Governor Maura Healey’s 2026 budget calls for cuts to programs for children and teenagers with the deepest mental health needs.
The budget calls for consolidating programs that are underutilized. Advocates turned to 25 Investigates saying that reasoning doesn’t tell the full story. And, they told Boston 25′s Kerry Kavanaugh these residential programs are for kids with no other safe options.
“They just keep showing up through the revolving door in the hospital, seeing them many times, or they just don’t feel they’re safe to go home because there’s still imminent risk of harm to themselves or others. Those kids wind up in our programs,” says Lydia Todd, Executive Director of Northeastern Family Institute (NFI).
NFI’s programs serve thousands through the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services. The programs in jeopardy are in Westborough. The dual residential program has 30 beds for kids ages 13-19 who enter in acute crisis.
“We serve every gender of youth, and this is at really the deepest end of mental health needs for kids in the Commonwealth,” says Todd.
Todd was recently notified by the Department of Mental Health budget cuts proposed in Governor Healey’s new budget included them.
“I think that is a mistake,” said a New Bedford father whose child was in the Westborough facility in 2023.
25 Investigates agreed not to identify him to protect the child’s privacy.
The father says his child’s 9-month stay saved their life.
“It was an incredibly hard time for myself, for my child, for our family,” the father said. “It’s heartbreaking on a daily basis and without the support, it would also feel hopeless.”
The father says his child has many conditions including suicidal ideation. During their stay, his child received psychiatric and medical oversight, behavioral therapy, and peer support groups.
Todd says the program was cut because it’s currently only at 50-percent capacity. But she says not due to a lack of need, rather a sluggish referral process which has been bogged down since the COVID-19 pandemic. Todd says she’s been raising concerns about the slow referral process for years and was assured it would eventually be resolved. Now, it may be too late.
“They were just looking at utilization, straight utilization. It isn’t the whole story. You have to look under the hood and see what’s really going on,” Todd said.
The Department of Mental Health tells 25 Investigates the consolidation will ensure taxpayer dollars are used effectively and will save the state more than $15.3 million.
A spokesperson said in a written statement, ”The Department of Mental Health is committed to supporting mental health needs across our state, which is why our budget proposes more than $1.2 billion through DMH alone and a 7 percent increase. The administration has also expanded access to care through the 31 Community Behavioral Health Centers.”
“These facilities are critical to the safety of children in our state. And if a state is not supporting the safety of its children, it’s not really supporting anything,” said the New Bedford father. “The fact of the matter is, there aren’t enough facilities or beds in those facilities to support the people when there are needs.”
“At the very least, we have to hold the children and families harmless while we explore this,” said Todd.
Another facility being cut is program for children ages 6-12 in Belchertown in western Massachusetts. The Three Rivers Clinically Intensive Residential Treatment (CIRT) program offered by Cutchins Programs for Children and Families the only intensive residential facility in the state for children that young.
State officials with DMH say the proposed changes also reflect their commitment to helping people transition to receiving mental health care services in their homes and communities, which they say is a more effective way to provide treatment. And they say adolescent patients will still be able to receive treatment at other locations in the state and younger children will be able to receive acute care treatment at hospitals when necessary.
“We will lose an integrated, multidisciplinary team of occupational therapists, clinicians, nurses, psychiatrists, teachers, mental health counselors,” Todd said. “And to try to stand up a 30-bed program when in two years people are panicking because the emergency departments are all backed up again and families are having to quit their jobs, I think it’s an absolute shame.”
The cuts are still subject to legislative approval.
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