McLean opens Borden Cottage for addiction treatment
Based on the previous success of a similar program and the inspiration of a former patient, McLean Hospital is opening a new center for drug and alcohol addiction treatment in Camden, Maine.
The new facility, named Borden Cottage, is a sister program of McLean Fernside, located in Princeton, Mass.. Borden Cottage officially opened for business in April under the direction of psychiatrist Frederick Goggans, M.D.. It is a comprehensive residential facility that offers treatment in substance abuse as well as co-occurring psychiatric illness.
McLean Borden Cottage has a staff of 25 full-time equivalents, including psychologists, social workers and psychiatrists as well as bachelor’s-level mental health counselors. It is a self-pay facility (does not accept insurance or third-party payments) that can house eight patients. A minimum stay of 30 days, at $2,250 per day, is recommended.
The program differs from many other addiction treatment centers in that it is equipped to handle a wide range of patient issues, including addiction relapses, psychiatric disorders, detoxification follow-up, medical ailments and general lifestyle changes. Borden Cottage also incorporates a strong physical fitness component and is smoke-free. Smoking cessation programs are available for patients upon request.
Philip G. Levendusky, Ph.D., ABPP, director of psychology at McLean Hospital and associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, spearheaded the program two years ago.
“Many substance abuse centers really just focus on the substance abuse,” said Levendusky. “This program can deal with addiction and psychiatric issues. We have the expertise to deal with the complexity of these clinical issues.”
Therapeutic programming is intense and takes up seven to eight hours of the day. “It’s very comprehensive,” noted Goggans, the center’s medical director and a lecturer in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “We offer a psychosocial program, integration with Alcoholics Anonymous and other self-help organizations. The program also integrates evidence-based therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy, integrated group therapy and best health practices.”
Family involvement and follow-up care are also important elements of the program.
One of the main drivers of Borden Cottage was Tom Rodman, a successful Wall Street financier who overcame a battle with alcoholism. Celebrating 35 years of sobriety, Rodman wanted to give something back to the community.
Rodman had previously developed a program called STRIVE, which provides training, counseling and job placements for the unemployed and disadvantaged in New York City. STRIVE now has centers in 20 US cities.
“Tom spends a lot of his summers in Camden and he found a property that he felt would be a very nice site for a substance abuse rehabilitation center modeled on our Fernside program,” said Levendusky. “He took his sobriety and ‘walked the walk’ in terms of giving back to the community.”
Rodman owns the building, a 16,000 square-foot estate with a spectacular view of Penobscot Bay and the surrounding property. He is also the program’s liaison to AA. The “cottage” offers private rooms, a heated swimming pool, an activities building (with a bowling alley, billiards room and an arcade), library, fitness and yoga studio, movie theater, and beauty salon. Patients also have access to skiing, swimming and tennis in the area.
“It’s a spectacular setting,” said Levendusky. “If someone’s going to stay in an environment for as long as a month or a little longer, this is a setting that is recuperative and has a degree of serenity. When they’re really working hard to overcome their problems, that’s an ideal combination.”