Addictions to drugs, alcohol and tobacco inflict devastating consequences on millions of Americans and their families. More than 600,000 emergency department admissions per year are attributed to abuse of either alcohol or drugs. An estimated 22 million Americans age 12 and older—or 9.4 percent of the total population—were classified with substance dependence or abuse in the 2002 National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health. For youths ages 12 to 17, the rate of substance dependence or abuse was 8.9 percent.

Prevention and treatment are key to combating addiction. To that end, the Foundation’s comprehensive array of programming is aimed at reducing underage drinking and drug use and at educating the public and key stakeholders about best practices in addiction prevention. New programming focuses on increasing the availability and quality of addiction treatment services.

Helping the millions of Americans struggling with addiction get high-quality treatment is an essential priority for the Foundation. The Paths to Recovery program aims at improving admissions and retention in treatment programs. From Acadia Hospital in Bangor, Maine, to the Perinatal Treatment Services Center in Spokane, Wash., Paths to Recovery helps 10 local treatment providers improve efficiency and keep patients engaged in recovery.

Unfortunately, resources for treatment are scarce, and many states are struggling to cope with spiraling Medicaid costs and limited revenues. The Resources for Recovery program, working with 15 state agencies, develops and puts into practice innovative financial management techniques for meeting the growing demand for longer-term drug and alcohol addiction treatment. Through Resources for Recovery, senior state officials devised plans for meeting treatment demands without jeopardizing state budgets, focusing on ways to broaden and strengthen Medicaid services, processes for pooling funding for treatment across purchasers, and methods for improving efficiency. If successfully applied, these techniques could redirect an estimated $1.2 billion or more in state funding to improve the quality of substance abuse treatment.

Oregon has already started using an innovative approach to provide low-income people addicted to alcohol access to residential treatment programs. Since Medicaid funding cannot be used to pay for housing, Oregon officials use separate state monies to finance housing and meal costs for low-income individuals at the residential centers, while using Medicaid funds to pay for the clinical treatment they receive there.

Reaching young people in the juvenile justice system who need substance abuse treatment is especially challenging. An estimated 63 percent of teenagers in juvenile corrections facilities do not receive needed drug or alcohol treatment, increasing the likelihood they will resume drug and alcohol use when released.

To address this problem, the Foundation’s national program, Reclaiming Futures^®, issued initial planning grants of $1 million in 2003 to each of its 10 program sites across the nation. The goal of each plan is to improve the extent and quality of treatment for drug and alcohol disorders for youths in the juvenile corrections system; establish coordinated social services for these youths; and mobilize communities to develop new opportunities in work and education for youngsters emerging from corrections facilities.

Support for treatment programs depends, in part, on how the public and policy-makers view addiction. The arts can put a human face on addiction and inspire compassion for those in recovery. “High on Life: Transcending Addiction,” an exhibit at the American Visionary Arts Museum in Baltimore, showcased the works of artists in recovery and presented artistic portrayals of people handling their addictions. The Washington Post praised the exhibit as one of its “Top Ten Local Exhibitions” and the Baltimore Sun called it “ambitious, disturbing, thought-provoking and supremely compassionate.”

Music, too, is often the art of choice to express concerns about substance abuse. Join Together/Demand Treatment, in conjunction with SHARE, a nonprofit group based in Nashville, produced a country-western music CD called “Songs of Hope, Awareness, and Recovery for Everyone,” featuring prominent musicians. The idea was conceived by a group of Nashville music industry veterans who wanted to put the venerable country music tradition of the drinking song to socially productive use. Tapping into celebrity allure and popular music formats, the songs on the CD chronicle a journey from darkness to light, from the illness and despair of drug and alcohol addictions to the strength and hope that treatment and recovery offer. The featured song, “When Love Rules the World,” is an uplifting ballad performed by contributing artists. Profits from the sale of the SHARE CD are expected to top $1 million and will be used to support local treatment initiatives in the Nashville area and other Join Together/Demand Treatment activities.