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Retreat's 1 Long Wharf clinic: Now closed, too.
A drug rehab facility that abruptly closed its in-patient center on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard last weekend has now shuttered its outpatient clinic on Long Wharf as of Monday.
On Monday, Retreat Behavioral Health Director of Public Relations Jackie James confirmed for the Independent that the organization has closed up its 1 Long Wharf outpatient clinic.
“The goal is to restructure and open back up in the coming weeks,” she said.
She said the 1 Long Wharf outpatient clinic provided treatment — primarily individual and group therapy — for roughly 80 patients struggling with substance use disorders. Those patients have been placed at other facilities, she said, “due to staffing issues.”
Two employees at the 1 Long Wharf clinic confirmed for the Independent on Monday afternoon that, indeed, this is that site’s last day of operations, for now.
One employee sitting at the second-floor office’s front desk began to cry as this reporter introduced himself, and spoke about how much she loved working at Retreat and about just how sudden its closure in New Haven is. She said she and other employees found out on Monday that the Long Wharf site would be closing.
But, she continued, she wasn’t surprised — given that, on Friday, Retreat closed its 80-bed in-patient detox clinic at 915 Ella T. Grasso Blvd.
That closure, in turn, followed the sudden death of Retreat’s CEO, Peter Schorr.
The 1 Long Wharf employee told the Independent that she hadn’t received her latest paycheck from the organization — which another employee had also told the Independent for a previous story.
A second 1 Long Wharf employee said that, even though that outpatient clinic’s door is now shut, its staffers are still reaching out to patients, making sure they get the care that they need.
James told the Independent that Retreat employed 165 people in New Haven — a mix of part-time and full-time jobs, which ranged from clinicians to drivers.
She stressed that Retreat’s employees have not been let go. “We are hoping to get the word to come back to work,” she said.
The New Haven facilities’ executive director, Jarel Gallman, declined to comment for this story. “I’m going to yield at this time” to what he told the Independent for this previous article, Gallman said.