Minnesota Model

The Minnesota model refers to a structured treatment model for alcoholism that began in the late 1940s and early 1950s in the state of Minnesota. Today, it is the leading model for addiction treatment for many alcohol and other drug treatment centers in the United States and worldwide.

The development of the Minnesota model of treatment for alcoholism and other drug addiction arose from the confluence of a series of historical events. [Page 548]This history is recounted in 1993 by Jerry Spicer, who was at the time president of the Hazelden Foundation. Three important events took place involving a small number of recovering individuals and health professionals strongly influenced by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). These three events reflect an evolution from informal and basic Twelve-Step programs to a more formal, multidisciplinary treatment program.

The first event was the development of what would become known as Pioneer House in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Originating as a treatment center based on the Twelve-Step model and receiving its first support from the city Relief Department in 1948, this recovery program came about through the efforts of Patrick Cronin, the first documented person to recover through AA in Minnesota. He and several other persons in recovery first began an AA club that allowed people to stay over night and that subsequently developed into a treatment center. This first AA-based treatment center was eventually housed in an old stone building that had been a potato warehouse. The program was christened Pioneer House and is now owned by Hazelden and has been renamed the Hazelden Center for Youth and Families, which offers services for addicted adolescents.

Another event important to the establishment of the Minnesota model was the development of Hazelden, a private treatment program for alcoholics first funded in 1949 by a group of Minnesota businessmen on land made available by Richard Lilly who was a local entrepreneur and philanthropist. Lilly was inspired to stop drinking and to help other alcoholics when he fortuitously landed unhurt on a barge full of sand in the Mississippi River after he drove off the side of a bridge while returning home drunk. The Hazelden program in the early 1950s was organized using the principles of the AA program of recovery within a therapeutic community located in a peaceful rural setting.

The third and most important historical event was the establishment of the original philosophy and initial treatment program that would become known as the Minnesota model by two professionals at the Wilmar State Hospital. Wilmar was the only state hospital in Minnesota that was required to accept alcoholics and addicts. Nelson Bradley met Daniel Anderson at a state hospital in Hastings, Minnesota, where Bradley was staff physician and Anderson was an attendant. Later, in 1950, when Dr. Bradley was named superintendent of Wilmar State Hospital, he hired Anderson as a key staff person. At that time, the hospital housed about 1,800 mentally ill patients, including approximately 100 inebriates (a term that was used at the time to refer to persons whose use of alcohol or other drugs caused serious harm). These inebriates were mostly legally committed chronic, desocialized, and homeless alcoholics. Bradley and Anderson recognized that alcoholics and addicts needed a specialized program at the hospital, separate from the mentally ill patients. The first major step was hiring alcoholics as counselors who were in recovery through the Twelve-Step program for the chemically dependent clients at the hospital. This resulted in a 28-day inpatient treatment program with participation in AA and family involvement. A multidisciplinary team was put in place that included physicians, psychologists, social workers, and clergy. Anderson was later hired as director of Hazelden in 1961 and brought with him the key components of the model.

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