Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation partners with Black, Indigenous recovery groups: "Everyone deserves recovery"
PLYMOUTH, Minn. -- Hazelden Betty Ford is taking a new approach to helping more people recover from addiction.
That's because the CDC says overdose death rates are up 44% for Black people and up 39% for Indigenous people. The data also shows that, in general, people of color are less likely to receive treatment.
Named after a former first lady who struggled with addiction, Hazelden Betty Ford is a system that stars praise for helping them face addiction.
Addiction is something Ann Finnerty from Minnetonka has known since she was young. She says she had her first joint at 12 and addiction took hold and took much away.
"First and foremost my ability to know who I was, self resect, values," Finnerty said.
In her early 20s, she decided to reclaim herself. She started going to 12-step meetings, where she found many who felt like her, but few who looked her.
"As a minority person, usually you walk into the room and we are the minority," she said.
"Historically yes, we have served primarily a white clientele," said Andrew Williams, Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion at Hazelden.
That's why Williams, a cultural anthropologist, was hired.
"Issues of economical inequality, lingering systemic racism, make our communities more vulnerable because they really drive hopelessness, despair, depression and create adverse childhood experiences," Williams said.
So, Hazelden is starting new scholarship programs, partnering with Black and Indigenous recovery groups, and widening their staff.
"The research is really clear that when we can link up patients, when we can link up patients with clinicians with common cultural groundings, that we see better outcomes," Williams said.
One of those new clinicians is Finnerty. The proud mother to two is now a licensed counselor leading BIPOC groups.
"We people in the BIPOC community, just have a few extra layers, generational trauma, cultural things that are happening right now," Finnerty said.
And now there's a safe place to peel back those layers move forward.
Finnerty says, "Everyone deserves recovery." And she is proof.
Hazelden has also started a free virtual treatment program for Indigenous families.