BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey has put plans to close the Pocasset Mental Health Center in Bourne on hold after facing bipartisan opposition from families, local officials, mental health advocates, and lawmakers, including state Sen. Julian Cyr of Truro, who represents the Cape & Islands and who has long advocated for better access to mental health care.
The 16-bed center in Pocasset is the only state-run facility of its kind in Barnstable County and provides short-term treatment for patients age 19 and older facing acute mental health crises. Its proposed closure, along with a plan to halve the number of case managers at the state Dept. of Mental Health, had raised widespread concern about access to care on Cape Cod.
“I’m deeply grateful for their feedback,” Healey wrote in a statement. That statement also recognized “the hard work of our teams at the Dept. of Public Health and the Dept. of Mental Health, who are focused on ensuring that all patients receive the high-quality, modernized, specialized care they need and deserve.”
Healey also pulled back on plans to close the Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children in Canton.
While Healey’s statement called for broader review of care at these facilities by a “diverse group of stakeholders,” it did not address the governor’s proposed workforce reductions, which would cut the number of mental health case managers in half, from 340 to 170.
The Barnstable County Board of Regional Commissioners and the Assembly of Delegates, which had both formally opposed the closures, issued a joint response on Feb. 25 calling the case manager cuts a “pressing concern.”
Healey’s pausing the closure of the center in Pocasset came just before the Truro Select Board voted on Feb. 25 to send a letter urging Healey to reconsider. Truro resident Jane Ray had asked the select board on Feb. 11 to advocate for keeping the center in Pocasset open.
“We need it in Truro; we also need it on the Cape,” Ray had said during the Feb. 11 meeting’s public comment period. “There are many people that could use the services.”
Even knowing that the governor had already announced the decision to remove Pocasset’s closure from the budget plans, the board decided to add its opinion to the record. “I think it would still be good to send,” said chair Susan Areson, who drafted the letter.
Truro’s letter echoed concerns raised at select board meetings in both Wellfleet and Provincetown. “Our Outer Cape communities already face significant challenges in providing adequate mental health services for those who need it,” the letter stated. “Requiring patients and their families to travel off Cape for these services and eliminating case workers is unreasonable at a time when the demand for mental health services is increasing.”
The Provincetown Select Board had approved a similar letter on Feb. 24, and Areson borrowed its closing lines for Truro’s version: “We understand the need to be fiscally responsible,” the letter concluded. “However, budgets also reflect values, and our hope is that the mental health of rural areas like Cape Cod will not be sacrificed.”
State Rep. Hadley Luddy told the Independent that she thought the governor’s decision showed the power of coordinated advocacy.
“I felt like we were listened to,” said Luddy. “We made a strong case. If anything, I hope we’re going to end up with much more mental health care and services in our region, and I’d love to see more come to the 4th Barnstable.”
