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Haymarket Center is proud to announce it has once again been awarded on Newsweek’s list of America’s Best Addiction Treatment Centers 2024. This prestigious award is presented by Newsweek and Statista Inc., the world-leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider.

The America’s Best Addiction Treatment Centers 2024 list awards the leading 400 addiction treatment centers in the US. Facilities in the 25 states with the highest number of addiction treatment centers, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), were included in the survey. For the first time, four region lists were included in the ranking.

The list is based on three data sources:

• National Online Survey: Over 4000 medical professionals and managers/administrators working in addiction treatment centers were invited to recommend leading facilities in their respective U.S. states.
• Accreditation Score: Accreditation data on addiction treatment centers provided by SAMHSA.
• Google Reviews: Reviews from Google were included as a measure of patient experience.

Haymarket Center is honored to be acknowledged on Newsweek’s list, reflecting our dedication to providing outstanding care and support for those seeking addiction treatment.

“Being recognized for the second year in a row underscores our steadfast commitment to excellence and superior patient care,” said Dr. Dan Lustig, President & CEO of Haymarket Center. “I am proud to work alongside our dedicated Board of Directors and staff who work tirelessly to ensure everyone has access to high-quality care.”

Nearly 50 golfers, gathered at the beautiful Dunes Club in New Buffalo, MI at the end of June for our 8^th annal Golf Outing fundraiser. This event helps Haymarket Center raise crucial funds that ensure we are able to continue providing over 12,000 people a year lifesaving substance use disorder treatments and interventions. Our Golf Outing also allows us to bring supporters together in a fun, casual environment to connect others and Haymarket staff, appreciate the stunning Michigan outdoors, and discuss how we can be part of the solution in substance use disorder treatment and prevention.

While supporting Haymarket, golfers competed for the titles of team lowest score (Dunn-Harrington), closest to the pin (Derek Schoonhoven) and longest drive (Stephanie Cherntorycki & Matt Schrock). Some of our donors also walked away with prizes from our raffle, including a vacation in Mexico, tickets to local concert venues, and stunning Bose headphones.

Check out some of the photos from this event and keep an eye out for next year’s Golf Outing and Raffle to grab tickets or sponsorships before they’re gone!

Haymarket Center is thrilled to welcome Dr. Dan Sullivan to our Board of Directors. Dr. Sullivan has worked alongside Haymarket Center for more than five years as a member of the Leadership Council before joining the Board of Directors this summer. He has a long career in the healthcare industry, including serving as a clinical cardiologist at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital before moving to executive positions at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital, Edward Elmhurst Healthcare and Endeavor Health prior to his retirement. Dr. Sullivan joined Haymarket Center for a brief interview to introduce him to our stakeholders – like you!

Q: What initially got you interested and involved with Haymarket Center? 

A: I saw that there was a need at Edward Elmhurst Health for more expansive treatment for patients with SUD, especially those who had unique challenges, like being under or uninsured. Then, Lee Daniels [the chairman of Haymarket Center’s Board of Directors] introduced me to Haymarket Center which could meet that need. I started a partnership with Haymarket to provide a more complete strategy, to make sure all of our SUD patients were able to get treatment.

Q: You’ve had a long career before getting involved with Haymarket Center, what experiences have you had that have prepared you for this involvement with Haymarket Center? 

A: I have 33 years of direct clinical experience with patients as a cardiologist, but I also bring 10 years of executive leadership experience to the table. I focused on the strategy, design and implementation of patient care at the hospital level as well as for the broader medical group. When it comes to experience more specific to Haymarket’s mission, I served as executive sponsor for the Opioid Initiative at Edward Elmhurst Health for six years. I was responsible for how that initiative impacted internal programs and also collaborated with external organizations like Illinois Hospital Association, Haymarket Center, and other healthcare institutions.

Q: What excites you most about this new position on our Board? 

