A little more than five decades ago, Nashville businessman Robert Crichton, Sr. brought up the idea of starting a nonprofit alcoholism treatment center in Nashville to his friend and personal physician Thomas F. Frist, Sr., MD.
Crichton had recently returned from the well-respected Hazelden Treatment Center … forced to travel many miles from home to address his dependency on alcohol because there weren’t many other options in an era where addiction was seen as a moral failing rather than a disease.
While Frist thought it was a good idea, he was in the midst of getting Park View Hospital off the ground. The story goes that Frist wasn’t sure he’d have the time or energy that would be required to start such an important venture from the ground up. However, the physician’s wife, Dorothy, thought differently.
“By morning, Mrs. Frist had convinced him to do it,” Jay Crosson, CEO of Cumberland Heights, said with a chuckle. For Crosson, that decision to move forward with what would become Cumberland Heights turned out to be monumental from both a personal and professional standpoint.
Purchasing a farm on River Road in the western part of Davidson County, Cumberland Heights opened its doors in the summer of 1966 to offer treatment using the principles of the 12 steps with a focus on mind, body and spirit. “Originally, we only took alcoholic men,” noted Crosson. “We still use the farmhouse today for programs, but obviously the campus is much bigger now.”
Over the years, the scope of treatment has also widened to include drug abuse. Crosson said opiate addiction, including heroin, accounts for about 40 percent of treatment, with alcoholism being another 35-40 percent. The balance is made up of those with polysubstance abuse where a mixture of substances comes into play including alcohol, opiates, marijuana and meth.
Today the main campus encompasses 177 acres on the banks of the Cumberland River and is licensed for 137 beds for detox and residential stays for adult males, adult females, and adolescent males. In the beginning, Crosson said everyone stayed for 21-day or 28-day programs. Now, there are a variety of options to meet people at their point of need, including two residential emersion programs where individuals can stay 30-120 days.
Crosson said an important part of the program is recognizing the destructive nature addiction has on relationships. “Cumberland Heights had one of the first family programs in the nation,” he said. “We not only treat the patient, but we treat the family because addiction is a family disease.”
Typically, families will come in for a mini-camp in the third or fourth week to learn about the disease of addiction and available resources. Toward the end of the program, patients and families interact and work to repair fractured relationships.
In addition to inpatient programming, Cumberland Heights will soon have 10 outpatient locations spanning a good portion of Tennessee from Chattanooga to Jackson. The ninth program opened in Crossville on March 7.
“We’re getting ready to open our tenth intensive outpatient program on Music Row,” Crosson said, adding the program should begin accepting patients in the late spring or early summer. “We wanted something in the center of town that could address working people downtown.”
Not only is the Music Row location ideal geographically, but Crosson said it also dovetails nicely with their work within the music community with both famous and not-so-famous artists, producers, songwriters and musicians. The treatment center’s commitment to the music industry was evident earlier this year as MusiCares and Cumberland Heights joined forces in Los Angeles to host a panel discussion for the industry during the week leading up to the GRAMMY Awards.
“Musicians have special occupational challenges,” Crosson said of the temptations available on the road or in late-night studio sessions.
“One of the things a lot of people don’t know about are the celebrities who come through Cumberland Heights – and that’s the way it should be,” he said of the importance of protecting privacy and of treating everyone in the program in the same manner without regard to fame.
He added the program for musicians is largely the same as for individuals from other occupations. However, a day of training is made available for the musician’s work family including managers, publicists and others to help colleagues better understand the obstacles to sobriety and ways to promote a healthful lifestyle. Cumberland Heights also has a music room to allow artists and others to work creatively while in treatment.
“And there are meetings on Tuesday afternoons where recovering musicians and writers come out and talk to those in active treatment. These people have walked that walk,” he said.
Crosson is equally excited about the Music Row center’s proximity to Belmont University and Vanderbilt University. He noted there is a large national movement called the Collegiate Recovery Movement that helps students with addiction issues and supports sober living. “We want to be part of that community, as well,” he stated.
Everyone who participates in any of the programming is encouraged to participate in aftercare for a year or more, in addition to attending 12-step meetings. “Cumberland Heights is a safe place to come home to,” Crosson said of staying connected after the intensive portion of treatment ends. “It keeps them connected. In addition to that, you are with the same group of people. These people get to know you so if you don’t show up, they’ll call to make sure you are okay.”
Crosson knows from first-hand experience how essential that level of care and accountability is to maintaining sobriety. “I was a patient here at age 26 in 1989,” he explained. After successfully finishing treatment, he became an active member of the alumni association and became an aftercare leader. He joined the staff in 1993 and was serving as the organization’s CFO before stepping into the CEO position on an interim basis in 2014 and permanent basis in May 2015.
“Because of my addiction, I needed a new start,” Crosson said. “Cumberland Heights is a place of second chances and new beginnings. That’s true for patients but also many employees.”
In 1993, Crosson said there were about 100 employees. Today, the nationally recognized treatment center employs more than 350. Crosson said he thinks much of the success comes from being expertly focused on their core competency. Equally, though, he credits the “spirit of Cumberland Heights,” which he said is evident the minute you step on campus. That nurturing spirit is something the founders hoped people would find and latch onto when they arrived on the farm at a low point in their lives.
“It’s a place of refuge,” Crosson said. “Nobody gets here at the end of a winning streak.”
But over half a century, thousands have left with the tools to turn the game around.
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