Downey Jr., Robert

(Robert John Downey Jr., 1965.04.04-    )  Actor.

Treated in Tucson

Robert Downey, Jr. has been in and out of so may drug treatment programs that one might question a facility's credentials if Robert hasn't been one of its patients.

There is no doubt about Sierra Tucson's credentials.  Downey has had at least two stints in the Tucson facility.  His first stay was in 1988 for cocaine addiction.  After the treatment he told New York Newsday that he had been so addicted that he had been willing to try anything from "rope to sterno."

Seven years later, his friend Sean Penn became so concerned about him that Penn took his car keys away, flew him to Tucson and checked him into the clinic.  The second stay lasted less than a day when Downey checked himself out.

On his second visit, Downey might have noticed a distinct change in the facility which had been opened in 1987.  As originally conceived, the 325 acre desert facility a half hour North of Tucson along Highway 89 was a campus for about 300 suffers of a host of mental problems including addictions.  Company medical insurance would pay most of the cost for a standard 30 day stay.

Then came HMO's and managed care.  Company insurance would no longer foot the bill, and Sierra Tucson looked elsewhere for patients--well heeled patients.  By the time of Downey's second stay, the bed count was down to 70, and most patients footed the $650-a-day bill from their own pockets.  The facility's stock in trade had become privacy, luxury, and intensive, shortened treatment programs.