The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence fights the stigma and the disease of alcoholism and other drug addictions.

For Over 50 Years, The Voice of Americans Fighting Alcoholism

1974 - 1983

"NCA[DD] has also maintained its advocacy role--a role that is positive. It is for the recovery of those who have the disease of alcoholism, and for the mitigation of its damage to our society. It is for all agencies and programs that contribute to these ends. NCA[DD] is up front in working to change attitudes, laws, and practices that work against positive results."          Thomas P. Pike, chairman, 1977. "There are an estimated one million recovered alcoholics in this country. Many of these found sobriety through NCA[DD] and its Affiliates, but only a small number are NCA[DD] contributors. If each recovered alcoholic gave only $1 per year and each of ninety million users of alcoholic beverages contributed the price of a single drink to NCA[DD], we would be in a position to bring this disease under control."          Gordon L. Steinhauer, chairman and          Luther A. Cloud, MD, president, 1978. When NCADD turned 30, public interest in alcoholism was at an all-time high. Government, industry, labor and medicine all had acknowledged its terrible toll on American society and the combination of these forces provided NCADD with what appeared to be unlimited opportunities for major expansion. With its charge to develop and conduct comprehensive health, education, training, research and planning programs in the areas of prevention and treatment of alcoholism, NIAAA, the "new kid on the block," logically began contracting with NCADD for assistance. As a result, in 1976 NCADD's budget peaked at $3.4 million, nearly five times what it had been before passage of the Hughes Act. Government funding accounted for more than 75% of the budget. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BOOSTS MARTY'S VISION This provided seed money for state voluntary alcoholism associations which in turn helped organize local NCADD Affiliates. Marty, who died at the age of 75 in 1980, lived long enough to see how the government had boosted her early vision: the number of Affiliates had risen to an all-time high of 223 and their advocacy efforts had helped to bring to at least 23 the number of states who mandated insurance coverage for alcoholism treatment. The federal government also facilitated rapid growth in the EAP movement. Eleven years of NCADD campaigning culminated in 1974 with AFL-CIO president George Meany and General Motors director James M. Roche agreeing to chair NCADD's all-star labor management committee. When NIAAA provided NCADD with funding to establish task forces in ten major cities a year later, NCADD published the first labor-approved EAP guidelines. By the end of the 70s, employees had access to 5,000 EAP programs. OPERATION UNDERSTANDING NCADD made its own unique contribution to the celebration of the nation's bicentennial with "Operation Understanding." This dramatic and emotional event brought together more than 50 well-known and widely respected figures--including astronaut "Buzz" Aldrin, actor Dick Van Dyke and congressman Wilbur Mills--to a press conference in Washington, DC where they announced their recovery from alcoholism. Newsweek later called it of the most important news stories of the 70s. But not long after NCADD had perhaps its greatest triumph in reducing stigma, the board was forced to face an extremely unpleasant reality. Though the Washington office effectively had used the collective power of NCADD Affiliates to rally constituent support for NIAAA appropriations, it also was clear that in a souring economy government money would not last forever. In 1977, the board resolved to rely only on private funds in the future and once again Brink was there to ease the transition. NEW OPENNESS ABOUT RECOVERY Fortunately, the tremendous reduction in stigma--symbolically affirmed when the U.S. Postal service issued an alcoholism stamp--had fostered social attitudes favorable to special events that could raise both funds and awareness. These included the Gordon McCrae Celebrity Golf Classic, an annual NCADD-sponsored tournament, which was attended by President and Mrs. Betty Ford in 1980. The new openness about recovery from alcoholism also meant that the Advertising Council finally accepted NCADD as a client and that insurance executive James S. Kemper, Jr., actor Jason Robards and baseball pitcher Bob Welch would declare "I'm Living Proof You Don't Have to Die for a Drink" in a hugely popular PSA campaign. The "medicalization" of alcoholism also was in full swing. In 1975, NCADD had funded a fetal alcohol study group which urged researchers to standardize techniques in their investigation of this recently discovered phenomenon. NCADD also offered homes to both the National Nurses Society on Addiction and the Research Society on Alcoholism which, with ASAM, began publishing Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Attendance at the annual medical/scientific conference had swelled to more than a thousand, and NCADD and ASAM jointly developed their own definition of alcoholism in 1976. Meanwhile a relatively new NCADD office had crafted an enormously influential--and radical--position statement that would keep the Washington office in particular very, very busy for the next decade. The era of prevention had dawned at NCADD. Now NCADD had a permanent voice in the nation's capitol. 1984 - 1993

National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.

244 East 58th Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10022 phone: 212/269-7797   fax: 212/269-7510 email: national@ncadd.org   http://www.ncadd.org HOPE LINE: 800/NCA-CALL (24-hour Affiliate referral)