Last week Becky Flood, New Directions for Women’s Executive Director and CEO, was in New York City with Interventionist Brad Lamm, taping an episode of the Dr. Oz television show.

On this episode, Brad performs an intervention with a female patient with young children and New Directions for Women is offered for treatment services.

We’re proud the  Dr. Oz show recognizes New Directions as a leader in the addiction industry, particularly as a leading facility for helping women with children.  Because of our expertise in gender specific treatment and our unique ability to have a patient’s children live on our peaceful campus during treatment, New Directions is an excellent choice for women with children.

You can watch the video here.

By Sally Frei, Board Member, New Directions for Women Inc.

To help someone recover from addiction you have to have a passion and love for helping people and a foundational understanding of 12 steps.  I believe this to be true about New Directions for Women. Founded in 1977 New Directions paved a hard road of struggles and setbacks through the years but it has overcome these challenges and has retained the mission and vision of the original founders Pamela Wilder, Muriel Zink, and Marion Schoen.

In 1977 Pamela Wilder was a recovering alcoholic and a member of the Junior League of Orange County. With a lack of affordable, accessible and local treatment programs for women in Orange County Wilder saw a need and had a vision to help others like her find recovery and stay sober. She publicly and courageously asked the Junior League of Orange County for help and support in creating this program and was joined by Muriel Zink and Marion Schoen. Together these three innovators created the legacy that is New Directions for Women today.

At inception the research and theory behind addiction treatment hadn’t focused on women and hadn’t given concrete methods of care. With no formal training these women seemingly were flying blind but they intuitively knew the course to take in giving women the hope and treatment necessary to ensure recovery from addiction.

Through the 1980s, New Directions offered a peer-oriented social model of addiction recovery services.  As treatment models evolved managed care came to be the prominent form of health insurance and treatment in the 1990s and negatively changed the definition of how addiction should be treated.   During this time managed care insurance companies believed that treatment programs with lengths of 14 days or less were substantial enough to “cure” people of their addictions. With these treatment programs not being long enough to break the cycle of addiction many people continued to suffer with their disease and a great number of programs were adversely affected.  During this time as patient numbers decreased in treatment centers across the U.S. many centers fell apart and were forced to close.  New Directions however was able to weather the storm and survive, during this time there were seven executive directors in seven years.  With so much turmoil New Directions was being held together by the commitment of the board of directors, volunteers, and alumni helping them stay true to their vision and mission.

In recent years New Directions has emerged with a greater strategic focus and brought clinical expertise to their mission.  In 2004 Becky Flood, MHS LCADC, NCACII, BRI II was hired as Executive Director and CEO. Flood came to New Directions with an energizing spirit and team of experts.  Flood instituted the development of an executive management team with a focus on marketing and development to broaden New Directions’ donor base.  

Flood helped to bring Early Childhood Development Services in 2005 to the New Directions campus as well as becoming accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) in 2007.

The current staff at New Directions has a strong clinical background and performs a variety of duties all focused around helping patients through their treatment and moving forward in their recovery. Quality Improvement Officer Maurice Wilson PhD CADC II who joined New Directions in 2004 has over thirty years of experience in addiction treatment and research and has been instrumental in the recovery of patients. Virginia Mendiola ensures New Directions front office runs efficiently, Eyal Avidror is the executive chef at New Directions and ensures patients are eating properly while in their treatment program and Ann Premazon has worked diligently on the redesign of the New Directions website and whose family has been positively impacted by New Directions services.

The New Directions Board of Directors have also continued the passion and love for helping people in the fight against addiction and bring a variety of skill sets and depth of knowledge to the organization.  The current board is comprised of founding board members and long time supporter such as Faith Strong who has lived a life devoted to breaking the cycle of addiction. Faith brought Alcoholics Anonymous to the Soviet Union in 1986 and has been a continual contributor to New Directions for over thirty years with gifts totaling more than $3 Million dollars. The board of directors is also comprised of legacies such as Jim Wilder the son of Founder Pamela Wilder and other influential board members such as Dan Carracino, Karen Lutz, Carol Pickup and Judy Elmore who are all passionate about recovery and have deep roots in both supporting New Directions and the Orange County community at large.  In addition to the Board of Directors, New Directions Clinical Committee has addiction experts and devoted supporters such as Ruth Stafford, PhD who lends her experience as a psychology professor at UCI.

               The history of helping women overcome chemical addiction remains the mission at New Directions for Women, with more than thirty years of service we look forward to another thirty years of recovery and sobriety.

By Rebecca Flood, MHS, LCADC, NCACII, BRI II,
Executive Director/CEO New Directions for Women

Addiction strikes people regardless of economic, financial, or social backgrounds; addiction is an equal opportunity destroyer.  Despite its indiscriminate nature, studies show women are far less likely than men to seek treatment.  According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2007 almost 7 million women were found to need addiction treatment services.  Of those women almost 6.5 million women or 93.7 percent felt they didn’t need treatment with 6.3 percent believing they did need treatment but only 1.7 percent or 118,000 women pursued treatment.  Numbers like this are alarming and show how chemical addiction in women is truly an epidemic.  In the U.S. our government spends millions protecting our borders, airports and overall infrastructure while we’ve got what I believe to be one of the largest domestic terrorists running rampant throughout the country and that’s alcohol and other drugs.  

I believe chemical addiction in women has grown rampant due to the lack of focus on women’s needs in addressing addiction. Over the last half century we have seen the birth and evolution of addiction therapy from the Minnesota Model of 1949 which focused on 28 day treatment programs for men, to treatment programs today that last last between 90 and 120 days and are gender separate.

When addiction treatment began 60 years ago, the conventional wisdom was that people were addicted to drugs and alcohol for different reasons.  There were no initial studies on how the disease was affected by gender differences or how gender differences impacted treatment and recovery.  Today we realize drug and alcohol addiction is part of the same disorder. Over the past twenty years research has shown that both men and women have different responses to both addiction and treatment. That’s why research shows such a higher success rate in gender separate treatment programs.  These types of pioneer programs began sprouting up in later half of the 20th century and were not seen as needed or important until the 1990s and were notably successful for recognizing:

• Men and women have different physical and emotional responses to chemical dependency
• Men and women have different metabolic rates, and require far different needs and approaches to the recovery process.  
• Women, especially mothers, suffer from far more guilt and emotional stress than male addicts who have children and are often unable to care for themselves and don’t seek help for their addiction. Other exterior forces can impact the recovery process much more acutely for women than men, including:
• Media attention about HIV exposed infants being abandoned by mothers
• Welfare to work reform movement
• High profile child welfare cases involving substance abuse

Over the last 20 years we have seen a great deal of success over addiction with gender separate treatment programs for women. Women do better in gender separate addiction recovery programs because they are often able to focus on issues that will ultimately affect their recovery. Many women also enter treatment with a variety of issues that have yet to be dealt with but will ultimately affect their ability to stay sober. Gender separate treatment allows for women to address these issues in a safe and nurturing environment.  I have seen gender separate treatment work for women time and time again.  Thirty years ago when I entered the field, to today as a residential treatment facility administrator, I have found gender separate treatment to be a determining factor in keeping both men and women sober and clean.  

While tremendous progress has been made in the field over the past 20 years and we have bridged many gaps in treatment, there continues to be opportunity for continued growth because there are so many addicts seeking or needing help in the fight against their disease. 

As the Vice President of Treatment Services at Seabrook House, I was the primary designer and implementer of MatriArk which was one of 14 federally funded trial comprehensive gender separate addiction treatment program for women in America.  MatriArk began in 1993 and the program was designed to help women through the recovery process in a safe, non-threatening environment.

This and the other demonstration programs paved the way for countless other treatment facilities to create their own gender separate treatment programs.  

          In the history of addiction treatment for women one of the most courageous feats to me is the innovation shown by the founders of New Directions for Women, Pam Wilder, Muriel Zink and Marion Schoen. These women didn’t have any special funding or research telling them that gender separate treatment worked, they just intuitively knew in their hearts that women needed a gender separate environment to achieve long term, responsible recovery. 

          Today New Directions for Women has continued the spirit of the founders and built upon its basics by continuing to use research and evidence based best practices in all their services. The following are the program components of what we use at New Directions:

• ·A holistic program dealing with the entire family system and all its “roles”
• ·Family support: Women in treatment need support from their family and continued support outside of the treatment facility
• ·Traceable results, all parts must be documented and followed over time to indicate the outcome of their use
• ·Eclectic-multidisciplinary approaches being used effectively
• ·12-Step foundation
• ·Cogitative Behavior Therapy
• ·Seeking Safety
• ·Matrix Model
• ·A Variety of Experiential Therapies such as:
  • Equine Therapy
  • Psycho Drama
  • Kayaking
  • Ropes Course
  • Healing Arts
  • Japanese Meditation

          Since the beginning of gender separate programs like MatriArk, we have seen positive results with women in recovery due to being treated in gender separate addiction programs at New Directions.  Between June 2006 and July 2007 87 patients were released from New Directions of which 52 patients or 60 percent answered a follow-up survey. In this survey we found that in the first six months after discharge there was an 87 percent reduction in the proportion of patients who used or abused alcohol, a 72 percent reduction in the use of methamphetamine and a 78 percent reduction in the use of marijuana.  In this same group we also saw 91 percent fewer patients that experienced an increase in stress from alcohol or drug use and 88 percent fewer patients said they were forced to give up routine activities because of alcohol or drug use. In addition to the decline in drug use or affect on an alumni’s daily life we’ve also seen an increase in their well being. Between admission and six months after discharge from New Directions 70 percent or more of these patients rated their physical and emotional health as “very good” or “excellent.”

          As more and more patients continue to thrive in the model of gender separate treatment and therapy, it’s our hope that more treatment centers adopt this style of recovery thus helping women suffering from an addictive disorder and giving them hope for long term sustained recovery.

