An Interview with Jamie Deans: Professionals Treatment Program Manager

Jamie Deans, an Emmy-winning producer and editor for ABC World News Tonight, 20/20, and Dateline NBC, was introduced to drug addiction treatment through his own personal recovery, and has been working in the field of addiction for nine years.

After moving to Los Angeles to start a webcasting company, which was later sold to Yahoo, Jamie started a corporate communications consulting business, working with a variety of recovery-based businesses from interventionists to treatment centers. He worked with the Hanley Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, and then moved to the Talbott Recovery Campus in Atlanta, Georgia, where he spent two years assisting with marketing, outreach, and program development.

When he relocated back to Los Angeles, Jamie began working with Promises Treatment Centers, helping to develop and manage the Professionals Treatment Program, which provides physicians, attorneys, and other professionals the highest quality of care in a confidential, individualized setting. Along with Elements and Promises senior management, Jamie helped develop a team of people with a great deal of tenure in the addiction field. The result is a program that provides all the amenities and treatment options one would normally receive at Promises, but allows clients to recover among other professionals who face similar challenges.

“Promises has a 20-year history of treating physicians, attorneys, and people of accomplishment, so the Professionals Treatment Program was a natural fit,” Jamie explained. “The difference is that the current program now has formal relationships with state physician health programs in 14 states, three Canadian provinces, and numerous hospital wellbeing committees. The program also offers the Intensive Diagnostic Evaluations (IDE) that all of the state programs require.”

Jamie explained that one of the reasons the Professionals Treatment Program is attractive to certain clients is because they are placed in groups of people who are similar to themselves. “You can recover in a lot of different settings, but people tend to do best when they’re surrounded by people who have had similar life experiences prior to treatment and are likely to face similar recovery challenges after leaving primary treatment,” he added.

When asked how the Professionals Treatment Program at Promises works, Jamie explained that in many cases, a client will come to Promises, where he or she will be assessed and then admitted into either residential or intensive outpatient treatment.

“Clients have weekly consultations with the Director of Physician Healthcare, Dr. Robert Martin, an addiction psychiatrist, Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and a professor of psychiatry at the University of Southern California. Clients also participate in two double sessions per week (an hour and fifteen minutes instead of 45 minutes) with Dr. Stuart Learner, an addiction psychiatrist who facilitates the physician-specific process groups.

Two nights a week, before going to a 12-step meeting, clients attend a 60-minute peer support group made up of physicians who have already completed primary treatment, returned to practice, and are completing the required two to five years of post-discharge recovery monitoring and random drug screening. These groups are facilitated by Jim Conway, an MFT with many years of experience working in diversion programs,” Jamie said.

Clients also attend weekly Caduceus meetings, which are peer-led 12-step meetings for healthcare professionals. “They can discuss work issues and implementing a 12-step program with their peers,” Jamie explained.

He added that when professional clients leave treatment and return to work, they are referred to executive coaches who understand addiction, the recovery process, and the business world. Promises works with the client to develop a comprehensive aftercare program, including finding 12-step meetings in their community and appropriate therapists to help them advance their recovery and remain clean and sober.

When asked what he thinks sets Promises apart from other treatment centers, Jamie said: “We utilize evidence-based medicine and cutting-edge neuroscience with all of our clients. Unlike most other programs, Promises is very small, so we can provide highly individualized treatment and intensive one-on-one therapy with credentialed therapists. Promises also has a large, active alumni group, which is really important for people when they leave treatment. In addition, our attending physicians and psychiatrists are ASAM (American Society of Addiction Medicine) or APA certified, which is essential when building credibility with state physician health programs and medical boards.”

He added: “Another important thing about our program is that the professional clients are part of our general population—they don’t room with another doctor or professional. It’s important for them to realize that addiction is an equal-opportunity destroyer—it really doesn’t care about your medical degrees or professional accomplishments.”