Older Addicts Make Room for Sobriety
Using
lushly decorated accommodations,
a recovering alcoholic runs detox homes.
by: Liz
Balmaseda | from: AARP VIVA | Winter 2010
En español | You could say that Boris González
leads a double life. He's the son of one of Spain's most famous wine-producing families -
and a recovering alcoholic. He owns a beachside boutique hotel in Florida's Vero Beach,
wining and dining guests in a lushly appointed setting - and he runs treatment centers
specializing in older addicts.
Despite these apparent contradictions, he's a man
with one mission: to expand the scope of addiction programs beyond the standard 28-day
stint to a two-year process that can help addicts stay sober. With this in mind, he's
designed five recovery residences with a look toward a more in-depth and comfortable
approach to helping addicts turn their lives around. The core of the residents consists of
well-to-do, educated, overworked baby boomers.
González, who is a
51-year-old businessman with a designer's flair, decorated the homes with the same eye for
detail used in his hotel, the Caribbean Court. (And to help pay the centers' bills, he
uses at least 10 percent of hotel profits.) Photos of Cuba and González Bypass -
the Jerez, Spain, headquarters of his family's wine and spirits enterprise - dot the walls
of the Plantation Home and Villa Mizner, two of the signature homes. Residents dwell among
vintage furniture and sleep on crisp, luxurious linens. The deluxe factor is by design, a
gesture toward more upscale clients who may not otherwise opt for a sober-living
residence. Such centers, González says, aim to help recovering addicts transition
back into mainstream society.
And there are many who need that assistance. The
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reports that illicit drug use
among adults in their 50s has increased by more than 60 percent - a figure that Dr.
Barbara Krantz, CEO of the Hanley Center, a recovery facility in West Palm Beach, calls "a
global public health crisis" - and predicts the need for treatment among addicts age 50
and older will double by 2020.
| "My family has been making wine since 1835. I grew up
around alcohol, so it was as if you spend your life hearing that distilled water is good
for you, then one day somebody tells you it's bad for you." -Boris González |  |
| - Franco Vogt |
Older addicts are notoriously
difficult to treat, say the experts at the Hanley Center, which last year launched its
Freedom Program for Boomers. That generation is coming to recovery sicker and addicted to
multiple substances, making detox a far more complicated process. "Boomers take pain
medication even if they don't have any pain," says Juan Harris, director of Hanley's Older
Adult Recovery program, referring to addicts' dependence on drugs even when there are no
symptoms. Harris and other addiction recovery doctors say that boomers are more impatient
than other addicts and often seek quick-fix solutions, self-diagnose and self-medicate.
Their substance of choice? Anything from surreptitiously obtained prescription drugs to
heroin to Chardonnay.
González is driven by his own frenzied years of work
and excess, followed by a difficult struggle to kick his dependence on his drug of choice:
alcohol. The Cuba-born son of wealthy exiled parents - Cuban citizens who have deep
Spanish roots - knows about the challenges that addicts can face. "My family has been
making wine since 1835. I had a hard time getting sober," he says. "I grew up around
alcohol, so it was as if you spend your life hearing that distilled water is good for you,
then one day somebody tells you it's bad for you."
When I got out of law school, I
got sober. I went to a treatment center, and it saved my life," he says. "But that was a
30-day crash course in recovery." He soon discovered that staying sober can often take
more time, so he established his first recovery home in 1990. The centerpiece of the five
González Recovery Residences is a sprawling plantation-style mansion that sits
along the banks of Indian River, located where, as a wild youth, González partied
at keg bashes. Now 21 years into his sobriety, he says, "What I've tried to do is create
clean, comfortable homes where recovering addicts don't feel as displaced from the
comforts of their lives, where they can live with dignity."
One such resident, a
50-year-old Latina professional, has blossomed during the longer recovery period. The
residences, she says, provided the "safe, structured environment" she needed to "feel my
feelings while attending meetings, exercising, eating healthy and being in fellowship with
other like-minded individuals." The residents follow the guidelines of 12-step programs,
which include a process to help addicts and others with behavioral disorders in the
recovery process.
"Boris is committed to living the 12 steps, and part of that
means giving it away every day," says the patient, who asked to remain anonymous in
keeping with the 12-step traditions. Giving it away, she says, means sharing his
knowledge, experience and survival strategies. "He understands that this is an illness
that needs to be managed, and he provides his clients with access to the tools to help
them live without mind-altering substances.... The need for places like this is
tremendous."
González's residences are a lifesaver for addicts and their
loved ones too. Addiction, González notes, touches most families. "There are so
many people out there who are not getting sober," he says. "Society is putting a Band-Aid
on a hemorrhage."
González invites others to follow his example. If
businesses and other segments of society got involved in finding solutions, he says, fewer
addicts would relapse. Meanwhile, he's helping, one addict at a time.
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