This agency was established for the founder to remain socially relevant after her husband's death (he was a Federal Judge presiding over the US District Court for the Southern District of Georgia and the chief judge for the Eastern District of Missouri before that). The judge had a son from a previous marriage who was provided a diagnosis as having schizophrenia. There exists some general information suggesting that his son may have killed someone while living in Missouri. However, all court records are heavily redacted, and the Sheriff's Office archive web page does not include all parties' last names. Thus, it would seem that something happened that would embarrass the family, despite the nature of the son's mental illness. Whatever did could have been used as an "awareness" endeavor, one designed to contextualize behavior and mental illness for laypeople. This is particularly true given the presence the founder and her late husband had within that Missouri township. Instead, the story gets sanitized or vaporized so as not to jeopardize their social currency.
Pine Woods' founder is quick to provide anecdotes about this son and the callous treatment he received due to his mental illness and the condescending tone many psychiatrists took when discussing the son with the founder of Pine Woods and her late husband. One is led to believe that Pinewoods' genesis was due entirely to the negative experiences the founder describes that relate to the son's treatment and mistreatment. Of note, the founder did not have her step-son enrolled in or attending any treatment program designed to help those with a severe and persistent mental illness develop life skills to more independently manage his illness or his level of independent living. Instead, he lived/lives? in a separate domicile from the actual house in which his step-mother resides.
I always found that speaking with the founder of Pine Woods was an exercise in verisimilitude. Verbal attempts were made to give the appearance of benevolence and profound care for people with a mental illness who were too well to be in a hospital setting and not quite well enough just to see their clinician once a week. The action was solely on the shoulders of the clinical team unless the founder did not like something (nebulous, I know, although "something" covered a wide swath), in which case, a new approach was developed with the hope that the founder would simply stay ensconced in her upstairs suite and leave everyone else alone. Thus, the presentation of something that appears to be real and is not.
The Board of Pine Woods consisted of a shortlist of the really important people in the Savannah, GA area. All of them were wealthy, as was the founder, yet the organization folded in 2011 due to insufficient philanthropic giving and Medicaid changes in funding to PHP facilities. Had the founder really believed in the point of Pine Woods, she certainly had the resources to keep the place solvent while attempting to increase giving, as well as diversifying billable services. Instead, she has kept the company name and the name of the URL provided by the web-hosting provider. Ostensibly, this would be due to an intention of reinitiating services which, after 10 years of nothing, is more hubris than goal-directed behavior.
Prior to its closing, Pine Woods staff were given a 2-week notice of company insolvency and the termination of their employment. They were never provided a severance package nor any other form of remuneration as they sought new employment. The people who attended Pine Woods for treatment purposes were also given the same notice as the employees. No one knows what became of them, no one knows what other referral options for continued treatment were provided (if any), and no one has ever contacted the former clinical staff about the people with whom they worked in order to develop a transition plan to mitigate the effects of the disruption in services.
Thus, one can reasonably argue and/or conclude that the founder of Pine Woods did so as a ploy to continue to have a vital and elite social presence within the city of Savannah. After the loss of her husband and retiring from her executive chief counsel position for St. Joseph's/Candler Hospital, all that was left was a step-son with a mental illness. She used him in order to provide the illusion of caring and advocating for those who could not advocate for themselves. When things got real, she bailed on everyone who was employed with the agency as well as the people who were there to get better.
Her presence on the Board of some other mental health provider serves to emphasize the vapid and callous nature of her agenda, her inflated and delusional image of self, and distracting others from the breathtaking degree of duplicity and hypocrisy she exhibits when her words are compared to her actions. I cannot speak to the nature of the agency or the Board of the agency with whom she currently affiliates. I can state, without equivocation, that any agency that truly, with utter transparency and without apology, endeavors to advocate for the rights and treatment of people with a mental illness would distance themselves from this person. Including her in a leadership position is an irrevocable action that no word strings can ameliorate or justify. Her praise for this agency is pro forma; it has to be stated, or there is no point in being a part of that leadership team. Complimentary adjectives are only useful when used as a comparison to what one does. Given her track record, this person's actions are too cacophonous to hear their words. Pine Woods Retreat provides ample evidence of how a good idea can fail when ego trumps the mission.
Review from Guidestar