NEW CANAAN — Silver Hill Hospital was recently granted a $5.5 million donation, the largest in the New Canaan-based hospital's 94-year history.
The donation, gifted by a family of past and current volunteers, will go toward services including providing financial aid, renovations at the hospital and supporting staff.
Founded in 1931, Silver Hill Hospital is a nonprofit hospital dedicated to diagnosing and treating adolescents and adults with psychiatric and addiction disorders. The New Canaan campus provides inpatient, residential and intensive outpatient treatment and, in January, the hospital announced its expansion to a second location for intensive outpatient treatment in midtown Manhattan.
The donation represents not only the family’s generosity, Silver Hill President and Medical Director Andrew Gerber said, but “where we are as a society in terms of valuing treatment for mental health care.”
“We're able to talk about and focus on the problems in mental health and addiction more so than in probably ever in history,” Gerber said. “That stigma is, even though it's a slow process, getting better, and every generation we're better able to talk about depression and anxiety and trauma and all the things that you really need to talk about in society.”
Gerber said the donor family is one “we've come to know over the last several years,” choosing to remain anonymous so they can continue their involvement with the hospital.
“They care closely about the mission of the hospital and our ability, then, to help more people, including those who ... can't afford to get really high-quality care,” Gerber said.
Using the donated funds, the hospital will double the amount of money it dedicates to its patient financial aid program, providing $2 million to help patients with need cover out-of-pocket costs.
Some of the funds will also be dedicated for renovations to its wellness center, the Martin Center, to make it more of a “true community wellness center” for the hospital’s patients.
The third item agreed on by both the hospital and donor was dedicated funding for staff compensation and development, including “making sure that they're incentivized and can grow and go back to school,” Gerber said.
“One of the things that I admire so much about the family (is) they get that, and so they wanted a part of this, supporting our staff,” he said.
This marks the largest gift in the hospital's history, with the previous largest donation being $1.2 million, according to Gerber.
However, for those who can’t grant millions toward the hospital’s work, Gerber said any donation is helpful, and community members can give back in other ways through volunteering or becoming more informed on mental health and addiction and public policies around them.
Through donations and involved families like this donor, Gerber said he believed there can be tremendous progress toward the treatment of mental illness and addiction, especially at a time with so many societal stressors affecting people and communities.
“When you get a gift like this, it made me feel, personally, I can’t give up, that we need to keep doing this work, and there are other people out there who are going to support it,” Gerber said. “To me, it’s as good an encouragement and energy boost that I could ever ask for.”