Mountainside reaches new heights in patient care

NORTH CANAAN — More than 5,500. That’s how many people battling alcohol and substance abuse have been helped at Mountainside Treatment Center in its 12 years.

In recognition of its 12-year anniversary, Gov. M. Jodi Rell issued a proclamation making Feb. 26 Mountainside Treatment Center Day. That snowy Friday offered a chance for founder, president and CEO Terry Dougherty to take a look back.

No, he wasn’t sure his plan would work when he first came to the former Parkside Lodge building on Route 7. That treatment center had closed several years earlier, in 1994. The facility needed a lot of work. What Dougherty knew for sure was that he had made his own recovery and now he wanted to help others.

He had to give it a shot.

“Wow, 5,500 people! I guess it’s working,� he said.

Working is the operative word. There is no resting on one’s laurels. The facility has not only seen physical expansions over the years. Programs have kept pace with the times, as new approaches become available and with the direction of an innovative staff.

Dougherty explained the oddity of celebrating their 12th anniversary. Their 10th would have been more obvious — but that was the year founding Executive Director Bruce Drever became ill and died of cancer.

“Bruce helped so many people in so many ways. He was a real pioneer, and when we lost him, our only consolation was all that he taught us,� Dougherty said.

It was Drever who embraced the resources of the facility’s rugged surroundings, leading clients to recovery with outdooor-oriented approaches such as a labyrinth built on the lawn, a ropes course and camping excursions on the mountain that gives the treatment center its name.

“You never know what’s going to reach somebody,� Dougherty said. “We have the typical evidence-based treatment and 12-step programs, and the new modalities, such as adventure-based and mind and body approaches. We look to engage the individual.�

Family counseling is now a big part of the Mountainside method. Dougherty said it is important for family members who are part of a loved one’s recovery to get the tools they need.

What is the biggest change at Mountainside over the years? The answer is a distressing one.

“People with drug, alcohol and tobacco addictions are getting younger and younger. It’s no longer middle-aged guys with high-pressure jobs, like my situation. We are going into the schools — high schools, middle schools, even grammar schools — to present programs, because that’s the age when it’s starting now.�

Dougherty said they get a tremendous amount of feedback from students and from young people who come forward to ask for help.

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