I don’t even think I knew what a rehab center was until the Betty Ford Center came into being. Former First Lady Betty Ford decided to open the drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Rancho Mirage, California along with Ambassador Leonard Firestone. It opened its doors in 1982, which makes this year the 25th anniversary of its opening.
Why would someone so visible in the public eye open such a center? The First Lady decided to do it because she had fought an addiction and wanted a center that emphasized the needs of women as well as men. The center also recognizes how hard addiction can be on the family and children of those chemically dependent. There is a five day Family Program available for family members to learn how to deal with the addition of their loved one.
Maybe because it was opened by the First Lady or maybe because it was one of the best, the Betty Ford Center became known as “the” rehab for the stars. Who has checked into the Betty Ford Center? Among the stars are Keith Urban, Ozzy Osbourne, Stevie Nicks, Anna Nicole Smith, Elizabeth Taylor, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Billy Joel, Mary Tyler Moore, and Kelsey Grammer
The Betty Ford Center became part of our culture and we find it mentioned in many media outlets. The television show “ALF” used it once. When ALF had an addiction to cotton, Kate suggested they take him to the Betty Ford Center. The comic strip Calvin and Hobbes talked about “a desperate few who do things that land them in the Betty Ford Center.” Television character Murphy Brown spent a month in the Betty Ford Center. Even Bart Simpson once said in an episode of “The Simpsons” “When I grow up, I want to go to the Betty Ford Clinic” after the family had seen a musical based on the center.
While we sometimes talk about the center in jest, it is a great center that has more than 60,000 alumni throughout the world.