A: As a member of Haymarket’s Board of Directors, I think I can help translate the needs of healthcare organizations regarding SUD treatment in a comprehensive way. It also gives me the opportunity to be a bridge to other organizations like I was with Edward Elmhurst Health.

 Q: Even though you’re just joining our board now, you’ve been involved with Haymarket Center for over 5 years. Where would you like to see Haymarket Center 5 years from now, with your involvement? 

A: I would like Haymarket Center to be seen more as an integral partner to healthcare organizations in need of substance use disorder services. I’ve seen the partnership between Edward Elmhurst Hospital and Haymarket Center as a great success, and I would like to see Haymarket Center have similar partnerships elsewhere. When it comes to treating patients with substance use disorders, patient success is the ultimate victory for everyone involved in the treatment process. 

Q: There are so many misconceptions and assumptions surrounding SUD and the people who struggle with it. What is one misconception you hear most often, and how would you respond to it? 

A: That once affected by SUD that person will always be a “weak link.” The truth is that successful treatment can lead someone who has struggled with substance use disorder to be one of the most solid and productive individuals in an organization and society as whole. There’s no reason to take recovery as something that puts someone at a permanent detriment. 

Q: Outside of your career and involvement with Haymarket Center, what do you like to do? What hobbies do you have, or what’s your favorite way to unwind after a busy day? 

A: I love anything I can do with my family, spending time with my 3 children and 4 grandchildren. I particularly like golf and biking, especially when I can do them with my family or significant other.

Q: If you could have dinner with anyone (alive or dead) who would it be and why? 

A: My mother. She died when I was in my early 20s, before I had a real understanding of all that she had done for our family. She faced a lot of struggles with little help, and I would like the chance to express my gratitude for what she did and share some of my successes with her.

In recent years, Haymarket Center’s mission of helping people recover from substance use disorder has led us to several expansions of our outreach efforts. The outreach program, which initially began at O’Hare airport, works with people experiencing homelessness and housing instability, connecting them to necessary resources and providing a safe place to recover from substance use disorder. Since its inception, this program has expanded to include street outreach, in addition to outreach on the CTA Blue Line.

Now, thanks to funding from the Illinois Regional Care Coordination Agency as part of their Community Outreach and Recovery Services program, Haymarket Center will be expanding direct street outreach across Chicago’s South Side that will meet the most vulnerable people in Chicago where they are, in temporary shelter encampments, public libraries, shelters, food pantries, and other areas where individuals experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity may be found.

The specialists on our outreach team work consistently and collaboratively with other outreach organizations, building trust with our organizational partners, and most importantly, the population of people that need Haymarket’s services. When Haymarket outreach specialists can work within these communities consistently, they’re not only able to build trust with people experiencing homelessness, they’re also able to provide consistent follow up and offer deeper services that individuals may not identify as a need when they first interact with Haymarket teams.

When Haymarket outreach specialists interact with a person experiencing homelessness, the first step is identifying what that person may need. At Haymarket Center, we provide screenings to all our clients, and our outreach specialists will be ready to link those who need it to medication assisted recovery programs, opioid and substance use disorder treatment, housing services, and other recovery support services. Staff will provide transportation, and ensure a “warm handoff” to these housing and recovery programs.

The areas that Haymarket Center’s Outreach Team will be expanding into were chosen because these areas have seen far too many overdoses, sometimes as many as 300 in 2022 alone. These areas have also been impacted by a high poverty rate, with over 12 percent living under the federal poverty line. All of the target neighborhoods are also among the 17 neighborhoods most affected by gun violence, and have been the focus of the Reimagine Public Safety Act.

Even with the challenges these areas face, our Outreach Team is well equipped to break through those barriers and help people experiencing homelessness get the assistance they need. Last year alone, our outreach team connected nearly 500 people seeking shelter on the Blue Line to substance use disorder treatment, housing, and primary medical care. We are proud to be able to keep expanding that work, and hope this year far exceeds that number.  

