Friends Hospital

Friends Hospital, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is recognized as one of the premier mental hospitals in the United States.

Founded by Quakers in 1813 as "The Asylum for Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason," and later known as the "Frankford Asylum for the Insane," it was the first private psychiatric hospital in the U.S.

Friends Hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and licensed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Mission Statement of 1813
"To provide for the suitable accommodation of persons who are or may be deprived of the use of their reason, and the maintenance of an asylum for their reception, which is intended to furnish, besides requisite medical aid, such tender, sympathetic attention as may soothe their agitated minds, and under the Divine Blessing, facilitate their recovery."

Today
Friends Hospital has followed the same mission for over 190 years "...to provide help to persons who are experiencing mental or emotional health problems."

Today, Friends Hospital still adheres to the principles of the Religious Society of Friends, combining moral treatment with a modern medical approach in the treatment of mental and emotional illnesses. Friends Behavioral Health System treats thousands of people each year through individualized and diversified programs and services for children, adolescents, adults and older adults. The Hospital staff is skilled at treating virtually all psychiatric diagnoses.

The reasons for founding the Hospital
Friends Hospital was founded in 1813 by the Religious Society of Friends, believing that, in the words of John, within every person is "the true light that lighteth every person that cometh into the world." Adhering to that conviction, the Friends, more commonly known as Quakers, viewed insanity as a temporary impediment to reaching the light of God within and saw it as their mission to help the mentally ill out of the darkness. Thus, they founded the nation's first private psychiatric hospital dedicated solely to the care of the mentally ill. It was initially called "the Asylum," and was renamed "Friends Hospital" in 1914. Although the Friends originally established the hospital as a safe haven to care for their own, they soon began to help those of all denominations.

Unlike many who viewed the insane as less than human, and therefore treated them less than humanely, Quakers saw the mentally ill as brethren capable of living a moral, ordered existence if treated with kindness, dignity, and respect in comfortable surroundings. They called their approach to curing insanity "moral treatment." In combination with ever advancing medical treatments, moral treatment, also known as behavior modification, continues to guide the care of the mentally ill at Friends Hospital.

Establishing and Building Friends' Asylum
One of the founders of Friends' Asylum was Thomas Scattergood, a traveling minister whose visit to England between 1794 and 1800 brought him to the The York Retreat, a prototype for Friends Hospital as well as many other mental hospitals. There he observed, first hand, founder William Tuke's use of moral treatment. Several years later, he encountered a woman suffering from depression while in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Scattergood treated her with kind and gentle counseling, which encounter spurred him to further action.

On February 4, 1811, the Burlington Meeting of Friends, to which Scattergood belonged, raised concerns as to the establishment of an insane asylum in Philadelphia. These concerns were forwarded to the Burlington Quarterly Meeting; at the same time, the Western Quarterly Meeting expressed a similar interest. On April 15, 1811, in response to both Quarterly Meetings, the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting appointed a committee to consider provisions for afflicted Friends. The committee recommended that an asylum be built and controlled by contributors for which an association called "the Contributors to the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the use of their Reason" was formed. The Contributors held their first meeting on April 14, 1813 and subsequently adopted a constitution at their meeting in June.

A home in the country
In 1813, association purchased a 52-acre farm in Oxford Township near Frankford, (incorporated into Philadelphia in 1854) located roughly five miles north of Philadelphia proper. The Contributors' selection of this site would provide an ideal retreat for those suffering from mental illness. The area surrounding Friends Asylum became increasingly suburban in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as improvements in transportation -- first the Frankford Branch of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and then the Roosevelt Boulevard (US 1) -- brought more residential development. Within this development, the Asylum grounds remained an oasis of lawns, meadows, woodlands, vegetable and flower gardens, orchards and handsome buildings. By 1911 the Asylum expanded its property to roughly 100 contiguous acres.

