Fr. Garvey retires from Willmar Treatment Center after 39 years of service

The first time he walked into Willmar Regional Treatment Center, the Reverend Francis Garvey "was frightened to death" by the things and people he encountered.

Thirty-nine years later, Father Garvey was scared and depressed by the thought of not counseling and ministering to patients and working with other center employees whom he had come to know as family.

"It was tough," said Father Garvey of the day he retired from the Willmar Treatment Center nearly five months ago. "I stayed too long. It was an extremely difficult adjustment ... not being at the center. That was my life. It was like a dying to give it up."

After a difficult mourning period, Father Garvey has successfully adjusted to his new role as priest at Church of Our Lady in Manannah and now says of his work at the center, "I don’t miss it."

But he took time out of his pastoral duties recently to reminisce about his time at the Willmar Regional Treatment Center, a time in which he built a nationally known clinical pastoral education training program.

More important than the program, though, was the ministry he provided for the mentally ill and chemically dependent patients at the center.

"My primary job was to work with patients," he said. "That’s what I was hired to do, and that was what was most important."

That job was one that he admitted to being quite unsure of when he arrived at what was then the Willmar State Hospital in 1962.

A priest at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New Ulm, Garvey received a request from then-Bishop of New Ulm, Alphonse Schladweiler to move on to the state hospital.

Father Garvey ticks off the date of his first day on the job-July 18, 1962 -easily. It was the start of an adventure of sorts.

He went on to establish the Willmar Regional Treatment Center as a training ground for chaplains. He was certified supervisor of clinical pastoral education in 1967, earning accreditation from both the United States Catholic Conference and the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education.

For the next 32 years, Garvey used his rare double certification - he was the second priest in the country to receive ACPE certification - to teach hundreds of other clergy and lay people in chaplaincy ministry.

While serving as director of the Willmar Regional Treatment Center’s CPE program and ministering to its patients, Father Garvey performed regular pastoral duties at St. Patrick’s Church in Kandiyohi and - occasionally, St. Thomas More Church in Lake Lillian.

Though it was a mentally and physically taxing job, Father Garvey considered his role as chaplain at the treatment center his primary duty. Even today, he shrugs off his contribution to establishing the CPE program at the center.

What that program accomplished, he said, was expanding his ability to minister to the center’s patients."By spending time with them (chaplaincy students), I had 10 chaplains rather than just myself," said Garvey, who estimated he taught more than 300 students in the CPE program through the years.

And that team was necessary considering that when Father Garvey started in Willmar the treatment center had 920 patients, including 270 who were being treated for chemical dependency.

The center population dwindled to fewer than 200 by the time he left, the result of a changing state philosophy toward the mentally ill.

During the nearly four decades he spent at the center, Garvey observed remarkable changes in the treatment of mentally ill, from the use of restraints and frequent electric shock treatments to the use of drugs and psychotherapy. Among all of those changes, however, one thing remained the same, Garvey said. "The spiritual treatment of people was very important," he said. "Many of these people were lifetime members. In the early days, if you went into the center there was only one way you came out, and that was when you died.

Garvey’s face brightens with a broad smile as he talks about his ministry and the relationships he built with patients and co-workers. "They were such a joy to minister to, because they appreciated every little thing I did for them," Garvey said. "Upon leaving there, clients were saying, ‘How can we ever survive without you?’ That’s probably the most touching thing I’ll take from my time there - to be loved and appreciated in what you do."

Courtesy of Litchfield Independent Review