Biological, psychological and social factors in Betty Ford case

PSY/480
October 14, 2013
According to the coalition of drug and alcohol centers there are ten million drinkers in the world and of those two million are alcoholics; also the abuse of prescription medication has risen five hundred percent since 1990. Addiction and drug abuse have been focal points of politicians such as Nancy Reagan and the D.A.R.E to say no campaign. However, it was another first lady that began a spearhead campaign for the treatment of such an illness. Betty Ford and the Betty Ford center catered to the therapeutic treatment of addicts. Group C will give a brief description of the Betty Ford case study. The biological, psychological, and social factors involved will be discussed. Finally an example of a clinical intervention will be illustrated.

This case concerns Betty Ford who is the widow of former president Gerald Rudolph Ford. In the period of time she spent as First Lady, she had a strong influence in the United States as a spokeswoman for breast cancer and the women’s movement. Her most important influence came about after her husband lost the presidential election in 1976 (Meyer, Chapman, & Weaver, 2009).

A couple of years later, Betty Ford revealed to family that she had an addiction to drugs and alcohol. She started treatment at a hospital about one week later. The treatment program lasted a month and played a huge role in creating a passion in her to do something positive with her disorder and help other people (Meyer, Chapman, & Weaver, 2009).

This passion led to the creation of a clinic for people who are going the same addictions as she experienced. This clinic is known as the well-known Betty Ford Clinic for the treatment of alcohol and drug addiction (Meyer, Chapman, & Weaver, 2009). The clinic has a time limit with the goal of abstinence