Betty Ford Center

The Betty Ford Center is a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Rancho Mirage, California, co-founded by former U.S. First Lady Betty Ford and her friend, Ambassador Leonard Firestone, in 1982. Mrs. Ford's decision to undertake such a project followed on the heels of her own battle with alcohol and opiod analgesic addiction, and after her release from the U.S. Naval Hospital, she pursued the goal of creating a treatment center that emphasized the needs of women. Susan Ford, daughter of Mrs. Ford and the late President Ford, serves as the center's current chairperson.

The center is located on the campus of the Eisenhower Medical Center. It is noted for being the "rehab of the stars," as the treatment center used by many celebrities. Notable past clients include the likes of Billy Joel, Mary Tyler Moore, Kelsey Grammer, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Anna Nicole Smith, Elizabeth Taylor, Stevie Nicks, Ozzy Osbourne, Deidre Hall and Keith Urban.

Betty Ford Center in popular culture
On an episode of the TV show ALF, ALF is addicted to eating cotton, which causes psychedelic experiences for him. Kate comments "We can take ALF to the Betty Ford Center and see if they have a cotton program."

A foreword to one of the books of Calvin and Hobbes comments how as people grow older, they can find it hard to recapture the serendipity of childhood, going on to say "...a desperate few do the things that later land them in the Betty Ford Center. The rest of us, more sensibly, read Calvin and Hobbes."

In an episode of the The Simpsons, "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson", Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie go to see a musical based on The Betty Ford Center. Bart comments, "When I grow up I want to go to the Betty Ford Clinic." Marge replies "Better start saving now, It's very expensive."

In a comedic sketch done by Mad TV's Nicole Sullivan, The Vancome Lady character works at the Betty Ford Center as a sarcastic and condescending receptionist poking fun at celebrities and their families who are either residing at the center at the time or are trying to check in. Celebrity clients include Billy Joel.

The character Murphy Brown from the sitcom of the same name spent a month in the Betty Ford Center immediately prior to the pilot episode for abuse of alcohol and cigarettes.