A recent article in the Plain Dealer profiled Recovery House, a university-owned student residence on the campus of Case Western Reserve University for students in recovery from substance abuse.  Recovery House was opened in 2004 and is part of a small but growing trend among colleges and universities to provide a supportive environment for students who may be at risk for maintaining sobriety. Besides the obvious advantage of not having roommates who use drugs or alcohol, students at Recovery House can obtain support from counselors and other students in recovery, and attend 12-step meetings.Recovery programs are also needed in high schools because many college students say their abuse began when they were young.In September 2010 a blog in this space by former trustee, Joy Wilmott, outlined the need for a recovery high school in northeastern Ohio.  Since that time two other members of the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center, Art Rosenbaum and Jose Camerino, and Simona Mkrtschjan a graduate of the Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Program at CPC have been serving on the Gate House School Advisory Council. The Gate House School, which is due to open in 2013, is a specialty high school that provides the climate of challenge and support necessary for students to solidify their independence from addiction. The major components of a Recovery High School are the following:

•  A state-accredited high school curriculum
• Voluntary enrollment
• Family support and participation
• Active encouragement of successful reintegration into the community
• Comprehensive care targeting academic, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual development
• Collaboration with the student’s original school
• Ongoing involvement after graduation

You can read more about Recovery Schools on the website of the Association of Recovery Schools.The Gate House School (gatehouseschool@yahoo.com) will be a charter school sponsored by the Geauga County Educational Service Center in the Metzenbaum Center in Chester Township. Its initial enrollment will be 25 students.  Click here for more information on the need, mission and curriculum of the Gate House School.The Gate House School is named in honor of the Gate Lodge at Stan Hywet Hall in Akron, which is pictured above.  It was there that Henrietta Seiberling introduced Bill Wilson to Dr. Bob Smith in May of 1935, opening the door to the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous.