CHD’s Community Support Program to Open at Providence Hospital

HOLYOKE — CHD’s Community Support Program (CSP) and a new outpatient behavioral-health program will officially open on Wednesday, Dec. 13 on the campus of Providence Behavioral Health Hospital at 1221 Main St., Suite 309 in the Catherine Horan Medical Building, in Holyoke. A ribbon-cutting ceremony and open-house event will take place from 10:30 a.m. to noon.

“The value of providing a full continuum of behavioral healthcare to our community is clear. At Mercy Medical Center and Providence Behavioral Health Hospital, we believe that care is most successful when we are able to meet the needs of patients when they need it and where they need it,” said Dr. Robert Roose, vice president, Behavioral Health for Mercy Medical Center. “We are pleased to be collaborating with CHD on additional services on our campus in order to facilitate coordinated care both for patients transitioning from inpatient treatment as well as those coming daily for outpatient opioid treatment.”

The primary goal of providing outpatient behavioral health and CSP services at Providence Behavioral Health Hospital is to help at-risk individuals live independently in the community and to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations, said Jim Goodwin, president and CEO of CHD. “CSP is appropriate for adults whose mental-health status has interfered with their ability to access essential medical, behavioral-health, and social services to independently conduct activities of daily living. CHD designed this program to be an integral component in our continuum of care and to dovetail with services provided at Providence Behavioral Health Hospital.”

CSP will work closely with referring inpatient psychiatric and substance-use-disorder treatment programs at Providence Behavioral Health Hospital. CSP also will work in close coordination with, and complement services provided in, CHD’s outpatient behavioral-health clinic.

“The professional staff at Providence can educate individuals about their transition from inpatient to outpatient status and about the availability of CHD’s Community Support Program right on the hospital campus,” Goodwin added. “However, the real story here is providing an immediate, on-site resource to help individuals to be successful in the community and maintain emotional wellness. The shared passion and vision underlying this project is what’s responsible for our two entities coming together. CHD is so fortunate for this collaboration with Providence Behavioral Health Hospital.”

CSP at Providence Behavioral Health Hospital is just one example of CHD embedding its services within a larger healthcare framework. For example, in the spring of 2018, CHD will open its CHD Greenfield Center for Wellness, an innovative partnership with the Community Health Center of Franklin County, a federally qualified care organization. This integrated care center will offer primary healthcare, dental care, counseling for emotional wellness, and access to community-based supports, all in one location.