Brattleboro Retreat

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name = Brattleboro Retreat
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caption = Modern view of the western side of the Brattleboro Retreat campus
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location = Linden St. and Upper Dummerston Rd
Brattleboro, Vermont
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added = April 12, 1984
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governing_body = The Brattleboro Retreat is a private, non-profit psychiatric hospital that pioneered mental health care in the United States. It is located on over convert|1000|acre|km2 of land between the Connecticut River and downtown Brattleboro, Vermont. It treats all psychiatric issues through every modern modality, from outpatient addiction treatment to full hospitalization. It operates as a resource of Retreat Healthcare and is a member of the Ivy League Hospitals. ["Brattleboro Retreat: The First 150 Years", Best Books (1989)]

History

"The Retreat", as it is known, was founded in 1834 by Anna Marsh. She was the widow of Dr. Perley Marsh, whose attempts to treat mental illness were frustrated by the lack of appropriate existing treatments. Marsh endowed the hospital (originally known as the Vermont Asylum for the Insane) with $10,000 from her estate. Her wishes were that the hospital exist independently in perpetuity for welfare of the mentally ill. ["Brattleboro Retreat: The First 150 Years", Best Books (1989)]

Taking some inspiration from the York Retreat in England, the Brattleboro Retreat originated as an alternative to demeaning prisons and treatment methods. It focused on moral treatment that viewed mental illness as a medical condition rather than a character flaw or result of sin. ["Funk and Wagnall's New Encyclopedia", Volume B. Boston] The treatment methods emphasized fresh air, physical activity, educational enrichment, therapeutic farm and kitchen work, and supportive staff. It diverged from European moral therapy by not focusing on whether or not a patient was "moral" in their behavior. Some of the techniques used at the Brattleboro Retreat were influenced by the Quakers and Benjamin Rush, a physician and American revolutionary. ["Brattleboro Retreat: The First 150 Years", Best Books (1989)]

Leader in Humane Treatment

The Brattleboro Retreat has been known throughout its history for adhering to its humane founding while integrating the newest methods of care. Instead of confining patients to a solitary existence, it actively engaged their strengths. The administration established these world firsts: patient-produced newspaper, bowling alley, chapel, theater, gymnasium, recreation fields, patient chorus, book discussion groups, outing club, working hospital dairy farm, patient-managed enterprises, and the first hospital swimming pool anywhere. Patients were brought on frequent trips and the community would join the patients for events. The facility does have some locked units but there has never been a fence separating it from the community. Many aspects of the Brattleboro Retreat's medical care and physical design have been adopted by hospitals around the world. ["Brattleboro Retreat: The First 150 Years", Best Books (1989)]

Always known for its high quality of care, the Brattleboro Retreat cautiously approached methods like ECT and utilized them in a fairly limited capacity. Most patients have always enjoyed a much greater degree of freedom than at other institutions. The use of windowed bedrooms instead of cages or cells meant that patients never suffered the horrors that befell those at many "asylums". Due to rapid construction, patients had large private rooms even as overcrowding became an issue at other hospitals. This has led many historians to conclude that the Brattleboro Retreat is among few long-established psychiatric hospitals with an unblemished history. This dignity ended for many patients when state hospitals began to be built. Many long-term patients feared leaving their beloved home and tried to avoid transfer to state facilities. Some were literally dragged out of the Brattleboro Retreat to board buses to the new state hospital, often the first time they experienced physical coercion on the grounds. This decrease in patient census was compounded by the loss of patients due to the development of mood stabilizing drugs. The hospital has used this open capacity for new programs such as specialty schools and outpatient resources. . ["The Village of Brattleboro", Irling's Press (1977)]

The consistent focus on patient's individuality and fair treatment means that the Brattleboro Retreat lacks the historical stigma associated with some psychiatric institutions. A full staff of physicians, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, social workers, and other medical personnel continue this unbroken tradition of patient care. ["Brattleboro Retreat: The First 150 Years", Best Books (1989)]

Campus

Until recently, the president of the Brattleboro Retreat has been a doctor who has lived in the Main Building with his or her family. The last residents of the executive apartment were Dr. and Mrs. Beech. ["Brattleboro Retreat: The First 150 Years", Best Books (1989)]

A unique lit clock tower with four faces sits atop a rotunda on Lawton Hall-- a feature meant to give any sleepless patient a sense of the time (see photo at right). It is visible from all point on the 58-building campus. The college-like campus is situated on a grassy plain between a seasonally-flooding meadow and downtown Brattleboro. The hospital agreed to allow a hydroelectric company to flood the Retreat Meadows with the condition that the it could be used for ice fishing, boating, and other recreation. ["An Account of Brattleboro and its Environs", John Lawlor (1952)]

The hospital has extensive landholdings throughout the area, including the site of the castle-like Retreat Tower, designed and constructed by patients to mark the hospitals' 100th anniversary in 1934. The Retreat Dairy Farm is now separate from the hospital but is well-preserved and still functional. Patients no longer work at the bakery or carpentry shops either. Units have been adjusted for changing populations and are named after retired doctors, such as "Tyler" and "Osgood".

The indoor swimming pool in Lawton Hall was the first at any hospital in the world. It was closed after a polio outbreak (outside Vermont) decades ago and has never reopened. It sits in a state of suspended animation from the day it was closed. A new complex featuring tennis courts and an outdoor pool give patients plenty of outdoor activities.

The land owned by the hospital is open to the public and can be hiked or cross-country skied. Dozens of ice fishing huts pop up each winter on the frozen Retreat Meadows. Occasionally, ice skating can be observed. Obviously, all of these activities are undertaken at your own risk and stewardship of the land is expected.

The hospital recently adopted a new logo and became a "resource" of Retreat Healthcare, a new brand which also runs satellite mental health facilities. [ [http://www.retreathealthcare.org Retreat Healthcare website] ] These were name changes initiated by the Retreat board of directors and do not reflect any change in ownership. The organization still operates under the direction of Anna Marsh's wishes as an independent organization. In the past, the system has been affiliated with the Dartmouth College School of Medicine and currently holds affiliations with several major research universities. ["Dartmouth College Affiliations"]

See also

* Anna Marsh, founding patroness of the Brattleboro Retreat
* York Retreat (United Kingdom), model for Brattlebor Retreat treatment
* Benjamin Rush
* Brattleboro, Vermont

References

External links

* [http://www.retreathealthcare.org Retreat Healthcare]