Greater Milford gets big investments as part of state's behavioral health rollout

MILFORD — After a soft launch earlier this year, Riverside Community Care is ready to showcase its new community behavioral health center to address mental health and substance use challenges for MassHealth members.

Riverside's new local facility, at 176 West St., is part of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services’ Roadmap for Behavioral Health Reform, which was unveiled last summer and called for the creation of 29 community behavioral health centers throughout the state. The purpose is to expand access to outpatient mental health and substance use care, offering a variety of services for recovering addicts, including counseling, group therapy and crisis intervention.

“We are very excited about our capacity to serve individuals and to manage their withdrawal in a way that is safe and healthy and engages longer-term treatment,” said Vic DiGravio, president of Dedham-based Riverside.

Riverside's Milford facility opened on Jan. 3, and has since been “getting its feet on the ground” to ensure it can operate at full capacity, DiGravio said.

Besides Milford, the center serves 26 other communities, including Bellingham, Blackstone, Brimfield, Brookfield, Charlton, Douglas, Dudley, East Brookfield, Franklin, Holland, Hopedale, Medway, Mendon, Millville, Northbridge, North Brookfield, Oxford, Southbridge, Sturbridge, Sutton, Upton, Uxbridge, Wales, Warren, Webster and West Brookfield.

“It’s certainly much needed in our general area,” said state Rep. Brian Murray, D-Milford. “The general location of Milford is beneficial for this in southern central Massachusetts.”

Currently, only MassHealth and a small number of private insurance members can use community behavioral health center services. DiGravio said most commercial insurance products do not cover CBHC services.

“If somebody comes in, is homeless and doesn't have MassHealth, we will try our best to serve them and make sure they get services,” he said. “But if you have different insurance like commercial insurance, they'll be able to access traditional outpatient services that the insurer purchases on their behalf. We hope in long term, many commercial insurances will decide to purchase the CBHC services.”

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DiGravio said Riverside invested $2.2 million to renovate three CBHC buildings — $102,000 for Milford, $236,000 for another center in Norwood and the remaining $1.8 million was spent to create a facility in Upton that's destined to become a community crisis stabilization unit, serving people for five to seven days in a house-like setting.

That new unit is expected to open toward the end of April, DiGravio said.

“That’s a huge investment that Riverside has made,” he said.

Riverside Chief Medical Officer Joseph Shrand said the purpose of the Upton center is to temporarily remove people from a triggering environment so as to allow their brains to feel relaxed and for them to receive training for returning to their communities without regressing.

“People can come and spend a few days to get themselves calmer, feeling safer, learning some more skills, having more tools and recognizing that there's a support team around them for when they go back home,” he said.

Addressing the mental health stigma

The Milford center was established to address the stigma behind seeking mental health care and to reassure community members that they can visit the center for various means of support.

“So many people not only don't seek the care, they don't even acknowledge that they may need care,” Shrand said. “All of the people who come to us are treated with respect, which leads them to feel valued and that allows them to trust us with their secrets.”

In 2021, the most recent full year for which statistics are available, 2,290 people in Massachusetts died of confirmed or estimated opioid-related overdoses, according to statistics compiled by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Community behavioral health centers will adopt medication-assisted treatment, where a patient will not only receive medication but also be connected with peer specialists, therapists and other helping services.

“A huge component of what the CBHC is doing is simply reminding everyone that you're valuable and that you will absolutely have access to the care that we can offer,” Shrand said.

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The center also provides all-day mobile crisis intervention to respond to an urgent behavioral health crisis in any setting.

DiGravio said this intervention will involve a "culture shift" in the way individuals approach crisis response and emergency medicine.

“We need to educate people and people have to become comfortable with the idea that if you're in a mental health crisis, you can call and our team will come out to see you, or you can come to our site,” he said, adding, “it’s not going to happen overnight.”

'We can always use more people'

Riverside received $750,000 from the state in startup funding to cover the cost of salaries and training fees, an electronic health record system; information technology, new furniture and exam room renovations.

Shrand said Riverside's Milford center will be staffed with up to three nurse practitioners, mental health and substance use professionals, clinicians, peer support specialists and recovery coaches.

“Nobody is going to be turned away from us,” he said. “We will be able to manage a large number of patients; the reality is, though, we can always use more people.”

Shrand said the center’s recovery coaches are in recovery themselves, adding they can share their experiences and feel a sense of reward by contributing to the community.

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“Contribute to society to help with your sobriety,” Shrand said

DiGravio agreed the center has faced challenges in hiring local professionals.

“We have more positions than we have staff available in the area,” he said. “Whenever possible, we would prefer to hire people from the Milford area because we want to attract people from the community to work for us."

Since January, DiGravio said, the center has seen a “steady flow” of individuals coming for outpatient services and an “uptick” in the number of users in mobile crisis intervention.

“It’s a much more comprehensive array of services that we were not able to offer before,” DiGravio said, adding that Riverside will continue to promote services with other health care providers, school systems, local police and fire departments, senior centers and other local entities.

Murray said the opening of CBHCs throughout the state is a “step in the right direction.”

“We need to devote attention and resources to mental health services,” he said, adding that lawmakers recognized the issue's urgency, as it affects many communities.

An open house is planned for Riverside's Milford facility from 4-6 p.m. on March 13. Light refreshments will be served.

This article originally appeared on The Milford Daily News: Behavioral health center planned in Milford, Upton