An Open Letter to Alumni and Friends of the Retreat | The Retreat at Sheppard Pratt

An Open Letter to Alumni and Friends of the Retreat

January 6, 2009 —

Happy New Year! It has been 8 months since many of us gathered at Sheppard Pratt for the first Retreat Reunion Weekend. During that special time we reconnected with friends, learned about some of the latest issues in mental health, and brainstormed about ways to improve the Retreat experience and allow Alumni to stay connected to the program. Some of these ideas included:

-         Establishment of a Retreat Alumni Association

-         An updated Retreat web site

-         Follow-up phone calls to recently discharged residents

-         Establishment of an Endowment Fund

-         Advocacy and education

-         A newsletter

-         Ongoing weekend programming for Alumni

We are proud to say that we have acted on several of these items over the intervening months. You have already seen our updated web site at www.retreatatsp.org. With the help of some generous alumni, we have started The Retreat Educational Fund, which has allowed the staff of the Retreat to attend meetings, seminars, advanced courses, and obtain certifications so that we can continue to be on the cutting edge of current treatment trends and add to our programming. We have expanded our treatment offerings to include new groups focused on the issues that face people who suffer with both substance use disorders and other psychiatric problems such as depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. There have been inquiries about endowing a bed at the Retreat so that certain residents might come, or extend their stays on a limited basis at a reduced fee or free of charge.

We hope that you will continue to visit our new web site, which we anticipate will evolve into a lively entity with ongoing articles, and hopefully in the future an alumni-only section. If you want to become more involved, we hope you contact each other and Dr. Franklin about officially establishing the Alumni Association and having the first meeting this spring.

Regards,

Don Ross, MD

dross@sheppardpratt.org

Thomas Franklin, MD

tfranklin@sheppardpratt.org