NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Following the death of their founder and CEO, Retreat Behavioral Health closed both its inpatient and outpatient facilities in New Haven.
Now, more than 160 employees are left in the dark as they wait on answers from the for-profit company, which owns treatment facilities for substance use and mental health in Florida, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
A spokesperson for the New Haven locations said the Palm Beach location also closed around the same time as the inpatient facility on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard and the outpatient facility on Long Wharf Drive.
It all happened just after the death of Retreat’s president and CEO, Peter Schorr.
“We grieve with them, but we still need answers (as) to what’s going on,” said Ronald Waters, a professional driver at Retreat Behavioral Health.
Waters said he got emails in the middle of his shift last week, announcing the closure of the inpatient facility he works at. He said management offered no timeline on a potential reopening, or a reason for the decision.
“It was a somber, somber event. It just seemed like people panicked, people leaving shift, basically people were abandoning ship,” Waters said.
Waters transports patients struggling with substance use to and from the New Haven location and others across the East Coast. Over the weekend, he took his last customer home after nearly 40 patients at the inpatient facility were discharged. A company spokesperson said they were sent to other treatment centers, or home.
The Connecticut Department of Public Health confirmed they were on site to review that process last week.
“I cried for them,” Waters said. “Because I feel like they were getting the treatment that they needed, but it wasn’t enough. You just basically yanked it from them.”
At the same time, Waters and his coworkers are waiting to get paid, after not getting any money on Friday’s payday.
“Everyone came to work, and everyone was expecting, like you would, to get paid. And we didn’t get paid. And when we asked questions about our pay, management, upper management had nothing to say about it,” said Robert Taylor, transportation specialist at Retreat Behavioral Health.
Since then, Taylor said they still haven’t gotten answers on when that money is coming in. While Taylor and Waters said they will have the means to figure out their next steps, they know others who live paycheck to paycheck are not as fortunate.
“And that’s a terrible thing to do. Not to give those people that money when they really, really need it,” Taylor said.
A spokesperson for the New Haven locations said they are not sure if this closure is permanent or temporary.
Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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