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Date: 2/14/2023
SPRINGFIELD – A new Behavioral Health Network (BHN) Community Behavioral Health Center (CBHC) opened in Springfield on Jan. 27. The BHN CBHC is one of 25 behavioral health and substance use providers in the state to receive the newly developed CBHC designation by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services. The center is designated to serve the Greater Springfield and Westfield communities.
Senior Vice President Katherine Mague shared that BHN applied to be a part of the state program that offers a “new model” for mental health care.
“It is an initiative of the state … They have designed a new model of care for community behavioral health,” said Mague in an interview with Reminder Publishing.
Entitled BHN WellBeing, the CBHC provides “the right care, at the right time, in the right place,” according to Mague. New inclusions of the CBHC model include mental health urgent care, which had not previously been featured in mental health facilities across the state, along with routine and emergency crisis mental health treatment.
Mague shared that BHN WellBeing urgent cares operates from Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The urgent care treatment allows the CBHC to meet their client’s variety of potential needs.
“During those hours, someone can call in or walk in. There’s no appointment needed. When [clients] arrive or call, it’s not just therapy we have available to them. We will do an assessment and figure out who is the right professional to work with them to get them what they need,” said Mague.
Some urgent care visitors might need a professional therapist to help them “regain their footing and refocus themselves,” while others could want to talk to a recovery coach who has lived through similar mental health experiences or require a medicine prescription. Mague explained that the variety of services is very beneficial to BHN WellBeing’s clients.
“In the old days, all we got paid to deliver was therapy, so it was like the only tool in our toolbox … In this new world, we have lots of different kinds of providers depending on what the need is that the client is looking for help with,” said Mague.
Mague has noticed mental health needs grow exponentially over the past few years. She said anxiety and depression concerns have reached “epic levels,” especially in the youth populations.
Many of these concerns were exasperated by the isolation and uncertainty stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
“The impact of isolation and the uncertainty, and the fear that came with that uncertainty, has really driven anxiety and depression through the roof … We were isolated. We couldn’t turn to our people and get the same kind of regulation and stabilization we are hard-wired to,” said Mague.
Mague said the expanded hours and focus on urgent access is “really going to change the equation” in addressing mental health needs. In the past, many behavioral health treatment centers and clients were restricted by lengthy waiting lists.
“What would happen [in the past] is people would get worse and worse because we didn’t have what they needed … What’s really different about this model is being able to say, “You don’t have to wait three or six months and sit on this wait list,” said Mague.
Mague continued, “You are going to see a lot fewer people escalating to higher levels of distress because we can get them sooner and help people stabilize.”
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno celebrated the debut of BHN WellBeing at a Jan. 27 ribbon cutting. He was joined by Health and Human Services Commissioner Helen Caulton-Harris, BHN President and CEO Steve Winn, state Sen. Jacob Oliveria and state Reps. Carlos Gonzales, Bud Williams, Orlando Ramos and Brian Ashe.
“This pandemic has exacerbated the need for mental health and substance use treatment and initiatives, and BHN has once again stepped up to the plate and answered the call for help. BHN has been a great community partner,” said Sarno via press release.
Readers can learn more about BHN WellBeing at https://www.bhninc.org/wellbeing.