This story was originally published by our news partners at WBUR. We are republishing it through the New England News Collaborative.
Farming wasn’t on Shawn Hayden’s mind when he began looking at property near Gardner, a small city in central Massachusetts. His plan was to convert a farmhouse into housing for men in recovery from drug addiction and mental health issues.
Hayden, who runs the Gardner Athol Area Mental Health Association, envisioned a place where residents would live while receiving services from his organization.
As he and his staff finalized their first property deal, the seller made an unexpected request.
“It was kind of on his way out, he’s like, ‘Hey, I have two goats and a pony here,’ ” Hayden recalled. ” ‘Can they just stay?’ And we said, ‘I guess so.’ ”
From that unlikely beginning, was born a program that’s part animal sanctuary, part therapy center. The number of animals on the Gardner property has grown to 75 — with chickens, pigs, horses and critically endangered Newfoundland ponies joining the farm’s original residents.
The 16 men who live at what’s now known as the Carl E. Dahl House care for the animals and do daily chores. They typically stay for several months. Each person is assigned one particular animal to watch over as a central element of their therapy.
Since the farm began accepting residents in 2021, it has served about 200 men, funded through a combination of state and private grants, and donations. Hayden said many of the men are doing well and are now living on their own.
The program could become part of a growing trend in addiction treatment under U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has touted creating “healing farms” across the country for people struggling with substance use.
While the residents in Hayden’s center receive weekly counseling and psychiatric care, he believes it’s their work with animals that brings the most important lessons. Hayden said concepts like resilience and empathy are part of many treatment programs, but people appear to understand them more clearly once animals are involved.
“Sometimes it’s hard to get people motivated,” Hayden said. “But if I put a baby goat in your hands, everyone wants to help that baby goat, right? So it’s a little bit of a cheat code for some of these kind of lessons that we’ve been trying to teach people forever.”
Many animals at the farm are old or sick and need a lot of care, he explained, leading to lessons about accountability and showing up daily. Sometimes they don’t survive, prompting conversations about grief and letting go.
The goats are a favorite of 48-year-old Walter Cobb from Dorchester. He recently relapsed after six years of being drug-free. Cobb said he enjoys the routine of his daily chores. He’d never been on a farm before he arrived two months ago. Now, he said, he visits one goat a couple of times a day.
“I come out here at 5 in the morning,” Cobb said, as he swept one of the barns. “It’s gotten to the point where he jumps up and lets me hug him. We’ve got a good bond.”
“Sometimes it’s hard to get people motivated. But if I put a baby goat in your hands, everyone wants to help that baby goat, right?Shawn Hayden
The farm is an example of what’s known as a “therapeutic community,” a broad category of residential treatment that’s been around for decades. The programs are typically at least several months long, led by people who are also in recovery and include work or vocational training as part of the therapy.
While Hayden’s program requires daily chores and animal care, he said it’s different from some other therapeutic communities because of its focus on medical care and professional mental health treatment. The men’s work with the animals, he said, is built into a daily routine that blends old-fashioned farming with current therapeutic techniques led by staff counselors and psychiatrists.
“There is nothing we do on this farm that’s novel,” Hayden said. “We didn’t invent anything. We looked at something that’s worked for centuries, and we modernized some components of it.”
Also taking a fresh look at this idea is U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has personal and family experience with drug and alcohol addiction. As a model, Kennedy points to a program in Italy, called San Patrignano.
San Patrignano is an unusually large and sophisticated therapeutic community that currently serves more than 800 people. The residents pledge to live there for at least two years and work in farming, culinary arts, textiles and other jobs. The program is free, but the patients’ work is unpaid, which critics argue leaves people vulnerable to exploitation.
San Patringano’s leaders, and some current and former residents, say work is crucial to treatment, and the proceeds support the community.
In 2023, Kennedy told the podcast host Dr. Drew Pinsky that creating a network of facilities like San Patrignano in the U.S. would be his “Peace Corps,” an initiative founded by his uncle, the late President John F. Kennedy, in the 1960s.
“They teach skills, they have bakeries and furniture factories, and they are basically self-sufficient. It is so successful over there,” said Kennedy, who promoted the rehab idea several times before he was confirmed as health and human services secretary.
In the past, some therapeutic communities have faced allegations of abusing and exploiting residents. In one high-profile example, a large therapeutic community based in California became a cult, and its rise and descent was profiled last year in an HBO documentary.
San Patrignano was itself the subject of scandals, but today its leaders say policies are in place to prevent abuses.
Addiction experts say while therapeutic communities should be part of the treatment landscape, they can vary widely in terms of quality and structure.
Kevin Sabet, president and CEO of the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions and a former drug policy advisor in the Clinton, Bush and Obama White Houses, said for therapeutic communities to succeed in the U.S., they must adhere to medical standards and strict oversight.
But Sabet also said the nation needs more — and better — drug treatment options. Although the U.S. spends billions annually on treatment, tens of thousands of people die of overdoses every year. That’s despite widening access to the overdose reversal drug naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan.
Sabet said therapeutic communities might make a difference, especially for people with severe substance use disorders.
“It would be cheaper than what we’re doing now, frankly,” Sabet said, “which is often waiting until there are a lot of problems and dealing with it in the criminal system, or reviving somebody with Narcan 15 times.”
A strong feature of therapeutic communities, according to Sabet and other experts, is the length of treatment — well beyond the average 28 days spent in many U.S. rehabs. They say that’s not nearly enough time to treat people for addiction.
John Kelly, founder and director of the Recovery Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, said addiction treatment should span at least five years and gradually wind down.
“We really are talking about the long game here,” Kelly said.
But he added that more research is needed to assess how therapeutic communities might address the opioid epidemic. He’s concerned that expanding them could backfire if the Trump administration forces people into treatment or if programs are not adequately funded.
San Patrignano’s medical director, Dr. Antonio Boschini, said it would take more than money to replicate the Italian program on this side of the Atlantic. He said other countries have adapted San Patrignano’s model to account for cultural differences. But he believes there is a significant difference in the U.S. that underlies its high rates of addiction.
“Pain is a disease in your country — not only physical pain, but psychological pain,” Boschini said. “If you don’t learn how to cope with pain, you are more vulnerable to drugs.”
Interest in therapeutic communities appears to be growing among U.S. providers, according to Hayden and other advocates. Hayden attended the first national “care farming” conference at the University of Massachusetts Amherst this year, and said another is planned for next year. He’s now collecting data on his approach, and has secured state grant funding and nonprofit awards to expand his youth outpatient program to bring more people to the farm.
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