulations are virtually non-existent. This lack of regulation and standards within the industry makes it hard for families and individuals with substance use disorders to identify quality treatment programs. It also creates a fertile environment for deceptive business practices, fraud, patient neglect and, ultimately, treatment malpractice. Florida’s new “Marketing Practices for Substance Abuse Services” law, which takes effect July 1, is a move in the right direction but the state must also provide adequate funding and resources to enforce the new law.

At Caron, we have been working with officials in Palm Beach County and with Florida’s State Attorney General to identify and find solutions to the fraudulent business practices and unsafe living conditions. We are working with other leading treatment providers to define a standard of ethics and outcomes that will help families in distress determine which providers are acting in good faith. In addition, together with the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, Caron Treatment Centers authored a white paper entitled Defining a Center of Excellence: An Addiction Treatment Model that identifies standards necessary to deliver outstanding quality of care.

The Key Attributes for an Addiction Treatment Center of Excellence are:

This is not just a Florida problem, although the state seems to be the epicenter of the worst abuses. Overdose is now the leading cause of death for those under the age of 50. Communities across the country are overwhelmed by the effects of opioid abuse, struggling to find hope in an ever-growing crisis and looking to treatment as a way to save millions of people. What some facilities are doing in Florida threatens all of us, as it reinforces the myth that treatment doesn’t work, calls into question treatment practices that have been effective and makes finding effective treatment even harder for families in distress.

Addiction is one of the most manageable chronic diseases, but requires access to the appropriate level of care. Patients and families in crisis should have easy access to information that helps them find the right treatment program: one that is ethical, effective and unique to their needs. It is the patient’s right to trust that a provider is working in their best interests. As an industry, community and government, we must expect more. Click here for more information on finding a good treatment center.