The Addiction Alliance of Georgia, a joint effort of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and Emory Healthcare, has trained 233 clinicians and students in a five-day hands-on immersion since the program launched in March 2025. The Substance Use Disorder Education Program pairs classroom instruction with clinical observation in working treatment settings, and it is offered at no cost to participants through grant support that includes opioid settlement dollars.
The five-day format is the most concrete expression so far of a workforce-building effort the two institutions began in 2020, when they formed the Addiction Alliance of Georgia. State leaders have pointed to training as a more accountable use of settlement money, and the immersion is designed to add a measurable layer of addiction competence to the state’s health care workforce, one cohort at a time.
A Five-Day Window Into a Career in Addiction Medicine
The Substance Use Disorder Education Program is run through the Addiction Alliance of Georgia in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. Hazelden Betty Ford’s medical and professional education team delivers the curriculum, which is open to qualified students at Georgia-based higher education institutions and to practicing health care professionals seeking advanced training. Participants rotate through classroom instruction, clinical observation, and direct engagement with patients and care teams, structured the way a teaching hospital runs a clerkship.
The framing from program leaders is that the immersion treats addiction as a chronic medical condition rather than a moral failing. “There remains a significant gap between the number of individuals who need treatment and those who receive it,” Joseph Skrajewski, executive director of medical and professional education at Hazelden Betty Ford, said in the alliance’s announcement on the 5-day immersion. “This program helps future and practicing health care providers recognize addiction as a chronic medical condition and equips them with practical tools to reduce stigma and improve patient care.”
The five-day structure is short by clinical training standards, but Skrajewski positions it as an entry point, not a finishing school. Participants leave the immersion with continuing access to the alliance’s network, which the alliance says is the part of the program meant to outlast the week itself.
What the Five Days Actually Cover
The curriculum is built around the disease model of addiction and the neurobiology behind it, alongside the language clinicians use to talk about it. Sessions also cover screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment, the public health framework for catching substance use early in a routine visit. The program adds modules on prevention strategies, recovery-oriented systems of care, peer recovery support, interdisciplinary collaboration, and matching patients to the right level of care along the treatment continuum. Participants also get hands-on exposure to motivational interviewing, a patient-centered communication technique that has become standard in addiction screening.
The full curriculum, as the alliance lists it:
- The disease model and neurobiology of addiction
- The importance of language in reducing stigma associated with substance use disorder
- Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment
- Prevention strategies and recovery-oriented systems of care
- Peer recovery support and interdisciplinary collaboration
- Appropriate levels of care across the treatment continuum
Participants are graded not on cases but on a formal evaluation that measures changes in knowledge, stigma, and intended clinical practice behaviors before and after the immersion. The intent, program director John Martin said in a statement, is to make the program’s effect on practice something the program itself can document. “The aim is not only education but measurable change in practice,” Martin said. “By investing opioid settlement funds in this training, we are building a workforce better prepared to identify substance use disorder early, intervene appropriately and support long-term recovery.”
Why Georgia Is Paying for It Now
Georgia’s overdose crisis is the reason the dollars are flowing. The state recorded 2,029 overdose deaths in 2024, a rate of 18.1 per 100,000 residents, the fourth-highest annual rate since the federal government began tracking such deaths in 1999, according to the 2024 Georgia overdose death count. Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids were involved in 54% of those deaths, the largest share of any drug category.
The spending picture behind that death toll:
- 233 clinicians and students trained since March 2025 (Addiction Alliance of Georgia)
- 2,029 overdose deaths in Georgia in 2024 (USAFacts)
- 1,000+ Georgians die from opioid overdoses each year (the Georgia Opioid Crisis Abatement Trust)
- $1.3 billion in private opioid settlement funds flowing into Georgia over 18 years (Georgia Opioid Crisis Abatement Trust)
- 10,000+ Georgia residents have died of fatal opioid overdoses over the past decade (Healthbeat, February 2025)
The $1.3 billion in private settlement money, distributed over an 18-year period and managed by the Georgia Opioid Crisis Abatement Trust, was set up to address the impact of the epidemic. The trust, established in 2022, lists training and education as one of its five spending priorities, alongside prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery services. In December 2024 the trust’s overseer, state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Commissioner Kevin Tanner, awarded $70 million to 128 organizations across the state. The five-day immersion sits inside that pipeline as one piece of the workforce arm of a much larger spending plan.
