Obama Administration Names A. Thomas McLellan Deputy ONDCP Director
Appointment of Treatment Research Institute Co-Founder and Noted Drug/Alcohol Expert Signals National Shift in Addiction Policy
Philadelphia,
PA – April 10, 2009: The Obama/Biden Administration has
named A. Thomas McLellan, Ph.D. to the post of Deputy Director of the
Office of National Drug Control Policy. McLellan is a Pennsylvania native,
chief executive of a Philadelphia institution, the Treatment Research
Institute (TRI), and one of the nation’s leading drug and alcohol
experts.
McLellan got his start in the 1980s as a scientist with the Veterans Administration
and University of Pennsylvania where he led development of the Addiction
Severity Index and Treatment Services Review, two measurement instruments
premised on the then-novel view that addiction was a multi-dimensional
condition, with impairments in other life functions that had to be concurrently
addressed for treatment to be effective. Eventually, the premise came
to be embraced, with the instruments becoming widely used to measure and
improve the effectiveness of many forms of treatment.
In 2000,
McLellan and three other experts authored a report in JAMA pointing out
the similarities between addiction and commonly recognized, chronically
relapsing medical diseases like hypertension, type II diabetes and asthma,
arguing that like these other illnesses, serious addictive disorders cannot
be cured but can be effectively managed. The implications proved to be
significant. Today, most experts refer to addiction as a chronic illness
and call for longer-term care strategies patterned after medical models.
A firm believer in the transformative power of science, in 1992 McLellan
co-founded TRI as a translational center that would adapt and engineer
promising scientific findings into useful products and services that could
be broadly used throughout the field. Over the next seventeen years, McLellan
assembled a team of researchers and entered into intertwining collaborations
with universities, major treatment and prevention groups, and legal groups.
TRI became known for practical models of continuing care and monitoring;
criminal justice strategies as an alternative to jailing drug-involved
offenders; revitalizing the nation’s public system of addiction
treatment; engaging doctors and other primary care providers; and helping
parents learn skills to protect children from drugs and alcohol.
Beginning in 2006, McLellan recruited policy experts to TRI to help state and local governments promote quality improvement by revamping their purchasing, regulatory, and other administrative structures.
“We’re
sorry to lose Tom McLellan to higher office, but we’re not surprised
an innovation-minded Administration would recruit someone like him for
national drug policy,” said Constance Pechura, Ph.D., TRI’s
second-in-command who will assume leadership of TRI. “With his presence,
the Administration has created a formidable drug control team predisposed
to evidence and policies that ‘work,’” she said.
“Tom McLellan has been a leader in advancing the science of addiction
treatment and improving access to effective care,” said Carolyn
Asbury, Senior Consultant to the Dana Foundation and Chair of the TRI
Board of Directors. “He has pioneered the translation of research
into more effective clinical practices that have helped to achieve better
outcomes for individuals and their families. No one is better equipped
to help transform the nation's response to its drug problems,” she
said.
ONDCP was established in 1988 to advise the President and Vice President
on a drug control program for the nation, coordinating the activities
of multiple federal agencies toward that end. With Gil Kerlikowske, the
President’s pick for ONDCP Director, McLellan’s appointment
signals a shift to science-based treatment and prevention strategies –
including what McLellan calls “a long-overdue national look at our
prison policies; collaborative strategies among the prevention, treatment,
criminal justice, healthcare and education fields, and continued modernization
of specialty treatment and prevention centers.”
Announcement Receives Critical Acclaim from the Field
The Treatment Research Institute is a non-profit research and development organization specializing in science-driven reform of practice and policy in addiction and substance use. For more information contact Bonnie Catone, Director of Communications, at bcatone@tresearch.org or visit the TRI website at www.tresearch.org.
Behavioral
Interventions
Law
& Ethics
Treatment
Systems Research
Center
on the Continuum of Care:
Monitoring
and Adapting Addiction Treatment
Center
for Policy Research and
Analysis
Adolescents
Treatment
Research Solutions
Wharton-TRI
Center on the
Organization
and Management of Addiction Treatment
Clinical
Trials Network
Addiction
Severity Index (ASI)
Other
Assessment Instruments
Publications
Presentations
Archives
Training
Order
TRI Resources
Contact
Us
Sign
up for E-Alerts