The Brattleboro Retreat was founded 175 years ago by Anna Hunt Marsh, who set aside money in her will for establishing a facility to care for the mentally ill. Until 1893 it was called the Vermont Asylum for the Insane.
The retreat has a history of ‘firsts’: in 1842 it launched the Asylum Journal, the first patient newspaper to be published by an American hospital. In 1878 it built the first gym at a mental health hospital. And later opened the first indoor swimming pool at a U.S. mental health hospital.
Dr. Rob Simpson is the president and CEO of the Retreat. He says the retreat has always been progressive in its treatment *because of Anna Marsh and the reasons she founded the retreat.