Recognizing May 19, 2017 as the 200th Anniversary of the admittance of the First Patient at Friends Hospital in the City of Philadelphia and honoring Friends Hospital as being a steadfast leader in the moral treatment movement and providing recovery oriented care to hundreds of thousands of people in need.

WHEREAS, Friends Hospital one of America’s oldest hospitals and the nation’s first private non-profit institution in the country, founded exclusively to help persons with mental illness: and

WHEREAS, Friends Hospital was founded by Thomas Scattergood and a group of concerned Quakers, who believed that all people, even those with a mental illness, should be treated with kindness, dignity and respect; and

WHEREAS, Friends Hospital has had a commitment to excellence in psychiatric diagnostics, research, treatment and education is at the core of to its approach to treatment; and

WHEREAS, Friends Hospital strives to blend advancing medical treatments with a compassionate and supportive environment; and

WHEREAS, This approach has earned Friends Hospital the distinction as one of Philadelphia’s top mental health facilities and the only inpatient psychiatric hospital in Pennsylvania to achieve Top Performer on Key Quality Measures® from The Joint Commission; and

WHEREAS, Friends Hospital has had a rich history of being a monumental leader in the field of mental health; and

WHEREAS, Several national firsts have happened at Friends Hospital including the early adoption of pet therapy, constructing the first greenhouse on the campus for patients, hiring the first woman psychiatrist, building the first institutional gym for patients and developed the first two-year training school for nurses who wished to specialize in mental health; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby recognize and honor Friends Hospital for its leadership, innovation, and successes of the past two hundred years.

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