A Fisher of Men

 Maurice Wilson’s doctors can perhaps be forgiven if they thought that the medical prognosis they recently delivered to him would be received with sadness and grief.  Little did they realize that the prospect of transition, at least for Maurice, had provided him with yet another opportunity to celebrate life. 

 “I have done as much as I can, for as many as I can, for as long as I can, the best that I can,” Maurice recently reflected with the basso profundo that is his voice, and the radiant smile that has warmed the coldest of hearts.    “Who can have a more blessed life.  And, in my darling Becky, I have had the love of a lifetime!”

 And what a life of love and service Maurice has lived.  Indeed, when Jesus beckoned to Simon and Andrew to “follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,” he must have been anticipating the life of Maurice Wilson.    Because Maurice’s  life has been one devoted to gathering, and uplifting, men and women with the irresistible lure of his living example, together with his boundless capacity for love. 

 Maurice has lived many roles on many different stages throughout his life – often at the same time – and he is simply one of those human beings who has excelled at every task he has undertaken,  at every calling he has answered.  And whether as father, husband, pastor, psychologist, professor, or writer, Maurice has always sought to lift others in the name of Jesus.

But it is perhaps as a preacher where Maurice has achieved the fullest expression of his gifts, and those blessed to have witnessed him from the pulpit instantly recognize that they are in the presence of theological, and rhetorical, brilliance.    The prodigy of his mentor in Christ, the legendary and charismatic Bishop John Bryant, Rev. Wilson is an ordained African Methodist Episcopal minister who, for 15 years, pastored St. John’s AME church in Baltimore, the largest AME congregation in its district at the time.  Serving as one of the lead pastors of the historic Baltimore Annual Conference, Rev. Wilson was a major influence on the Board of Examiners, which prepares men and women to serve as ministers with the AME Church, and authored some of the required readings for those seeking ordination.

From the beginning, Maurice’s  ministerial style reflected his deeper nature and temperament: thoughtful, incisive, brutally honest, and, at turns, intensely emotional and hilarious.  As his congregants know, Maurice’s  sermons are deeply steeped in scripture, but his humor makes the medicine not only palatable, but welcome.  And that voice, an instrument rooted in its deeply resonant bass notes, but able to climb an octave or more as the content of his message inexorably yields to the sheer passion and intensity that always lurks just below the surface. 

Maurice was born in Baltimore on February 13, 1942.  He barely knew his father, and was raised by a woman who would be the central influence in his life – his mother, Selma, who remains in good health and great spirits at the age of 100!  Selma Wilson’s father had been born just 12 years after slavery had been abolished, and he would make his living as a sharecropper on land he purchased in North Carolina – the very same land his own father had worked as a slave.  (The family today continues to own the same plot of land.) Selma’s father was  also an ordained minister who infused Selma with the deep faith, strong work ethic, and abiding self-respect with which Selma would infuse her son. 

Selma also made sure that Maurice’s education included an appreciation of literature, and she took the youngster to the library throughout his childhood, exposing him to the world of the written word that he has treasured  throughout his life.  As a child, he began his life of service as a Boy Scout and youth choir member.  Selma also impressed upon Maurice the importance of treating women with dignity and respect.  Of course, her example was the truest teacher, as Maurice observed a mother who assisted 13 of her 16 siblings out of poverty in North Carolina to create productive lives, mostly in Baltimore.  Selma Wilson was, and is,  strong, capable, and loving – qualities which, not coincidentally, his beloved Becky possesses in abundance.

As a young adult, Maurice continued his life of service, joining the Army prior to completing his college education.  He served overseas as a medic in Germany, where he matured as a man, and as a disciple of Christ. Upon leaving the service he returned to Baltimore to complete his education.  

Maurice’s educational and professional resume is so extensive that it begs the question: Where did he find the time? He earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Morgan State College in Baltimore, followed by a Masters of Science and a Doctorate in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.  Maurice added a Masters of Arts in Theology from St. Mary’s Seminary and University.  He was a tenured Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, Coppin Campus, where he shared his knowledge and assisted in molding future psychologists, and is a proud and active alumnus of the Alpha Phi Alpha Academic Fraternity.  Where did he find the time? 

For years, Maurice has also worked as an addiction treatment counselor, and also as a researcher/evaluator of addiction treatment facilities for the federal government.   Most recently, he has served as COO and  Quality Improvement Officer at New Directions for Women in Costa Mesa, an in-patient treatment program for women where Becky – a nationally-recognized authority in addiction treatment and recovery – serves as CEO. Maurice holds multiple drug counseling certifications, including Behavior Health Surveyor, Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor, Behavioral Health Program Surveyor, and Certified Clinical Supervisor.

But Maurice would trade all of his degrees,  certificates and accomplishments for the role he most relishes – that of father to his children and husband to his wife.   He and Becky head a blended family of six children: Maurice T. Wilson, Jr., Maureen Wilson, Robert Andrew Sheppard, Margaret E. Smith, William Arthur Sheppard, and Samuel Wade Taylor Wilson, their spouses Derek, Ashlee, and Jess and five grandchildren – Demetri, Logan, Sara, Jordan, and Ally.  Maurice also dearly loved Becky’s mother, Elizabeth Jayne Flood, who Maurice always looked to as a kindred spirit.  Elizabeth passed five years ago.

Naturally, it was to his family to whom Maurice quickly turned when he learned of his illness.  Convening his children and their spouses on a conference call from around the United States, Maurice, ever the teacher, found the teaching moment in his own mortality.   Invoking Jesus’ words from the Garden of Gethsemane, Maurice reminded, and reassured, his children that it is, finally, for God to decide how long we are to drink from the cup of life:   “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will.” 

Maurice Wilson.  First, and last, a father to his children, a husband to his wife.  And a Fisher of Men. 

Chris Mears

Excerpted from “Women’s wellness: It’s about relationships”
Programs eye women’s family ties, including after treatment
by Gary A. Enos, Editor

“…In interviews with staff members at Hazelden and at New Directions for Women in Costa Mesa, Calif., it becomes clear that both partner and parenting relationships are seen as critical in how some women end up in treatment, how they fare when they get there, and whether their recovery can be sustained afterwards…”

See the complete article at:

http://bit.ly/9spPMo

New Directions for Women’s CEO and Executive Director, Becky Flood was recently featured in an article about ecstasy related deaths in the UK and the U.S. on www.demodirt.com. Demodirt.com is an online publication dedicated to providing demographic and psychographic intelligence about Generation Y, Generation X, and Baby Boomers, Mature Adults and more.

No Future in England’s Dreaming?

Written by Galia Myron Tuesday, 09 February 2010 16:12

Young people are dying from drug-related deaths in the UK.

An academic paper from the University of Hertfordshire in the UK contends that the rate of young people dying of ecstasy-related deaths is increasing at an alarming rate. Most disturbing is the fact that most of the deaths occurred in people who were young and healthy, said lead author, Professor Fabrizio Schifano of the University’s School of Pharmacy, in a public statement.

The report, which examined drug use in the UK over an 11-year time period, found the increased use of ecstasy particularly alarming. “These data seem to support the hypothesis that young individuals seem to suffer extreme consequences after excessive intake of ecstasy,” Schifano said publicly. “This is an issue of public health concern which deserves further studies.”

Are US youths also at particular risk for succumbing to this disturbing trend?

“I am not sure the US is seeing the same thing,” says Rebecca J. Flood, MHS, LCADC, NCACII, CEO/Executive Director of Costa Mesa, CA-based New Directions for Women, an accredited addiction treatment facility for women and their children. Flood, who is also the President of the Association of Intervention Specialists (AIS), adds that Ecstasy is also known in the US as MDMA, E, X, Adam, and eccie, and is known as a “club drug” or dance club drug; it is a stimulant and hallucinogenic similar to methamphetamine and mescaline.

“The use and abuse of this drug in recent years varies from city to city and is not consistent throughout the US,” Flood notes. Citing research taken from two studies done by The National Forensic Laboratory Information Systems (NFLIS) and The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), Flood adds that Ecstasy use spread beyond club use seven years ago.

“In 2003 in Atlanta it was reported to no longer be a club drug but was being used by lower income poly substance abusers and the use had spread to the African American population as well,” she says. “In Los Angeles there is an overall decrease in its use.”

St. Louis, Flood adds, saw an increase in use among college males in the form of “party packs,” a combination of MDMA and Viagra. While the hip hop set in Baltimore in 2004 saw an increase in the use of Ecstasy, recent years have seen a decline, especially among Anglo males.

“The use is now wider spread and varies among ages, population and neighborhoods,” Flood explains. “Overall Ecstasy users in the club drug scene tend to be the youngest users. Those that seek treatment generally do so in hospital emergency rooms for adverse reaction and overdoses.” Young people are particularly drawn to Ecstasy, Flood says, because of the “excitement” associated with the drug, and the penchant for the young to take risks.

The changing popularity of any drug most likely depends on its availability and the culture of the population, she notes. Young people can be uniquely difficult to treat, Flood maintains, because they have trouble accepting that they are fighting an addiction in the first place.

Especially challenging, Flood says, is that young people tend to lack “the ability to accept they are not invincible and that addiction can and has happened to them, [the] inability to accept consequences, lack of family support, [and] not wanting to accept responsibility or to change their life style or social circle.” Finally, Flood adds, the universal obstacle to sobriety for this age group: “Peer pressure.”

by Chris Mears, Board Member of New Directions for Women

The holidays are a chance for loved ones and friends to gather and enjoy each other’s company. Alcohol can be a part of many of these gatherings. All too often, there is someone in the crowd who has a problem with alcohol abuse or addiction. Alcohol abuse is a devastating killer that claimed more than 22,000 American lives in 2008. However, these parties and gatherings can be a point of hope and clarity for loved ones caught in the grip of addiction if we know how to look for the signs and symptoms.