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago announced on Friday, June 21, 2024, its intention to intervene in a pending lawsuit against Itasca, Ill., alleging the village engaged in unlawful disability discrimination in reviewing and ultimately denying a zoning request filed by Haymarket Center to use its property as a treatment center for people with substance use disorders.

Following an exhaustive Department of Justice investigation, the complaint contends that the village:

• engaged in disparate treatment by employing a host of highly anomalous tactics to frustrate Haymarket’s application for zoning approval,
• concocted a pretextual narrative that the treatment center would impose severe economic harms on the region, while also fanning the flames of residents’ fears by issuing numerous public statements disparaging Haymarket and its supporters, and 
• failed to fulfill its accommodation obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act prior to denying Haymarket’s zoning request.

We are heartened by this development and remain hopeful to finding a resolution with Itasca leaders.

With their intention to intervene, the DOJ joins us in reinforcing equality and fairness in healthcare, addressing discrimination and inequality against those with substance use disorders, and protecting vulnerable populations by ensuring access to life saving treatment.

For more, you can watch this NBC 5 segment featuring Haymarket Center President and CEO Dr. Dan Lustig. Additional coverage on the DOJ’s announcement can be found in the Daily Herald, Crain’s Chicago Business and FOX 32.

Haymarket Center’s Youth Prevention Program celebrated National Prevention Week with a series of events focused on engaging students in fun, free, and restorative activities. The Youth Prevention Team brought art supplies, board games, substance misuse education materials, and a joyful presence to schools across the south side of Chicago. The Youth Prevention Team was excited to bring supplies, many of which were provided by Haymarket Center’s donors through our Amazon Wishlist, to schools that may not otherwise be able to provide them. Check out this video to see what the students made.

Sometimes, the work of prevention is about fun and games. Haymarket Youth Prevention Specialists created an event for students to engage with school staff as well as Haymarket team members in a variety of games and activities at different stations. Many tables handed out raffle tickets to kids, which they could turn in for a prize at the end of the event. These programs were designed by Haymarket staff to engage students in Social Emotional Learning, helping youth build healthy resiliency, a crucial part of substance use disorder prevention. This connection between emotional regulation and substance use has attracted more attention recently, as Dr. Alexandra Donovan attested to in her study presented at The Endocrine Society’s annual meeting earlier this month. “Early life stress and early puberty have both been associated with early substance use” said Dr. Donovan, with some estimates suggesting that early life stress can increase an adolescent’s likelihood of earlier substance use by 20%. For more on this research, you can read the Endocrine Society’s post here.

With these events, Haymarket’s Youth Prevention team helps young people pair education on substance use disorders with healthy alternatives to reduce stress or cope with environmental factors outside of their control. In each of the nine schools Haymarket’s Youth Prevention Team works in, they are the only staff dedicated to substance use disorder prevention. With limited budgets, many of those schools are also unable to provide social workers to their students. Being able to provide a therapeutic environment and consistent positive presence will have lasting impact on the youth Haymarket engages with.

“This whole year has felt like such a success” said Spencer Jones, Supervisor over the Youth Prevention Program. “Red Ribbon Week, National Prevention Week, and just the general support from Haymarket Center” have been the highlights of the year for Spencer, who says thank you to all the donors who have helped support the program’s growth this year.

Nearly 500 guests gathered in the Grand Ballroom of the historic Hilton Chicago for Haymarket Center’s third annual Gala on Saturday, May 4. Donors, volunteers, and staff came together to celebrate Haymarket Center’s work as a leader in the field of treatment for substance use disorders and behavioral health. The event raised nearly $600,00 to support Haymarket’s mission.

With dinner, dancing, video testimonies, awards and a lively auction featuring confetti cannons scattered around the ballroom, the night truly felt like a reminder of the joy Haymarket Center can bring to patients who come here to get help in their recovery.

