History
A Son's Tragic Death Spurs a Mother's Vision
from the Los Angeles Business Journal, March 1994
Arlene Rosen, president of Michael's House, a chemical dependency treatment center in Palm Springs, remembers watching a television show while her son was still alive. "A woman was talking about her schizophrenic son," Rosen recalls, "and as she went on, it became uncanny - she was describing my son. It was Michael."
When the show ended, Rosen went to the telephone and tracked down the woman she had just watched. "We talked," she continues, "and it turned out her son, whom she had discussed as a schizophrenic personality, was in reality a drug addict. Just like Michael."
According to Rosen, there is a social stigma attached to drug addiction that can cause the parents, relatives and friends of the addict to remain in denial, often even after the addict's death. "You pick up a paper and read that a celebrity's son or daughter had a mysterious heart attack, their heart stopped. Someone twenty years old had a heart attack! Or an addict is described as a "schizophrenic," like the lady I saw describe her son on TV. Cancer is socially acceptable. Leukemia is. Psychological problems are. But AIDS isn't. And neither is drug addiction."
Michael Alan Rosen was a child born to wealth and privilege who attended grammar school in Bel Air and went to camp with Ron Reagan. After graduating from Beverly Hills High School he attended Menlo College, where in his sophomore year he was voted class president. Handsome, gregarious, and rich, by his senior year he had become a professional race car driver.
"I believe there was a lot of fear in the world of racing," Rosen reflects, "and the drugs, of course, can cover over those kinds of feelings."
At the age of 25, Michael Rosen was found dead in his hotel room in the Fiji Islands, where he had stopped off on his way to New Zealand, a frequent site of his races. Recently out of a drug rehab program and not wanting his girlfriend to see him relapse, he had locked her out of their room.
"People told me he was going to die," Rosen remembers. "And I told him he was going to die. Do you think I believed it? No way. And when I heard the news that he had died - well, you just don't believe that sound. You can't fathom those words." On a shelf in the spacious sitting room of Rosen's colorful Mediterranean-style house in Beverly Hills, sits a framed color photograph of Michael in his racing uniform, a vase of fresh flowers beside it.
In memory of her son, Rosen started the nonprofit Michael Alan Rosen Foundation which now runs Michael's House, The Treatment Center For Men, a program for chemically dependent and dually diagnosed men. Before admission of the first client, Arlene recruited staff with a clear sense that Michael's House would not be designed anything like conventional programs. Instead of training staff to process clients through an essentially standardized program, the staff were told that treatment had to be structured to meet the needs of each individual. Now, four years later, this essential difference has made Michael's House a popular choice for men seeking lasting recovery.
The desirable location, at the foot of inspiring Mt. San Jacinto in Palm Springs, is very private. Small enough for personal attention, admitting a maximum of 24 men, it maintains a staff/client ratio which is one of the highest in the field. Length of time in treatment is determined by an individual treatment plan which ranges from six weeks to six months. This program is affordable, making it acceptable to both insurance and managed care companies, as well as clients who choose to pay their own way.
Beyond counseling, Michael's House teaches recovery through living skills and personal accountability. The one place where Michael's House plays host to tradition is in its standards of uncompromising quality. The program is fully accredited by CARF (Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities), is medically monitored under the guidelines of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and follows the 12 step program of recovery.
"It's hard to talk about one's child or a relative being an addict," Rosen says. "We get calls all the time at Michael's House where parents or other concerned people don't want to give us their names. And at least part of that has to do with the social stigma attached to the disease. In a very real sense, that stigma stands in the way of our learning more about what addiction is, and about how to treat it. Michael struggled with it - with being an addict. I'd like to think he'd be happy to know I'm still fighting."
Today, Michael's House, The Treatment Center For Men serves a growing alumni of recovering men from all walks of life. Arlene Rosen knows that the realization of her vision means a better chance at an alcohol and drug-free life for many men, especially those who want a greater measure of individualized attention in their recovery, which is the philosophy that Michael's House is based on.
