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Pioneering addiction treatment doctor retiring
A pioneer in addiction treatment is stepping away from the recovery program he built in north Minneapolis. Dr. Peter Hayden applied a culturally sensitive approach at Turning Point. He leaves behind a very special legacy, but his work could grow with possible expansion plans after he leaves.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A pioneer in addiction treatment is stepping away from the recovery program he built in north Minneapolis.
Dr. Peter Hayden applied a culturally sensitive approach at Turning Point. He leaves behind a very special legacy, but his work could grow with possible expansion plans after he leaves.
Dr. Hayden is credited with helping a minimum of 26,000 people get sober. It’s a big number, but it may seem even bigger when you break it down. It equals 1.5 newly sober people in Minneapolis every day for his 47 years at Turning Point.
Dr. Hayden has a lot to be proud of, but it all starts with his sobriety. He earned his 50-year coin this year, and he keeps it nearby. But when he started his road to sobriety in 1973, he noticed the people and the messaging weren’t always relatable.
Three years later, he launched Turning Point to share his success with his community of mostly Black Americans.
"You've got to start with the culture," Dr. Hayden said. "Don't start with the Black. Start with the culture. And how many of us have the same culture or the same ways of living life? And then we'll see what it is."
Black men are now the most likely to die from an overdose, according to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics. And yet, not a lot of treatment programs are geared toward them.
So what Dr. Hayden has built is unique. And when he retires at the end of the year, he leaves it in the hands of Lori Wilson, whose father was like family to Hayden.
"He was Peter's mentor," Wilson said. "So it's kind of like this trickle-down effect. Like it's almost like I'm talking to my dad every day."
New leadership doesn’t mean a new approach after 47 years.
"We don't want to change things too much because we don't want to lose that magic," said Turning Point chairman of the board Alex Tittle.
Wilson takes over in January, but she’s already renovating the current spaces to make them homier to help people in recovery.
She plans to grow the outpatient program next year and hopes to eventually quadruple the 85 beds they have available for inpatient treatment.
Turning Point started partnering with Hazelden Betty Ford last year, and Wilson is looking at taking Hayden’s culturally sensitive approach to St. Paul, Brooklyn Park, and the Indigenous population of greater Minnesota.
"I'm looking for our next president to just do a great job," Dr. Hayden said of the successor he helped choose. "And all I ask you to do is apply that pressure because we've got a bunch of diamonds."
"He saved 26,000 to 30,000 people, right?" Wilson said. "I plan on doubling that."
Dr. Hayden isn’t just leaving it all behind, by the way. He’ll have an emeritus title, and he plans to act as an ambassador for Turning Point as long as he can.