Some common signs of alcoholism and addiction are slurred speech, restlessness, sudden weight loss or gain, confusion, or disorientation, or dramatic changes in a person’s daily life such as decreased performance at work or in school, and a lack of focus on goals and aspirations. By looking for these signals, you can help prevent your loved one from being lost to the pain and suffering of addiction and put back on the road to a fulfilling life of love and recovery.

As a board member for New Directions for Women, a nonprofit chemical dependency facility that has called Costa Mesa home for more than 30 years, I cannot stress enough the importance of helping loved ones overcome their disease. During this holiday season we’re encouraging all who see loved ones experiencing any signs of addiction consult a board registered interventionist and a licensed and accredited addiction rehabilitation center to assist in their recovery.

Helping friends and family through addiction strengthens our community and makes it a better place to live.

We need to realize that addiction is stronger than any one person, and that these people need our help in gaining their strength to control the disease.

If you have a loved one or friend unwilling to seek treatment, contact a board registered interventionist. To find one in your area, go to http://associationofinterventionspecialists.org/, and to find a licensed and accredited treatment center near you, go to www.naatp.org.

This article reprinted from the Daily Pilot.

Some may consider Becky Flood the Florence Nightingale of the addiction treatment industry in the 21st century. With more than 30 years of experience in the behavioral health field, Flood has demonstrated exceptional expertise in the development, implementation, management and evaluation of chemical dependency treatment programs. She has distinguished herself in the area of marketing, fundraising and board development. She is currently Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of two substance abuse treatment centers — New Directions for Women, a 30-bed women-only facility and Morningside Recovery, a 70-bed, mixed gender facility — both in Southern California. In her first two years at New Directions for Women, she tripled revenue, diversified the payer mix, and increased negotiated rates with grants, insurance carries and private pay clients that resulted in financial solvency for the failing organization. She led the organization through its first successful three-year accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) and is also responsible for the philanthropic activities critical to this non-profit’s existence.

A nationally certified and licensed chemical dependency counselor, Flood is the President of the Association of Intervention Specialists, co-founder of National Interventionist Credentialing Board, and a board member of the National Association of Treatment Providers. Flood’s passion for helping others has paved an impressive precedence — and this dynamic woman says she won’t stop until she’s helped “heal the hole in the soul of America.” BHC Journal spoke with Flood about how such a daunting task could be achieved. The answer might surprise you…

BHC Journal: Becky, we’re talking about a very passionate topic for you: Healing the Hole in the Sole of America. Can you tell us what you mean by that and how that could be implemented?

Becky Flood: I came up with this phrase a couple of years ago after working many years in specializing in the treatment of addiction for women and children. It’s a belief that I have that addiction is the hole in the sole of America, and that if we fill and treat addiction, especially that in women and generationally their children, we will begin to heal many of the social ills our country faces — social ills such as our criminal justice system, our welfare system, our child protective system. Addiction to me is at the root of many of our social and economic ills, and women are the addicts that go most unnoticed and untreated and they are the ones that are generationally perpetuating the difficulty with themselves and their children.

BHC Journal: Becky why do you think it is that women are the most untreated demographic?

BF: I think that women and other minorities are the least treated in the addiction industry or the addiction field.

BHC Journal: Right, but what in society brought that on to make that so?

BF: I think the stigma. Especially for women, the shame and the guilt that women feel personally, which is placed on them by society for behaving differently than our expectations of men, keeps women hidden and in the closet and keeps them from accessing care on their own until their illness is so bad that there is absolutely no other choice.

BHC Journal: With such a broad scope, what are some of the tactical responsibilities or actions professionals in this industry can take to help achieve that goal?

BF: We need to work on destigmatizing the disease and assist women in not suffering in silence or sitting in their shame and fear. We need to spread awareness that it’s okay for women to get treatment. They need to know it isn’t something they caused, it’s something that happened just like cancer or heart disease does. I think that when that occurs, more women will come forward and their treatment will happen at earlier intervals and, therefore, the outcome of that treatment is more likely to be successful over time.

BHC Journal: As more and more women get treatment and are in recovery, how does that trickle down to other demographics?

BF: I believe that women in our culture and our society are the moving force within their families — so if the woman heals and gets well, it’s likely that if she’s in a relationship with an addict or in a relationship with somebody who is codependent, most likely they will heal, and if there are children involved or grandchildren, most likely each generation will embrace the concept of healing. And in the outcome, they will either get into recovery for their own addictions or they will make healthier choices, therefore never entering into an addictive pattern. So again, I believe that when women are treated, generational healing begins and, therefore, the hole in the sole of America can begin to look differently than it does right now.

BHC Journal: Part of the starting process for this, the grassroots if you will, may actually be starting with building awareness among the primary care providers; the general practitioners or the gynecologists who see women on a recurring basis. Building their awareness of what to ask women in order to find out whether they might be dealing with an addiction that they are not being forward with. What should primary care providers be considering when they’re seeing women, such as for their annual physicals?

