Daytop

Drug addiction treatment organization

Daytop Village, Daytop, aka Daytop Village New Jersey Inc., aka Daytop Prepatory School

Daytop center in Brooklyn

Industry| drug addiction treatment organization
Founded| 1963
Founder| Dr. Daniel Casriel M.D
Monsignor William B. O'Brien & Ex addict; Ron Brancato

Number of locations

| New York City, Mendham Borough, New Jersey[1][2]

Area served

| New Jersey [2] and New York
Parent| Daytop Village aka Daytop

Daytop, or Daytop Village, or “Daytop Village New Jersey Inc.” is a drug addiction treatment organization with facilities in New York City and New Jersey. It was founded in 1963[3] in Tottenville, Staten Island[4] by Daniel Harold Casriel along with Monsignor William B. O'Brien, a Roman Catholic priest and founder and president of the World Federation of Therapeutic Communities.[5] Ron Brancato from the Pelham Bay area of Bronx New York, Program Director and former resident of Synanon, California. Synanon was the only other drug rehabilitation program until Daytop Village opened. Daytop also included a juvenile program based in Mendham, New Jersey.[2][6] The Mendham, New Jersey facility also included a school for juveniles called Daytop School.[2][6]

Father William B. O'Brien included Synanon's confrontational approaches, such as "attack therapy" and "behavior modification", in his addiction treatment methods.[7] Synanon has since been investigated as one of the "most dangerous and violent cults America had ever seen."[8][9]

According to Dr. Casriel its name was originally an acronym for "Drug Addicts Yield to Probation" as Daytop was originally a kind of "halfway house" for convicted addicts.[10] Another account gives the name to be an acronym for "Drug Addicts Yield to Persuasion". A third account gives the name to be an acronym for "Drug Addicts Yield to Others Persuasion."[5]

The Daytop program, one of the oldest drug-treatment programs in the United States,[5] is based on the therapeutic community model[11] and emphasizes the role of peer interaction in their modes of treatment. Considered one of the most successful programs of its kind, it is described as "a supportive emotional community in which people feel secure but at the same time are held strictly accountable for their behavior". It is estimated that 85 percent of those treated stay clean.[12][13]

It was during a 1980 visit to Daytop Village that future first lady Nancy Reagan initially became aware of the drug epidemic in the United States and the toll it was taking on the nation's youth. This event is widely acknowledged as the genesis of her "Just Say No" program.[14]

In late 2015, Daytop Village merged with Samaritan Village, another 50+ year old health and human services nonprofit organization with a specialty in drug and alcohol treatment. The newly merged organization changed its name to Samaritan Daytop Village. Daytop's Mendham, New Jersey location has since closed amidst sexual and child abuse concerns.[15][16]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "DAYTOP VILLAGE OF NEW JERSEY INC, Mendham, NJ".
2. ^ a b c d "Adolescent - Daytop - for a Drug Free World - New York, NY". Archived from the original on 2002-10-17.
3. ^ Daytop History, accessed 26 September 2009
4. ^ Daytop Village has new name, same mission: Saving lives Retrieved May 18, 2020
5. ^ a b c "A Pioneer in Residential Drug Treatment Reaches Out". New York Times. 13 Nov 1989.
6. ^ a b "Daytop Mendham breaks ground". 10 June 2004.
7. ^ Daytop History Archived 2015-12-22 at the Wayback Machine , Daytop Homepage, retrieved 3/25/2010
8. ^ "Synanon's Sober Utopia: How a Drug Rehab Program Became a Violent Cult". 15 April 2014. Archived from the original on 2017-12-07. Retrieved 2017-12-07.
9. ^ Szalavitz, Maia (2007-08-20). "The Cult That Spawned the Tough-Love Teen Industry". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on 2007-08-23. Retrieved 2007-09-19.
10. ^ "A Scream Away From Happiness". New York: Grosset & Dunlap. 1972 p. 47[ISBN missing]
11. ^ "About Us – Daytop New York – Drug and Alcohol Addiction Treatment". 22 January 2016. Archived from the original on 22 January 2016.
12. ^ Family connections: Monsignor O'Brien's Daytop Village – Of Several Minds, Paul Baumann, 2002, Commonweal [permanent dead link‍]
13. ^ Johnson, Knowlton; Pan, Zhenfeng; Young, Linda; Vanderhoff, Jude; Shamblen, Steve; Browne, Thom; Linfield, Ken; Suresh, Geetha (2008-12-03). "Therapeutic community drug treatment success in Peru: a follow-up outcome study". Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy. 3: 26. doi:10.1186/1747-597X-3-26. ISSN 1747-597X. PMC 2631528. PMID 19055774.
14. ^ "Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library". 12 August 2007. Archived from the original on 12 August 2007.
15. ^ "Ex-Priest Indicted in Daytop Sex Abuse Madison Resident Charged with Endangering 4 Teen Boys in Rehab".
16. ^ "Ex-Daytop teacher admits sexual misdeeds with two residents".

## External links

[edit]

* Daytop website
* World Federation of Therapeutic Communities
* Daytop New Jersey