WALTHAM — MetroWest children and families will have a new home for their mental-health needs, thanks in part to a Marblehead resident.
The Baker Center held a grand opening for its newest location in Waltham at the end of September. Rick Breed, chairman of the board for The Baker Center, resides in Marblehead.
The center, located in a 4,000-square-foot space in a newly-designed office building on South Street, is less than a mile from Brandeis University and easily accessible from Route 128 and the Mass Pike.
“I am so pleased to be able to bring our services to the MetroWest region through our new state-of-the-art satellite clinic,” said Baker Center President and CEO Dr. Robert Franks. “We offer families the highest quality, evidence-based services. We know there is a real demand for services in this area.”
The Boston-based Baker Center for Children and Families has been providing mental-health care for more than 100 years. Waltham was chosen as a second site in order to address a critical need for mental-health services in the MetroWest region.
The Baker Center for Children and Families provides scientifically-proven specialty treatments to children and families struggling with ADHD, anxiety, depression, learning and behavioral problems, PTSD, high-functioning autism spectrum disorder, and other mental-health challenges.
The Waltham location can accommodate more than 15,000 outpatient visits per year while offering outpatient treatment rooms equipped for delivering evidence-based practices, including group/family treatment rooms, neuropsychological testing, an assessment unit with testing materials, early childhood treatment rooms with special configuration and video monitoring, and training space/conference rooms equipped with video-conferencing capabilities.
Franks said that research indicates that if children with mental-health issues are not treated, they can have lifelong problems, such as school and family issues, unemployment and underemployment, chronic diseases, and problems with the criminal-justice system. He said studies have shown that less than 5 percent of children who need mental-health services are receiving evidence-based services.
The Baker Center also boasts other programs to help children and families, including the Manville School, a therapeutic day school for students in grades K-10 who experience emotional, behavioral, and learning difficulties; The Center for Effective Child Therapy, which provides evidence-based mental-health treatments for children ages 2-19; and The Quality Care Initiative, which works at the local, state, and national levels to improve the quality of mental-health care by providing training and implementation support for evidence-based practices and programs. In addition, its Evidence-Based Policy Institute works with national, state, and community partners to explore pressing issues impacting children’s development and mental health and identify actionable solutions.
The Baker Center for Children and Families in Waltham will serve residents of Arlington, Belmont, Brookline, Cambridge, Dedham, Dover, Lincoln, Lexington, Needham, Newton, Somerville, Waltham, Watertown, Wayland, Wellesley, Weston, and Westwood.