BF: Well I think that if we begin to ask key questions as healthcare providers — whether it’s their general practitioner, their ob/gyn — the same questions as we ask about generational diabetes, whether or not somebody smokes, or whether or not there is heart disease in the family. Once we begin to just very openly engage in a dialogue on whether or not there is alcoholism, addiction, what their current usage is, and begin to have what appears to be just a healthcare dialogue as matter of fact questions, we will begin to get some valuable information. But the healthcare providers, as well, need to deal with their own fears and insecurity and possibly shame and guilt around being very open and upfront and being able to speak comfortably with women.

Some of the staggering statistics that I think are important to know involve the impact of what this disease does to America. If you look at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, they have done a lot of research and it shows that annually the cost of lost productivity in this country due to alcoholism and drug abuse is $129 billion a year. It costs healthcare $16 billion, and there’s $36 billion in other lost causes and efforts that stem from abuse in America.

The biggest statistic that always moves me emotionally is that every year, there are 40,000 babies born that have some degree of alcohol-related damage, which is known as fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol effects. That is the leading cause of mental retardation in our country and it’s 100 percent preventable. If we eradicate this disease or fully treat it then there would be 40,000 additional healthy babies born; 40,000 fewer children with mental retardation born every single year.

BHC Journal: That’s staggering! Tell me, as CEO of New Directions for Women, how have you implemented strategies for treating women at your facility?

BF: I want to talk about treating women in general first, because I believe the model most used in our country is known as the Minnesota model of treatment for addiction. It was a model that was created by men for men, predominately Caucasian men. Women of course are very different than men, and it is not untypical of our healthcare industry to have most types of treatment and research initially done on men or for men. Over time, women get to be recognized and sometimes treated differently, so I think designing and implementing successful intervention strategies that holistically address the needs of women with addiction disorders requires racial, ethnic, cultural and clinical competencies that are different and more holistic.

Research has shown that such therapies as CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), experiential therapies, trauma therapies, all need to be integrated into the treatment of women, and yes, we do integrate all of those things at New Directions for Women. But I think our field needs to begin to make sure they are using research-driven, evidence-based best practices for whatever population or demographic or gender that they are treating so that they can guarantee the best outcomes of that care over time. They also need to make sure that if they are treating women, they are incorporating services that address all of the relationships, because women are relationship driven. Therefore, you have to address the needs of children, the needs of significant others, and other extended family members into the delivery of service. I think that when our field focuses on the individual needs of the person they are serving, the outcomes of treatment will become better.

BHC Journal: That makes perfect sense. Becky is there anything that I haven’t asked you that you think is important for industry professionals to hear with regard to the issues we’ve been talking about today?

BF: I think that we’ve come a long way. We’re a young field; we’re only between 50 and 65 years old, so in the scheme of things we are in our infancy and I think the greatest thing that any of us can do in this field is to listen to each other, keep dialogues open, be respectful of each other and be willing to continue to evolve and grow to the next professional level that we can, so that we can all be the best providers.

Reprinted with permission of BHCJournal.com

The Moment of Change – Intervention Approaches for Professionals is the largest conference of it’s kind geared to interventionists. Presented by Foundations Recovery Network, the Moment of Change runs from September 28-30 at the Breakers Palm Beach Hotel. The goal of the conference is to help interventionists apply clinical skills from a broad range of professional core functions, including alternative approaches to interventions. They’ll learn different therapy approaches and the mechanics of intervening, as well as advances in the field of addiction and intervention from practice innovations, and key philosophies of intervention. Additionally, intervention entrepreneurs will have a special opportunity to discover the strategic tactics necessary to start and operate a successful intervention business – guided by one of the industry’s most renowned leaders in intervention – Rebecca Flood.

Rebecca is President and Credentialing Board Co-Founder of the Association of Intervention Specialists (AIS), a network of interventionists located throughout the country and abroad. All members meet or exceed basic educational and performance standards and all adhere to the AIS code of ethics (listed at the end of this article.) In addition to her experience as an interventionist, Rebecca also brings to the table her business savvy as the CEO of a successful treatment facility in California. But that’s not all. You see, Rebecca, when a teenager, received a family intervention and became clean and sober at the young age of 15. Garnering a passion to help others, she went on to study at Johns Hopkins University, where she became the country’s youngest certified addiction counselor at 18. She studied with Dr. Vernon Johnson, the very man who essentially invented the formalized practice of intervention. Rebecca served as the in-house interventionist at Seabrook House in New Jersey and today is the leader of her of New Directions for Women.

Rebecca joins us today on BHC for the first in a three-part series to review the key points of her presentation next week on starting and building a successful intervention business. In our first online interview, Rebecca addresses how to create a strong vision and mission statement that will guide budding business leaders on how to define a unique niche in their respective markets. Next week, we’ll talk with Rebecca about how to create a solid business plan, how to establish a realistic and viable budget to support the plan, and, in our final interview the week after, how to develop a strategic marketing plan to grow the business.

