Brian Hansen, Executive Director, Spring Lake Ranch
A Year of Growth
Despite the continuation of an unprecedented global pandemic, Spring Lake Ranch spent the fiscal year, which runs from September 1 to August 30, strengthening and investing in our mission to support and empower people with mental health and substance abuse issues. While it wasn’t a year without challenges, we were proud to offer more varied programming than ever before, serve more residents than ever before, and grant more financial aid than ever before.
While growing our programming, we also invested time refining and improving our internal systems, procedures, and policies, to make us more efficient and effective in our work of helping residents develop the confidence and skills to recover. I’m happy to share that the work paid off: 95% of families surveyed would recommend Spring Lake Ranch to others. I thank our dedicated supporters, staff, and community, who truly went above and beyond this past year.
An Important Commendation
Spring Lake Ranch began the year finalizing preparations for the Commission on Accreditation of Residential Facilities (CARF). We were incredibly grateful to be awarded a three-year accreditation, which is the highest commendation they offer. This marks several years of hard work by SLR staff to put our systems, tools, and processes in order as per the 1,400 standards expected by CARF.
Expanded Work Program
Our Work Program continued to offer the tremendous support to residents that we’ve been known for since 1932. In the past year we saw unexpected turnover of this department’s senior management, but none-the-less the team not only continued to offer outstanding programming but also added several new activities such as bee-keeping, mushroom farming (over 200 pounds!), and growing herbs. From our family exit surveys we know that the highest-ranking reasons families choose Spring Lake Ranch are the natural setting and the focus on work, and it’s our intention to keep increasing our efforts in this area.
Recovery Meetings During COVID
On the clinical front, this past year SLR worked on consolidating our program services. The department team size was slightly reduced, case managers were added under the clinical team supervision, and an increase in recovery meetings were offered to our residents. While we were still limiting trips off the Hill due to COVID, we were able to provide residents with a robust scope of on-site recovery options, ranging from AA/NA/MA meetings, Refuge, and SMART Recovery, as well as one-on-one recovery sessions.
A New Transitional Space
The past fiscal year marked the first full year operating our transitional program out of Elliot House, based on the Hill in Cuttingsville. The year closed with twice as many residents in that program as it had in the final year it was located in Royce Street. Residents at Elliot have the best of both worlds with full access to all Cuttingsville programs and services as well as additional opportunities to challenge themselves.
Robust Census and Generous Donors
Our admissions team was tasked with supporting a year-round census of 20 people and were able to exceed that with an overall average of 22.5 residents in our main Cuttingsville program. This increase is likely to be semi-associated with longer length of stays that we have observed during the pandemic. As a result of higher numbers of residents than anticipated, as well as our generous donors, we ended the year on a financially healthy note. Our donors invested over $600,000 in our financial aid and programming, for which we are so thankful.
Looking Ahead While Honoring the Past
In the last quarter, we introduced our new logo to you, which melded an homage to the past while looking forward to what’s ahead. With almost 90 years behind us, Spring Lake Ranch owes a debt of gratitude to our history. While honoring previous work, we also envision what we can continue to build and create with our community in the days and years to come.
We look forward to sharing it all with you.
