LYNN – Eliot Community Human Services has been selected by the Healey-Driscoll administration to expand its home- and community-based services for children who are MassHealth members.
This expansion will cover MassHealth youth members, which is nearly half of all children in Massachusetts, in the following cities:
- Lynn
- Lynnfield
- Melrose
- Nahant
- North Reading
- Reading
- Salem
- Saugus
- Stoneham
- Swampscott
- Wakefield
“The new network will be the first expansion of the provider network in over a decade,” a press release wrote. “It will offer more options for families, increase access to high-quality behavioral health services, and ensure geographic coverage across the entire state, including for families seeking specialized cultural and linguistic care.”
Gov. Maura Healey said, “This expansion will strengthen the behavioral health system of support for hundreds of thousands of children and their families here in Massachusetts. Through this important work, we are making sure that our young people get the care that they need.”
Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll added, “These agencies will help us provide coordinated, innovative services that are essential to the behavioral and mental health of children here in Massachusetts. We are thrilled to work with our partners to increase access to these services.”
Aaron Katz, Chief Operation Officer at Eliot Community Human Services, weighed in on the significance of the expansion.
“This is a new level of service that the state is providing,” Katz said. “This is a new attempt to have more specific services to kids and families that really struggle to stay in the community. This level of care addresses the need for families that struggle to keep their youth out of the emergency room and hospitals, and keep them in school.
“We are super grateful to MassHealth for awarding us this, and we are excited to bring these services to Lynn. We’re looking forward to parenting with the community and doing whatever we can to help youth, families, and youth services.”
