May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Here's how Gov. Healey acknowledged it

MILFORD — Gov. Maura Healey signed a proclamation declaring May as Mental Health Awareness Month during a visit Tuesday to Riverside Community Care's South County location on West Street.

Healey signed the proclamation after a tour of the facility with Kate Walsh, her secretary for health and human services.

Riverside's Milford facility 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 facility offers behavioral health services including treatment for mental health, substance use and co-occurring disorders.

"I'm so impressed with the dedication of the team," Walsh said of Riverside before Healey's proclamation signing. "The coordination not only in this building but also in the region — I really think it's one of the best examples I've seen of the way health care should do across the board."

Healey echoed Walsh's statements, saying she was also impressed with Riverside.

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"Know that with this team, on behalf of myself and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and Secretary Kate Walsh and her entire team, while we recognize that May is Mental Health Awareness Month, we are a team that understands that's something we've got to bring focus to every single day," the governor said.

"One of the things I get the honor and privilege of doing from time to time is signing proclamations," Healey added. "We're very very grateful to all of you."

The signing was attended by local and state officials, including state Rep. Brian Murray, D-Milford, and about 20 Riverside staff members.

"It's nice to have the governor come all the way down here and the fact that she picked us, I think it's special," said Manny Oppong, Riverside's vice president of service integration. "There's something about what we do here that I believe made her decide to come here. I think this is a place where a lot of wonderful people work, every day that I come here I encounter people that are really dedicated to their work."

Riverside responds to mental health needs of Blackstone Valley

During her tour, Healey took time to speak to staff of the mobile crisis intervention unit.

Riverside reported conducting 398 youth evaluations during the first quarter of this year, about triple the number (132) it saw in the same period a year ago. The number of youth intakes increased by more than five-fold, from 12 to 63.

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More multilingual mental health workers needed

State officials and staff members discussed the changing needs of the Blackstone Valley region, including a need for more multilingual employees.

Oppong pointed out after the tour that 58% of children in Milford speak a language other than English as their first language.

"We have to respond, because if you don't, you're going to leave a bunch of your community behind," he said, adding that Riverside has been seeing more patients who speak languages other than English.

"This work itself is difficult, our clinicians are having to juggle multiple things, so it's no longer what you learned in school anymore," Oppong said.

Julie Greiner-Ferris, a senior director who has been with Riverside for more than 35 years, echoed the changing needs, and explained the importance of the CBHC model.

"A community-based approach to mental health is able to be a local resource for the community, and is critical in order to get people the help they need when they need it," she said.

This article originally appeared on The Milford Daily News: Gov. Maura Healey visits mental health treatment center in Milford