President’s Message for November
In late June, Tufts Medicine and Acadia Healthcare announced they will build a new $65 million 144 bed behavioral health inpatient hospital on the site of the long abandoned Malden hospital site. Tufts Medicine is associated with Tufts Medical Center, MelroseWakefield Hospital, Lowell General Hospital, and Lawrence Memorial Hospital of Medford. Acadia Healthcare operates psychiatric inpatient units in Massachusetts at the Haverhill Pavilion Behavioral Health Hospital and the Southcoast Behavioral Health Hospital in Dartmouth and in 40 other states.
The acute care facility will have adult, pediatric, and geriatric inpatient beds, partial hospitalization options, and intensive outpatient services. Fifty-eight beds will be transferred from other locations for a net gain of 86 beds for the region. The plan includes donating 9 acres of the site to the city of Malden for park/open space.
Malden is working its way through the approval process of the development project. I attended the two public forums via Zoom in July and October. The developers responded to the community and downsized the footprint of the building and adjusted parking areas. The public had questions about open space, traffic, labor contracts, education in the community, and other topics. While I didn’t stay for the full length of either meeting, I didn’t hear anyone speak out against welcoming those with mental health conditions to the area. I sent a note via the Chat to ask that the team consider NAMI as a community partner. The Acadia representative responded, “We work with NAMI all across the U.S. and have tremendous respect for what they do.”
There are other big changes in the making for the Massachusetts behavioral health care system. Department of Mental Health (DMH) partners in 25 locations across the state are creating Community Behavioral Health Centers (CBHC’s) for rollout in January. The CBHC’s will focus on urgent and crisis care for mental health and substance use concerns for adults and youth and are intended to serve as alternatives to emergency department visits. If you are curious about the new CBHC’s, then save the date for the NAMI Central Middlesex Annual Meeting on the evening of Monday, January 23rd. We will have representatives from Advocates outline the details of the operation and discuss the updated response to emergency behavioral healthcare.
The Central Middlesex board members love bringing our readers news of updates in the behavioral health system and overseeing the NAMI signature programs. We could use some more eyes, ears, hands, and hearts on these efforts. Our bylaws tell us we must announce the 2023 Board of Directors in December, so please contact us this month to learn about joining our board or being part of our new Finance Committee.
You might just love being part of our team — an amazing, caring, dedicated group of people. ~Lori