Bridge Street Recovery in Bennington opened in July to what co-founders John Christian and Stephen Bryan characterized as a successful first six months in business.
“It’s been going quite well,” Christian said. “It was very exciting to start having people move in and start to go through the treatment process.”
The facility serves patients in their final stages of recovery from substance-use disorders before an eventual transition home, or to a halfway house or sober home. The recovery center was built in the complex across from Crotched Mountain Ski and Ride, a set of buildings that had gone unused for 20 years following the closure of the Highland Inn.
Since its opening, Christian said Bridge Street Recovery has been “gearing up slowly” in terms of how many beds have been full. The 40-bed facility has seen about 25 occupied for the past month-and-a-half, he said.
“As with any new program, we’ve been working out some adjustments as we went,” he said. “But so far so good – people have been responding well, we’ve had several people graduate and go home. It’s proceeding just as we hoped it would.”
The pandemic has not impeded the recovery center’s work, either, Christian said, thanks to common mitigation strategies and regular testing. Often, patients have received testing at their previous facility before coming to Bridge Street Recovery.
Bryan said the success of the facility has been due in large part to the staff.
“The clinical staff has been way beyond what we could’ve hoped as far as being energized and enthusiastic and qualified,” he said. “The staff has just been unbelievable.”
Additionally, the co-founders said the support they have seen from the Town of Bennington and the state has helped bolster their efforts.
“We continue to be excited to serve those in need in the middle of this opiate, methamphetamine, alcohol epidemic that has been going on for such a long time,” Christian said. “We’re pleased to be in a position to be able to serve those in need.”
In the coming year, Bridge Street Recovery hopes to make strides on opening its other property in Peterborough, intended to be a 64-bed medical detox facility located at 25 and 30 Bridge St. behind the Peterborough Plaza off Route 101. Previously, the hope was to break ground on this project in fall 2021, something that Bryan says is now tentatively in the works for the upcoming spring.