And if you would like to attend The Moment of Change conference and learn from Rebecca and other industry experts, there’s still time to register for the South-Florida event at http://www.foundationsrecoverynetwork.com. To listen to Rebecca’s interview, click on the media player on this page, or read through the transcript that follows…

BHC: Rebecca, thank you for joining us on BHC. Your personal, educational and work experience is very influential in your success as an interventionist and facility CEO. Please tell us about that.

Rebecca Flood: My background is that I got clean and sober at the age of 15 as a result of a family intervention. When I was a year clean and sober, I went to school at Johns Hopkins University and got my counseling credentials and became the youngest certified addictions counselor at the age of 18. In 1979, I was trained by Vernon Johnson, [the very person who “invented” the process of intervention,] to do intervention work myself, and I’ve been passionate about it even since. I got clean and sober because an intervention got me into recovery, then I got trained in it and became passionate about it, and for the 26 years that I worked at Seabrook House in New Jersey, I was their primary interventionists. We did not contract intervention work out; we did it all in-house. And so that’s where my love and passion for intervention comes from.

When I came to New Directions for Women (in California) and started running my own facility, I ran out of time to be doing interventions on the side. And so my primary focus now is New Directions, but I’m still very passionate about intervention work. I got involved with the Association of Intervention Specialists (AIS) back in 2000, about 9 years ago, when I was still at Seabrook House.

When I founded AIS, which is the Association of Intervention Specialists, it was the first time that I knew there were people like me who did intervention work world wide, and I finally had somebody to talk to because doing intervention work is quite different then doing daily clinical work. Interventions come into a family system when it’s in its worst crisis and you have to pull on all of your clinical skills to really bring everybody together to meet a common goal, which is getting that family engaged in whatever clinical care they need to become a whole and healthy family again.

BHC: Before we get to the details of what it takes to start a business as an interventionist, let’s talk about what type of person it take to be an interventionist first and foremost.

RF: I think it takes somebody that is able to work under pressure, in crisis – somebody who would typically work at an E.R. You have to have that type of energy or momentum. It’s somebody who would be a firefighter, an EMT; it’s the personality in which you work best in crisis and that you’re very goal-centered; that while the crisis is happening, you’re able to take all of the players that are in crisis and get them over the crisis, into the solution. You must have extraordinary patience and be very clinically savvy.

BHC: Rebecca, later this month you’ll be speaking about how to start and operate an intervention business at the Moment of Change Intervention Approaches for Professionals conference. Rob Waggener, the CEO of Foundations Recovery Network (which presents the conference) was recently talking about the purpose of the conference. He said that when it started years ago, it was to help give a voice to interventionists because there wasn’t a particular association at the time, or standards, or any sort of road map, if you will. How have you seen the industry change over the years?

RF: In the years that I have been involved in AIS, about five years, we started a credentialing board. That is the first board of its kind. It’s not a certification yet, but we now have a nationally recognized registration for interventionists, which requires them to either hold a clinical license or an addiction certification that is nationally recognized. In addition to that, they have to take educational classes (this Moment of Change conference meets part of that requirement) and they have to do supervised interventions. Then they present to the credentialing body their credentials and their educational units and their supervision and then they can become board-registered interventionists.

So we are slowly seeing evolution of what used to be a renegade industry, where anybody could be an interventionist. It didn’t matter, you could just hang a shingle out because you thought it was a good thing to do and because that’s what you wanted to do, and today there is a way to make sure that you do have a registered interventionist that meets certain criteria. They carry liability insurance, they have really professionalized themselves. So we’re evolving. I would say we are the babies of the addiction treatment field. We are the last part of this profession that’s evolving to the professional level that will continue to evolve.

BHC: It’s certainly on the way up – and thanks to your leadership especially. Rebecca, when you talk about the credentialing process, what should come first – the certification and education before someone decides to move toward preparing for a business plan?

RF: It depends on if your business is only going to be an intervention business. I would highly recommend that you first go get the credentials that you need in order to have that business. If you have other types of services within your business that you’re able to launch and then want to add that, you can kind of do that as you go. Or, if you just happen to be a business person that wants to run an intervention business and you’re going to hire the right credentialed people, that’s another way you could go about it.

BHC: For those that want more information about credentialing, what is a good source of information for that?

RF: They can go to www.AssociationOfInterventionSpecialists.org. It’s the AIS website and that will lead to the credentialing board website. All you have to do is click on where it says ‘credentialing board’ and it will take you right to that website. The Illinois Certification Board manages our board registration credentialing for us, and we chose the Illinois Certification Board to manage it because they are the largest certifying body of addiction counselors in the country.

BHC: Once somebody has gotten to the point in which where they’re ready to start developing the tools they need to start a business, you have mentioned that the first important task is developing a mission and a vision statement. What steps are necessary to make that happen?

RF: The first thing to do in developing a vision and mission statement is always realizing that your mission is why you show up to do the work you do and the vision is what will occur if you’re successful in meeting your mission. It needs to be a shared vision and mission between all parties involved in the company. So if you are an entrepreneur and you’re a single practitioner, you can develop it on your own. If there’s going to be others involved, if you have business owners or it’s a partnership or it’s a non-profit organization with a board of directors, you need to really create something that is shared so that everybody buys into what the vision and mission is. You come together and you answer certain strategic questions, and as you answer those strategic questions, your vision and mission become very apparent to you. Once that vision and mission is really very clean and everybody is on board with both the vision and mission, you’re then ready to launch into developing your business plan.

