The Addiction Treatment Machine
The Machine
The machine with its terrible trend of patient brokering, the horrible social media marketers, and the associated round and round circus is a relatively small problem.
The fact they exist is just symptomatic of a completely failed and questionable addiction treatment industry. In a way they are just a distraction from the real problem. From “accreditation” to “treatment philosophy” to “industry best practices” we should challenge all of it….it could be a mirage…an illusion of “healthcare”.
Marketing is just part of the industry’s buffoonery.
The machine gets away with this because of the stigma of addiction. Essentially you can do whatever you want to an addict because they just “need to shut their mouth and be grateful for whatever they get”….
The “addiction treatment industrial complex” is fine with business as usual and has no intention to innovate or fundamentally change anything they do.
The machine will double down on the current approach.
More of the same. 50% relapse rates…90% relapse rates (whatever number you believe)….works for their business model, as well as their pocketbooks!
“Bring him right back if he relapses”, is something families are routinely told over and over….another $20,000…
So when the overdose rates rise and the destruction escalates, the machine will respond with a push for more of the same. More insurance dollars, more self pay dollars, repetitive stays at the latest “state of the art” rinse and repeat facility. And the machine will scramble to justify its abysmal performance.
More “patient brokers” and “ambassadors” to parade out and make us all look like idiots. They will never run out of people in early recovery who are willing to do the marketing work. There is an endless supply.
…it’s the machine that I have issues with…not the “marketer”….the “marketer” is just a cog in the “machine”….
Fortunately for the machine, they have a built in justification for this mess…
- The patient just didn’t want recovery.
- He wasn’t ready
- He wouldn’t comply
- He didn’t follow through on recommendations
- His family enabled him to death…etc…
It’s never the provider’s fault…it’s always the patient’s fault.
There is ZERO chance the machine changes… the primary purpose of the “machine” is to protect and preserve itself and ensure all the pieces are well oiled and greased. The “machine” has no conscious or soul!
Are there programs out there willing to go against the grain?
Absolutely. Just not very many…. and they are marginalized. They probably aren’t allowed to sit at the same lunch table as the cool kids in the addiction treatment industrial complex…
We hold the above truths to be self evident…
Yours truly, Richard Jones