Irika Sargent, CBS news anchor and long-time volunteer for Haymarket Center, emceed the night, passing the mic to our incredible Gala Chair Thad Wong and Co-Chairs Heather Way Kitzes and Myles Mendoza.

While it doesn’t take personal experience to feel a personal connection to the work Haymarket Center does, each of the Gala Chairs shared their own experiences with disordered alcohol use. Each hoped that their own experience with recovery, and their own happy, successful, and most importantly – fulfilled – lives after recovery could serve as an inspiration.

Each Gala Chair also recognized that while the people who helped them along their recovery journey made their lives now possible, not every person who struggles with substance use disorder has people they can rely on. As Thad expressed, he considers it his responsibility to use what he has now to make sure that people have support of their own, the support of Haymarket Center. Former Haymarket Center patient Kat also shared her incredibly powerful story of treatment and recovery. Kat credits grace from God that she, at 33 years old, found the strength to face the fear and find recovery. “The big change that had to happen for me to make it through this program and remain sober was that I became honest.” When she got honest with herself, when she engaged with Haymarket Center’s evidence-based treatment programs centering Kat the whole person, not just her substance use disorder, she found her recovery.
Watch Kat’s story

This year’s Gala also recognized Michael and Carol Bilder, Deputy Governor Grace Hou, Adler University President Raymond Crossman, and Tonja Pastorelle for all that they have done for Haymarket Center and the larger field of Substance Use Disorder treatment and recovery.

From everyone here at Haymarket Center, thank you so much to everyone who made this year’s Gala such a beautiful experience. And for everyone who couldn’t make it this year, Haymarket Center can’t wait for you to come next year!

Last month, Haymarket Center celebrated the official opening of West Loop Pharmacy with Senator Dick Durbin, Vice Mayor Walter Burnett Jr., DHS Regional Director Michael Carbonagi, and many more. West Loop Pharmacy provides Haymarket Center patients with free or low cost medication, as well as private one-to-one consultation with a pharmacist. It also has retail space open to the public that includes a job-training component for individuals in recovery.

“Too often, individuals in treatment for substance use and mental health disorders face barriers filling their prescriptions, or affording them,” Haymarket Center President and CEO Dr. Dan Lustig said before the ceremonial ribbon cutting on Monday, May 13^th. “The new pharmacy will allow us to complete the continuity of care, offer critical medications at a discounted rate, and empower our patients to build a relationship with a pharmacist.”

In addition to increased access to discounted medications, patients will be given an opportunity to receive skills-based training at the pharmacy through Haymarket’s Supportive Employment program. Through handling a second register in the retail space of the pharmacy, patients will learn hands-on skills that will help prepare them to re-enter the workforce or launch a career. The retail space is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Check out this piece on the Ribbon Cutting for Haymarket Center’s West Loop Pharmacy by WGN.

For nearly 50 years, Mike suffered from a substance use disorder. But, today, at the age of 71, he has reclaimed his life. Like many of the 12,000 people Haymarket Center serves each year, Mike’s story is one of resilience, second chances, and hope.

“Your addiction talks to you in your own voice. It will tell you what you can and cannot do.”

A few years ago, Mike was referred to Haymarket through the Department of Veterans Affairs. Although this wasn’t his first time at Haymarket, this time something was different within himself, and he prioritized his health and his recovery.

What stuck out for Mike was our staff’s dedication to treating our patients’ whole person, physical and mental health, beyond just that of their substance use disorders.

“The staff kept making their suggestions: ‘Oh it seems like you got a lot going on, but you haven’t had any time to focus on you.’ I thought what I was doing was focusing on me. But what they meant was focusing on me, my behaviors, my thinking,” Mike explained.

That is what Haymarket Center’s evidence-based approach to treatment is all about: holistic care, centered on empathy, helping our patients recover from substance use disorders, but also recover from the impact that lifetimes of struggles have had on them. Because of the generosity of our donors, we are one of a few organizations in Chicago providing substance use disorder and mental health treatment 24/7/365.

