Mental health changes to affect Lynn organization

LYNN – New Department of Mental Health contracting arrangements will throw into disarray the lives of hundreds of vulnerable people if implemented by the state’s July 1 deadline, according to Robert Stearns, chief executive officer for Bridgewell, the largest area housing provider to mentally ill, homeless and disabled.The Department of Mental Health is reducing the number of providers from nearly 80 to 16 or 17, a decision particularly problematic in the northeastern part of the state, in Lynn and Lowell for example, and in surrounding communities. The Patrick administration is also moving from a program-based model, where it pays for particular services provided to a client, to an HMO model.Stearns and other mental health advocates said the changes could jeopardize current housing arrangements for Bridgewell clients.”Our concern with the recent contracting changes is what will happen to those clients whose current housing or residential service providers lost out,” said Timothy O’Leary, deputy director of the Mass. Association for Mental Health.O’Leary said the state changes, if they are imposed, could uproot mental health clients and send them miles away to live in an unfamiliar environment.”To create unnecessary chaos and further instability is not what we expected the Department of Mental Health to do; to expect a smooth transition for individuals with mental illness in less than 80 days is a recipe for failure,” said James Cassetta, president of NAMI (National Association for the Mentally Ill) Greater North Shore Chapter.Gov. Deval Patrick cut the Department of Mental Health’s budget by $33 million this year as he sought to close a midyear deficit estimated at $2.5 billion but likely growing. Patrick has said he regrets having to cut services and that he sought to spread the pain across all areas of the budget.But Stearns said the cuts must be weighed carefully.”In its haste to rearrange the flow chart, the DMH hasn’t considered what residences are available for the clients, how services will be coordinated in the community and what happens to federal and other subsidies that are attached to particular residential treatment properties,” he said, “This ill-considered, ill-prepared programmatic change promises confusion, disruption and destabilization for the state’s most vulnerable population.”Founded in 1958, Bridgewell provides services in the areas of residential, day habilitation, homelessness and employment services as well as recreational and adult educational opportunities. Bridgewell provides support to 3,000 individuals at more than 100 sites in 18 communities in Essex and Middlesex counties.