A haven for the mentally ill
The building to accommodate fifty patients opened its doors on May 15, 1817. Of the 66 patients admitted during its first three years, Friends Asylum cured, or discharged as "much improved," about 25. Given that the Asylum accepted many patients considered incurable, this success rate demonstrated the potential of moral treatment. At the time, it was generally accepted by Benjamin Rush and others that "the longer its remote and predisposing causes have acted upon the brain, and mind, the more dangerous the disease," and yet most of the patients accepted at Friends had had mental illnesses for more than a decade before being admitted. Rush also felt that insanity was "rarely cured in old people," yet the average age of the patients at Friends was forty, and five patients older than 65 were admitted. And in the first three years of its existence, the Asylum had only five re-admissions.

The design of Friends' Asylum placed patient rooms along only one side of corridors to maximize the circulation of fresh air and light, as they were believed to be beneficial to a patient's recovery. Two patient wings were added to the asylum in 1827.

Moral treatment is the recognition that the mentally ill are fellow men to be cared for with dignity, respect, kindness, and love within comfortable, pleasant surroundings. At Friends' Asylum, the care came from "the family", which consisted of the patients, staff, the Superintendent and his family, the resident physician, and any visiting physicians or managers. Genuine concern, patience, and attentiveness shown by staff fostered the patients' cooperation, respect and responsibilities toward "the family." In short, moral treatment at Friends' Asylum centered around the ideal of well-ordered, well-disciplined Quaker family living within the familiar routine of a domestic farm economy.

Physical exercise and productive activity were used as a means to help patients recover from mental illness. During the early decades of the Asylum, patients spent several hours a day employed around the house, grounds and a self-sufficient farm. By the mid-nineteenth century, the emphasis on physical exercise shifted away from work therapy towards recreational therapy, although many patients continued light chores such as raking leaves and maintaining walkways. In 1879, Friends Hospital built the first greenhouse to enhance its long tradition of horticultural therapy. Additions to the campus in 1880 provided accommodations for 90 patients.

To make room for more patients in the 1970s and 80s, the Bonsall and Tuke Buildings were completed, creating the Hospital's current 192-bed capacity.

In 1980, Friends Hospital opened the Greystone Program on the grounds of the hospital. The Greystone Program is based on a similar philosophy—to remove long-term patients from a hospital setting to a home. A companion home was built in 1989 and named Hillside House.

Friends Professional Associates was launched in 1996, providing behavioral health services in eight outpatient offices in suburban Philadelphia. In 1998, Larkspur Health Network, Inc. is formed which allows Friends to provide emergency behavioral health services through the Crisis Response Center.

Services
Patient Services:
 * Children and Adolescent Services, a range of inpatient hospital services for children and adolescents suffering from emotional problems, with or without substance abuse.
 * Adult Services, an inpatient program for adults ages 18 to 60.
 * Older Adult Services, the first program in the Delaware Valley specifically designed for elderly with a mental illness.
 * The Greystone Program, a long-term residential facility on the main campus in Northeast Philadelphia.
 * The Eating Disorders Program for adults and adolescents, both male and female.
 * 24-hour nursing care in all units.
 * Arrangement with nearby facilities for specialized laboratory tests and x-rays.
 * Psychological testing for diagnostic assessment and assistance in treatment.
 * Individual and group therapy.
 * Expressive therapies including art, movement, music and video therapy.
 * A nationally recognized horticultural therapy program.
 * Assistance to help patients and their families with after-care arrangements.

Associated Programs: Friends Professional Associates, Inc., a wholly owned, not-for-profit subsidiary of Friends Hospital, enables a full range of mental health services to be provided to residents throughout the Delaware Valley.

Larkspur Crisis Response Center (CRC)
The Larkspur Crisis Response Center Inc., an associated program at Friends Hospital, is a behavioral health service providing assessment, evaluation and treatment for those in crisis, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is staffed by psychiatrists, registered nurses, case managers, and consumer/family advocates, ensuring that clinical needs and basic social services are met. Larkspur is one of five such centers in Philadelphia, and the only one serving Northeast Philadelphia.

The confidential services offered by the CRC include:
 * Psychiatric evaluation and treatment;
 * Drug and alcohol evaluation and intervention;
 * Identification of treatment alternatives;
 * Referral services to ensure access to needed services;
 * Confidential crisis counseling and support;
 * A free 24-hour crisis hotline.