Grant Application to HEW, Public Health Service on "Micro-Analysis Of Disturbed and Therapeutic Communications Processes," from Henry L. Lennard, October 30, 1961
Phoenix House was founded in 1967 as a therapeutic community to treat addiction in an 85th Street apartment in New York City. In the following decades, Phoenix House expanded to locations throughout New York City and ten states. At the time of the interviews, Phoenix House was serving over 5,000 individuals and remained committed to supporting individuals and families by providing a wide range of services including prevention, early intervention, treatment, continuing care, and recovery support. The Phoenix House Oral History Collection documents three periods of Phoenix House's work: origins, growth, and established leadership. In the first period, spanning from 1967 to the 1970s, narrators detail the founding of a therapeutic community, the dynamics of this community, and the influences of other self-help drug treatment organizations such as Synanon on the program. In the growth period, narrators speak of opening up new facilities, and designing and launching new programs. Topics covered include the political and funding challenges of expanding Phoenix House's reach, increases in medical and mental health staff, and partnering with state departments of corrections to provide the Phoenix House program as an alternative to incarceration. In the final period, narrators describe changes in the therapeutic community model, further expansion of programs across the United States, acquisitions of competitors, new funding challenges, and transitions in leadership.
to therapeuticcommunities and to Mitchell Rosenthal. He discusses the international and national growth of therapeuticcommunities as well as the policies and research that have made them what they are , and the future uses he sees for therapeuticcommunities.
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De Leon discusses his work in clinical psychology at the Veterans Hospital as both his introduction to therapeutic communities and to Mitchell Rosenthal. He discusses the international and national growth of therapeutic communities as well as the policies and research that have made them what they are today. De Leon also examines different training and rehabilitation techniques popular in Phoenix House, and the future uses he sees for therapeutic communities.
his life to furthering the therapeuticcommunity model. He soon established Dynamic Youth Community in , his own therapeuticcommunity venture for adolescents. Particular attention is given to the changing therapeuticcommunity model.
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Fusco describes the working class community in Sunset Park during the 1950s and 1960s, and his entry into Phoenix House on 88th Street in Manhattan. He narrates his role in establishing new Phoenix House locations like East 116th Street. Moving to acquisitions, he worked at Phelan Place, Prospect Place, and Putnam Valley. He then speaks on the establishment of Dynamic Youth Community in Brooklyn, his own therapeutic community venture for adolescents. Particular attention is given to the changing therapeutic community model.
Phoenix House philosophy still read today. Williams has continued to develop and work with the therapeutic Institute with a group of addicts to found Phoenix House. He gives particular attention to the therapeutic community approach pioneered at the Phoenix House and is a leader in the field (particularly in prisons).
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Ronald Williams narrates his early life in a West Indian neighborhood in Harlem and his pathway to substance abuse, incarceration, and, eventually the Morris Bernstein Institute. He describes leaving the Institute with a group of addicts to found Phoenix House. He gives particular attention to the therapeutic community method as it was conceived during Phoenix House's initial stages, and its predecessors. Williams also speaks on Phoenix House's importing of Synanon personnel, and that strategy's effect on the organization.