“I’m a 71-year-old man just now beginning to live life on life’s terms. I’m not mad at it, I’m grateful,” Mike explained. When Mike began focusing on his thinking, he realized how much it had been holding him back. Mike credits his case manager in our Community Integration Program with having a huge impact on his recovery. Because of him, Mike has what he calls his “three Cs. Cognition, that’s your thought process, Choice, and then Consequences.” Recognizing this has been monumental in Mike’s recovery.

“If I had known it would have been this sweet, I would have quit a long time ago,” Mike said.

In his recovery, Mike has found a new passion for giving back – to his community, to people struggling with recovery and, to Haymarket Center. Mike participated in an internship at Haymarket that trains individuals in recovery for positions in the behavioral health field. For nearly two years, Mike has worked as a case manager at Haymarket, inspiring others in their recovery journeys.

“I look forward to coming here every day when I’m working. To see the miracles that can happen. Because they do, they happen.”

While we celebrate Mike’s success, we recognize that there are countless others like him who are still fighting their own battles.

With your help, our staff, including Mike, will be there when we are needed, ready to transform as many lives as possible. Together with you, we have the power to address the serious health problems our patients face, day after day.

“We have this saying. We’ll carry you until you’re able to stand on your own” and that’s what they did here at Haymarket. And I’m able to stand,” Mike said.

Please consider donating to Haymarket Center to support more ‘miracles’ like Mike has experienced.

When Bobby came to Haymarket Center, he wasn’t sure what to expect. “I came in here with a different kind of mindset and expectations” he said. He had the idea he could “come here use Haymarket for getting clean, stay a little while, maybe get a job, get some money saved up, go and get the rest on my own.” In Bobby’s mind, getting out was the goal, and the sooner it could come, the better.

“The first suggestion that staff presented was ‘take your time.’ I took that very serious,” Bobby remembers. It wasn’t an easy suggestion to take, and there were times when Bobby wasn’t sure he could do it. “I was looking for a reason to stay, and all I saw was a thumbs up and a smile,” he said. “I knew no matter what I’m going through, the old is worse. What I was going through I knew was so strong on me, but I wanted to stay.”

So, Bobby stayed. When Bobby thinks about this period, he can still name the staff, from all over Haymarket’s facilities, that had a massive impact. He remembers a supervisor who knew that he was in an unstable financial situation and made sure he could stay in a residential program after he graduated from medication assisted treatment.

“Doing this, I had to stay away from some people, even some family members. Not even out of bitterness, I knew I had to stay away for safety,” Bobby said. That’s why each staff member was so important to him. This is a central part of what Haymarket Center does – treating the whole person, not just the substance use disorder. Seeing Bobby when he needed a smile and encouragement, ensuring Bobby had a way to stay safe and housed with residential treatment programs, and just getting to know Bobby the person, more than Bobby the patient.

Those are some of the reasons Bobby is working to join Haymarket Center’s staff on a more permanent basis. Bobby is currently participating in Haymarket’s internship program for individuals in recovery, while also pursuing his GED. “It’s all about giving back. That’s all I am today. That was another suggestion I took” he says, remembering all the speakers who would come and talk about their experience with recovery and how it felt coming back to help others. “They are walking miracles, telling their story,” he said.

Through the internship program, Bobby has found meaning in being able to help others and is proud of what he has been able to accomplish. “I work in detox; I see serious trauma every day,” he said. His ability to help those with complex needs has surprised himself. “It’s my higher power working through me. Because I’m in the right place now,” he said.

Bobby hopes his story inspires others. “I get amazed at the feedback I get from patients and clients, staff, partners. ‘Man you’re doing a great job’ ‘I’m glad you’re here,’ ‘I’m glad to talk to you.’”

“I can see why I do this now, and I know I’m properly placed. It makes my day to help someone every day. The thought I wouldn’t be able to help somebody today, that would bother me. That’s who I am today. It not only feels good, it feeds me,” he said.

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