The closing of the Brattleboro Retreat would have a profoundly negative impact on Brattleboro, on Retreat employees, and on the region.
Moreover, the loss of one of the nation's largest and longest-standing comprehensive psychiatric hospitals (12th in size as of 2016) would leave many struggling to find adequate mental health and substance abuse treatment. Action needs to be taken to save the Retreat, and fast.
Just don't rely on the current administration or board to fully accomplish that task.
Not long after I began my nearly 16 years working as an outpatient substance abuse clinician at the Retreat, I was struck by what I considered a corporate mindset at the organization. Being familiar with and having worked at some non-profit behavioral health programs early in my career, I'm a bit sensitive to this kind of politic. But no, this was Vermont, and stuff like antagonism to the union and managerial silos lacking transparency would not have seemed likely in this state.
Nevertheless, after a time I noticed at the Retreat the emergence of what I can only call “behavioral health program operatives.” These individuals in various levels of management seemed more interested in building empires and promoting themselves than anything else. Their style and methods were off-putting.
After years of observing this behavior and growing resistance to the union, I began to wonder what drove the management of the organization. Again, it all didn't appear very Vermont-like.
I don't profess to know who or what is ultimately responsible for the Retreat's predicament. But have administrators really protected the financial health of the organization itself?
In finding a long-term solution to the Retreat's cash flow problems, it should be made certain a self-serving, top-heavy corporate mentality has not infected the organization.
In that respect, as the hospital lobbies the state for more money to survive, someone must open the books at every level. If the administrators want to demonstrate their own fiscal credibility, their salaries should be known (like non-management personnel), as well as the nature and timing of salary increases, their department makeup, when and why they have added managerial staff, and the benefits that have accrued from those additions.
Ultimately, though, depending on the outcome of an investigation, holding people accountable may not mean much in facilitating the Retreat's survival. Anyone found responsible may just cut and run, leaving the organization floundering.
Attendant to the fiscal fact-finding, someone has to get a handle on the decline in admissions. Is it demographics or simply a matter of reimbursement shortfalls? Has quality slipped? And why does the Retreat have only a three-star rating on Google reviews?
In the face of this crisis, maybe it's just time for Vermont to be Vermont and demonstrate purported virtues of progressiveness, truth, justice, participatory democracy, sense of community, and caring for one another. In other words, everything opposite a typical corporate mentality.
Hasn't Vermont sold us on these virtues over the years? Community leaders and the local populace have to take control of solving the Retreat's crisis, or Brattleboro itself will be harmed indefinitely.
Would it be possible for the Retreat to reconstitute itself as a worker-owned cooperative? And were there any thoughts about incorporating renewable energy to mitigate what must be the Retreat's enormously expensive energy costs? There must be many more questions, but not yet enough answers.
With so much at stake in these crucial times, again I would offer that decisions shouldn't be left solely to administrators or boards. In so many organizations, these are the people with the most static mindset.
And to those who propose selling the Retreat, be careful with that. It's not hard to see how some disingenuous outfit could scoop it up, run it into the ground, and leave abandoned hulks for the town to deal with.
I hope there will be the ingenuity, courage, and will to save the organization.