** Mission Statement **
In 1813, the founders of Friends Hospital penned this simple yet wonderfully benevolent mission statement:
“To provide for the suitable accommodation of persons who are or may be deprived of the use of their reason, and the maintenance of an asylum for their reception, which is intended to furnish, besides requisite medical aid, such tender, sympathetic attention as may soothe their agitated minds, and under the Divine Blessing, facilitate their recovery.“
Many things have changed at Friends Hospital since 1813, but this mission statement has been perfectly preserved. It has served as a great foundation, and to it we have added a modern medical approach to the treatment of mental, emotional and behavioral illnesses.
History Of Friends Hospital
** Friends History Timeline **
1813 - Friends Hospital founded by the Quakers. Originally called “The Asylum for Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason.”
1817 - Additional buildings allow for up to 50 patients.
1827 - Two additional patient wings are added.
1879 - Friends Hospital builds its first greenhouse to enhance a long tradition of horticultural therapy.
1880 - Additions are made to accommodate 90 additional patients.
1911 - “The Asylum,” as it was known, expanded its property holdings to roughly 100 contiguous acres.
1916 - Friends Hospital acquired a 326-acre farm in Trevose.
1920 - The Trevose farm’s Bensalem Mansion is opened to patients as a convalescent home.
1970s-1980s - Bonsall and Tuke Buldings are completed, pushing capacity to 192, where it remains today.
1980 - The Greystone Program opens on hospital grounds.
1989 - Hillside House is built as a companion home to the Greystone Program.
1996 - The Eating Disorders Program opened, treating adolescents and adults
and is one of the only programs in the area to serve children and males with eating disorders.
1998 - Larkspur Crisis Response Center opened, providing treatment for more than six thousand inpatients each year and an additional 6,000 evaluations and referrals.
1999 - Friends Hospital was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
2000 - U.S. News and World Report ranked Friends Hospital as one of the nation’s top psychiatric hospitals.
2002 - Six Friends Hospital psychiatrists were ranked among the region’s “Top Docs” by Philadelphia Magazine.
2010 - Friends Hospital designed and opened Philadelphia’s first inpatient Recovery Oriented Unit.
