Behavioral Health Network at 21 Kenwood St. in Greenfield.
Staff Photo/Paul Franz
GREENFIELD — The regional human companies group Behavioral Health Network Inc. has begun a brand new 16-bed habit and psychological well being rehabilitation program for girls at its Kenwood Street location.
“Recovery isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy,” BHN Senior Vice President Rose Evans mentioned in a assertion. “We are dedicated to offering every individual with a tailor-made remedy plan that empowers them to attain long-term stability and success in all areas of life.”
Northern Star, which BHN Senior Vice President Katherine Mague known as an “enhanced residential remedy program,” helps girls who’re challenged by each psychological well being points and substance abuse over a two-to-three-month interval with counseling, group remedy and peer help.
Mague mentioned BHN workers will create individualized remedy plans for girls looking for assist on the 21 Kenwood St. location. Services supplied on the facility embrace diagnostic evaluations and referrals for drugs for opioid use dysfunction. The program additionally consists of aftercare planning to make sure contributors have the sources they should preserve their restoration after returning to their communities.
Mague mentioned the brand new program goals to fill a necessity amongst girls in Franklin County that was beforehand solely obtainable in Hampden County. The service was obtainable for Franklin County males, nevertheless.
“Across the Pioneer Valley, we’ve made changes over time with which applications are wherein places, primarily based on the demand,” Mague recounted. “For a few years, we had a detox stage of care, which is a medically moderated, intensive inpatient [clinic] up in Greenfield on the Franklin Recovery Center. But we discovered that individuals within the Franklin County space weren’t actually needing that stage of care very a lot, so we had been bussing folks from Springfield as much as Greenfield.”
However, traits shifted, she defined, and BHN shifted its companies to mirror that change.
“We discovered that there have been various girls from Franklin County who wanted this enhanced residential rehabilitation service stage of care,” Mague mentioned of more moderen traits. “Because we didn’t have that in Franklin County, we had been bussing these girls all the way down to Springfield.”
Northern Star helps girls who face each psychological well being points and substance abuse challenges — points that Mague mentioned typically go hand-in-hand, however, traditionally, have been handled individually. The program is on the market to girls ages 18 and older.
BHN provides a variety of habit restoration companies throughout western Massachusetts that embrace inpatient acute remedy, scientific stabilization companies, residential restoration houses, transitional help companies, outpatient remedy, restoration teaching and alcohol schooling for drivers by the Massachusetts Impaired Driving Program. Among BHN’s quite a few human companies applications are Unity Place, a males’s habit remedy program; New View, for girls who’re collaborating in court-appointed drug rehabilitation; and Connections, a jail diversion rehabilitation program for males.
“It’s actually great to have this stage of care … as a result of it actually does acknowledge and acknowledge that individuals fairly often expertise each. They both have a psychological well being situation that they’re medicating with substances, or with substance use and misuse, they’ve subsequent psychological well being challenges,” Mague mentioned of Northern Star. “We can now serve girls with psychological well being and substance use remedy who want residential care in Franklin County. … Now they don’t need to go all the way down to Springfield.”
Anthony Cammalleri will be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.