A Broader Alliance Behind the Classroom
The five-day immersion is the most recent layer of a partnership Emory Healthcare and Hazelden Betty Ford have been building for six years. The Addiction Alliance of Georgia was formed in 2020 as a community-based effort to integrate addiction and mental health care, prevention, research, and educational work, with Hazelden Betty Ford providing management, training, and operations support. In 2022, the alliance opened the Emory Addiction Center on the campus of Emory University Hospital at Wesley Woods in Atlanta, an outpatient and intensive-outpatient treatment facility staffed by board-certified addiction psychiatrists, addiction counselors, licensed clinical social workers, and psychologists. The center welcomed its first patients on June 27, 2022.
The alliance’s training portfolio runs wider than the immersion. Hazelden Betty Ford runs a five-day Summer Institute for Medical Students in California, Oregon, and Minnesota, a customized Medical Education Partnership for academic and professional cohorts, and a three-day immersion for counseling professionals. The Georgia immersion is the regional version of those programs, with funding routed through the alliance. Grant support behind the Georgia program also covers scholarships for Georgia residents to attend the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School, which offers master’s degrees in counseling, a workforce pipeline the alliance says is meant to outlast the immersion itself.
The alliance’s clinical base sits at Emory Wesley Woods Hospital, 1821 Clifton Road in Atlanta, the same site where participants do their clinical observation, and the address listed on the alliance’s education page.
The Treatment Gap the Curriculum Targets
The framing inside the program is the gap between how many people in the United States need addiction treatment and how many receive it. “Nationally, only a small percentage of people who meet criteria for substance use disorder seek treatment in a given year,” Skrajewski’s statement read, listing limited training, stigma, and a lack of integrated care as the three named barriers. The five days are designed to attack those barriers from the clinician’s side.
There remains a significant gap between the number of individuals who need treatment and those who receive it. This program helps future and practicing health care providers recognize addiction as a chronic medical condition and equips them with practical tools to reduce stigma and improve patient care.
The disease-model curriculum treats addiction the way medical schools treat diabetes or hypertension, as a chronic condition that responds to long-term management, and the stigma module is built into the language clinicians learn to use with patients. The motivational interviewing component is meant to change the conversation in the exam room, where many patients first disclose substance use. For readers looking at the broader picture, a guide to addiction and recovery walks through the disease model and the standard treatment options.
The formal evaluation that runs before and after each cohort is meant to give the alliance something to point to when it reports back to funders, including the trust that manages the settlement dollars. Whether the immersion’s effect on practice shows up in patient outcomes is a measurement the alliance has not yet published.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can apply to the Addiction Alliance of Georgia immersion?
Qualified students at Georgia-based higher education institutions, including medical, nursing, public health, psychology, and social work programs, can apply, as can practicing health care professionals seeking advanced training. The program is offered at no cost to participants, with grant support covering the cost.
How long is the program and where does it take place?
The immersion runs five days and combines classroom instruction with clinical observation and experiential learning in the Addiction Alliance of Georgia and Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation treatment setting, anchored at the alliance’s location at Emory Wesley Woods Hospital in Atlanta.
How many clinicians has the program trained?
The program has trained 233 participants since it launched in March 2025, according to the alliance.
What does the curriculum cover?
The curriculum covers the disease model and neurobiology of addiction, language and stigma, screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment, prevention strategies and recovery-oriented systems of care, peer recovery support, interdisciplinary collaboration, levels of care, and motivational interviewing. Each cohort also takes a pre- and post-evaluation that measures changes in knowledge, stigma, and intended clinical practice.
Who pays for the program?
The program is funded through grants, including support from Georgia’s opioid settlement dollars managed by the Georgia Opioid Crisis Abatement Trust. The same funding also covers scholarships for Georgia residents at the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School, which offers master’s degrees in counseling.
The alliance runs the immersion on a recurring cohort schedule, with applications handled through the alliance’s education page.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Figures are accurate as of publication. If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use, contact the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
