80-Bed Rehab Center Opens Doors

The ribbon was cut Thursday at New Haven’s newest — and biggest — short-term drug rehab center, Retreat Behavioral Health at 915 Ella Grasso Blvd.

The center, operated by the for-profit Retreat Behaviorial Health company of Florida, is starting out with 80 beds.

Thursday’s event featured an open house for the public. The center is ready to begin accepting applications for patients pending a site inspection.

Retreat CEO Peter Schorr returned to Connecticut about six years ago to begin the work to open the new facility.

Several staff members of Retreat have personal journeys to sobriety, including Schorr. Retreat’s mission sheds light on the effects of untreated mental health issues, which in many cases can tie in with substance abuse.

“Most are using and abusing because of mental health issues, ” said Schorr.

The hope is to aid Connecticut’s ongoing opioid epidemic.

The New Haven campus will be the company’s third inpatient location.

The center is equipped with a massage therapist room, meditation room, music, and therapy rooms, with a gymnasium currently in the works.

The building once housed a nursing home. Before the company’s purchase, it was vacant.

Mayor Justin Elicker joined Schorr for the ribbon-cutting along with Hill Alder Ron Hurt; Jackie James, who has been working with Retreat on the project; and facility Executive Director Jarel Gallman, who worked his way up in the company from outpatient and inpatient therapist positions.

Maggie Hunt (pictured), Retreat’s director of alumni services, said she has been sober since July 6, 2009. She now uses her lived experience to motivate others to look forward to one day joining the Retreat alumni network.

Hunt hosts weekly meetings with alumni and quarterly events. ​“We celebrate our recoveries and the journeys that come along with them,” she said.

Schorr offered Hunt her job after she had been sober for two years. Since the start of her recovery Hunt has obtained her master’s degree, married her husband (who has been sober for 14 years), and had three children.

The center offers mental health and substance abuse services for veterans as well as PTSD programs. It also plans to offer family education workshops.

“I’m excited to come into a community of need to help fill a small void,” Gallman said.

Gallman described SUD (substance use disorder) as a ​“family disease” — a patient’s substance abuse often affects those around them.

Retreat’s holistic approach is meant to improve patients’ lifestyles through traditional recovery treatment and activity-based therapy, which encourages patients to discover old or new passions and interests to stay motivated on their journey.

The new facility is also looking into equine-assisted psychotherapy which is offered at other inpatient Retreat branches.

Twenty-five of the center’s original 80 beds will be dedicated to detox patients; 55 will be for residential patients. As the need expands, the center will increase its total number of open beds said Kasey Creedon, Retreat national accounts director.