BHC: Is there any place, either through the AIS website that you just mentioned or through perhaps other sites, where folks can see where other mission statements are if there confused about how to get moving on that?

RF: One of the best websites that I use that’s available to non profits is an organization called www.boardsource.org. You can go to that website and they have all types of information available on visions, missions, strategic planning, budgeting, marketing, both online resources and hard resources, that you can purchase through them and also through consultants that are available that can help you develop any part of your business that you may be struggling with.

BHC: Is there anything else that you’d like to say about the development of the mission or vision statement before we wrap up?

RF: I think that anybody who creates a vision and mission statement that really truly captures the heart of what they want to accomplish has the base for creating a very successful organization.

BHC: In our two upcoming talks on this topic of developing an intervention business, we’ll go over strategic planning and budgeting, financing issues and marketing strategies. We encourage readers to watch www.BehavioralHealthCentral.com for updates on when you can expect those follow up stories.

RF: Thank you so very much Robin.

Following are the AIS Code of Ethics mentioned in this article:

PRINCIPLE 1: Non discrimination

The intervention specialist must not discriminate against clients, organizations, or other professionals based on race, religion, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, mental or physical handicap, national origin or economic condition.

PRINCIPLE 2: Competence

The intervention specialist must recognize that this profession is founded on standards of competence which promotes the best interest of the client, the intervention specialist, this profession, and society. The intervention specialist must accept the need for ongoing education as an integral part of professional competence. The intervention specialist must recognize the boundaries and limitations of one’s own competencies, and not offer services or use techniques outside of these professional competencies. The intervention specialist must recognize the effect of physical and mental impairment on professional performance, and be willing to seek appropriate treatment for oneself or for a colleague.

PRINCIPLE 3: Legal and Ethical Standards

The intervention specialist must uphold the legal and accepted ethical codes which pertain to professional conduct. The intervention specialist must not use the affiliation with the Association of Intervention Specialists for purposes that are not consistent with the stated mission of the Association.* The intervention specialist who is aware of unethical or illegal professional conduct must report such violations to the appropriate certifying authority.

PRINCIPLE 4: Client Welfare

The intervention specialist must respect the integrity and protect the welfare of the person or group with whom the specialist is working. The intervention specialist must assume the responsibility for clients’ welfare either by termination by mutual agreement and/or by the client becoming engaged with another professional.

PRINCIPLE 5: Confidentiality

The intervention specialist must embrace, as a primary obligation, the privacy of clients and must not disclose confidential information acquired in teaching, clinical practice, training or consultation sessions, except when there is a clear and imminent danger to client or other persons.

PRINCIPLE 6: Societal Obligations

The intervention specialist must adopt a personal and professional stance which promotes the well being of all human beings. The intervention specialist must inform the public through active civic and professional participation in community affairs of the effect of addiction, and must act to guarantee all persons, especially the needy and disadvantaged, have access to necessary resources and services.

PRINCIPLE 7: Remuneration

The intervention specialist must establish arrangements in professional practice which are in accord with the professional standards that safeguard the best interest of the client, the specialist and the profession. The intervention specialist may not exploit relationships with clients or patients for personal advantage or satisfaction. The intervention specialist will not accept direct enumeration for making or receiving a referral of a patient.

Reprinted with permission of BHCJournal.com

AUGUST 4, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COSTA MESA – An episode of A&E reality show “Intervention” featuring nonprofit women’s treatment center New Directions for Women (NDFW) is scheduled to air September 15, 2008 at 9pm on A&E.

The patient was filmed upon arrival to New Directions in Costa Mesa with A&E Interventionist Candy Finnigan. Filming focused on her treatment with NDFW therapists, staff and Executive Director and CEO Becky Flood.

A planned “viewing party” for the patient to watch her episode of the show will be held on September 8th with friends, treatment professionals, and other patients of New Directions for Women.

New Directions also functions as the site of a monthly Intervention Workshop hosted by A&E Interventionist Ken Seeley.

ABOUT A&E’S “INTERVENTION”

The top-rated Intervention Television series profiles people whose dependencies on drugs and alcohol or other compulsive behavior has brought them to a point of personal crisis and estranged them from their friends and loved ones.

ABOUT NEW DIRECTIONS FOR WOMEN

For more than 31 years, New Directions for Women (NDFW) has served the community as the highest quality nonprofit residential treatment facility in Costa Mesa assisting women, families and their children to achieve sustained, responsible recovery from drug and alcohol addiction.

For more information regarding New Directions for Women or their involvement with A&E, please contact CEO Becky Flood at 949.548.5546 x604 or 949.244.2750 for Marketing Manager Kim Cartwright or visit www.newdirectionsforwomen.org.