BHN brings addiction, mental health rehab for women to Greenfield
Published: 11-29-2024 4:19 PM |
GREENFIELD — The regional human services organization Behavioral Health Network Inc. has begun a new 16-bed addiction and mental health rehabilitation program for women at its Kenwood Street location.
“Recovery is never a one-size-fits-all approach,” BHN Senior Vice President Rose Evans said in a statement. “We are committed to providing each person with a tailored treatment plan that empowers them to achieve long-term stability and success in all areas of life.”
Northern Star, which BHN Senior Vice President Katherine Mague referred to as an “enhanced residential treatment program,” supports women who are challenged by both mental health issues and substance abuse over a two-to-three-month period with counseling, group therapy and peer support.
Mague said BHN staff will create individualized treatment plans for women seeking help at the 21 Kenwood St. location. Services offered at the facility include diagnostic evaluations and referrals for medications for opioid use disorder. The program also includes aftercare planning to ensure participants have the resources they need to maintain their recovery after returning to their communities.
Mague said the new program aims to fill a need among women in Franklin County that was previously only available in Hampden County. The service was available for Franklin County men, however.
“Across the Pioneer Valley, we’ve made adjustments over the years with which programs are in which locations, based on the demand,” Mague recounted. “For many years, we had a detox level of care, which is a medically moderated, intensive inpatient [clinic] up in Greenfield at the Franklin Recovery Center. But we found that people in the Franklin County area weren’t really needing that level of care very much, so we were bussing people from Springfield up to Greenfield.”
However, trends shifted, she explained, and BHN shifted its services to reflect that change.
“We found that there were a number of women from Franklin County who needed this enhanced residential rehabilitation service level of care,” Mague said of more recent trends. “Because we didn’t have that in Franklin County, we were bussing those women down to Springfield.”
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Northern Star supports women who face both mental health issues and substance abuse challenges — issues that Mague said often go hand-in-hand, but, historically, have been treated separately. The program is available to women ages 18 and older.
BHN offers a range of addiction recovery services across western Massachusetts that include inpatient acute treatment, clinical stabilization services, residential recovery homes, transitional support services, outpatient treatment, recovery coaching and alcohol education for drivers through the Massachusetts Impaired Driving Program. Among BHN’s numerous human services programs are Unity Place, a men’s addiction treatment program; New View, for women who are participating in court-appointed drug rehabilitation; and Connections, a jail diversion rehabilitation program for men.
“It’s really wonderful to have this level of care ... because it really does acknowledge and recognize that people very often experience both. They either have a mental health condition that they’re medicating with substances, or with substance use and misuse, they have subsequent mental health challenges,” Mague said of Northern Star. “We can now serve women with mental health and substance use treatment who need residential care in Franklin County. … Now they don’t have to go down to Springfield.”
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.