County restoration center inspired by MetroWest’s pioneering behavioral health work

Melissa Ellin
·4 min read

Several MetroWest agencies are playing a pivotal role in the creation of the Middlesex County Restoration Center, a facility that's expected to open next year and which advocates say is aimed at diverting those with mental health and substance abuse problems away from incarceration and unnecessary hospitalization.

Danna Mauch, co-chair for the restoration center’s commission, said MetroWest influenced much of the development for the center. She cited the MetroWest Health Foundation, Advocates and the Framingham Police Department as resources in its development.

“The inspiration that we took for this work really came out of work that's been developed in MetroWest and has inspired a lot of other activity around the state to provide diversion from arrest and incarceration and crisis diversion,” said Mauch, who is also president and CEO of the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health.

Bonnie Cuccaro, left, of the Advocates Inc., is the day shift co-response clinician for the Framingham Police Department. She is shown riding with Framingham police Sgt. Brian Curtis while speaking with Andrew Lacey (not pictured), a superintendent with the An Garda Siochana, the Irish National Police.
Bonnie Cuccaro, left, of the Advocates Inc., is the day shift co-response clinician for the Framingham Police Department. She is shown riding with Framingham police Sgt. Brian Curtis while speaking with Andrew Lacey (not pictured), a superintendent with the An Garda Siochana, the Irish National Police.

MetroWest police departments were “early adopters” of crisis intervention in policing, Mauch said, in particular, Framingham, which implemented the Jail Diversion program in 2003. The program instituted a co-responder model, in which trained behavioral health clinicians ride with officers and respond to emergency calls.

Martin Cohen, president and CEO of the MetroWest Health Foundation, which helped fund the program and get the conversation started between police and behavioral health leaders, called MetroWest a “pioneering region.”

“We, working with both law enforcement and the mental health community, have been able to make a real change,” Cohen said.

Framingham Police Chief Lester Baker said he was still a patrolman when the department introduced the diversion program. Over time, he said he’s seen the positive effects it's had on the station and that he would “never go back.”

“It’s truly rewarding, where we are, how it’s grown to what it is today,” Baker said. “I don’t know what we would do without it.”

'It's our culture now'

Not only do those who need help benefit from the clinicians, he said, but so do officers who get to see the service they provide and learn from it.

“It's our culture now,” Baker said. “We take this as a priority for dealing with people in mental health crisis, and having somebody on hand that is trained to do so.”

Co-responder models like Framingham’s program have been replicated throughout the state and country, and have even made an international impact, with the department presenting to Irish police officials, Baker said.

While Baker said he was not directly involved with planning for the Middlesex County Restoration Center, he’s been in contact with the commission and provided support where possible. The partnership, he said, is one of many the commission has formed to figure out how best to serve the community.

Framingham-based Advocates, which provides the department with clinicians for ride-alongs, has also assisted the restoration center commission along the way. The nonprofit human service provider received a grant for the restoration center and helped in its overall planning.

Advocates President and CEO Diane Gould said people with behavioral health conditions are too often not given proper care.

“There's an economic cost when people end up in emergency rooms and have to stay there for days and weeks because there aren't adequate resources or when they end up arrested and they go to prison or jail,” Gould said. “What they really need is treatment.”

Incarceration also has a “tremendous human cost,” Gould said, which the restoration center could help alleviate by adding an important step to the system of care for individuals at the intersection of criminal justice and behavioral health.

“It can change the trajectory for individuals and families,” Gould said.

Housing the center

Before Middlesex can offer this service to its constituents — including those in MetroWest — Mauch said the commission needs to find a provider that will house the center. She added that the commission is preparing to release its plan and request for providers, which is when the bidding process will start.

Mauch said she expects a positive response from potential suppliers, and the goal is to get the center up and running in 2023. Even so, Mauch said, there is still more work to be done at this level across Massachusetts.

“While we're very excited to be getting this off the ground, we also recognize that there are needs like this all over the state,” she said. “We hope that we will quickly prove this concept and others will adopt it.”

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: MetroWest agencies credited with inspiring county restoration center