DMH set on merger

Future of western Mass. office unclear; director steps down

By OWEN BOSS
Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON — A plan to consolidate state Department of Mental Health regional offices has a local advocacy group sounding the alarm, fearing that services for mental health clients in western Massachusetts will suffer.

The planned restructuring is a cost-cutting measure that will require consolidating DMH’s six regional offices statewide into three, according to DMH Commissioner Barbara Leadholm.

Although it remains unclear which of the six regional offices will close, the six in question are the central Massachusetts office in Worcester; metro Boston office in Boston; metro suburban office in Westborough; the northeast office in Tewksbury; the southeastern office in Brockton; and the western Massachusetts office in Northampton.

The consolidation, according to Leadholm, will not require closing any of the department’s 29 smaller offices statewide and is “wholly administrative and is not intended to affect services that DMH provides.”

Leadholm’s goal is to have the restructuring in place by December. But unhappy about their lack of involvement and the absence of a step-by-step plan for the consolidation, members of the Citizen Advisory Board for Western Mass. DMH are calling for a delay.

The board met with Leadholm April 9.

“What became clear to us at the meeting was that there isn’t really much of a plan in place for this,” said advisory board member John Hornick. “At best, she has a plan to make a plan. We asked her questions about exactly how these new area offices would look and she didn’t have a clear answer. She didn’t even have a clear number for us in respect to the anticipated savings.”

Sullivan leaves post

Hornick said board members were also shocked to find that Elizabeth Sullivan, who had been the department’s western Massachusetts area director in Northampton for 30 years, left her post Friday. The implication of her departure, Hornick alleges, is that DMH plans to consolidate the central and western regions.

“This is just a really odd time for Liz Sullivan to be stepping down,” Hornick said. “If anything you would think they would want to have an experienced leader in place in order to help with this transition — and frankly that announcement came as quite a surprise to the board.”

Another concern, board member Laura Prescott said, is how many staff positions will be eliminated in this area. Also, she said, advocates worry that more people being served by fewer offices will leave the department overextended.

Further, Prescott said she worries that if the Northampton office closes, area residents may have to travel to Worcester.

Prescott said the board is concerned that there is no plan for what will happen after the consolidation in terms of providing accountability for services to clients across the region.

Anna Chinappi, director of DMH’s office of communications and community engagement, said the restructuring plan is incomplete. Meantime, she said, until the DMH budget is released in June, an April 14 statement from Leadholm will remain the agency’s final comment on the matter.

According to the statement, Leadholm said she hopes to have the consolidation completed by December and in the coming weeks plans to decide the locations of the three remaining regional offices. She will name area directors for those locations.

“We will be working with unions and management throughout this process and will make changes in a way that will be least disruptive to employees, consumers, families and the provider community,” the statement reads. “I want to acknowledge the anxiety that we are all experiencing during this time of change for the department.”

Still, advocates say more work is needed to make the transition seamless. They are asking for 12 more months to do so.

“The reasoning behind the delay is to give DMH an opportunity to carefully consider how they plan to carry out all of these functions with consolidated area offices,” Hornick said, “and to allow us an opportunity to see what that plan is going to be and respond to it.”

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.