Recovery Grows and Glows at MiraVista

HOLYOKE — MiraVista Behavioral Health Center, which opened in the spring of 2021, bathed the upper stories of its building in purple Thursday evening, Sept. 1, for the start of National Recovery Month.

Mark Paglia, the center’s chief operating officer, called the illumination symbolic of MiraVista as a “beacon of hope and healing” both for those with a mental-health diagnosis as well as those with the disease of addiction.

“As we symbolically turn our building purple for the month, the color associated with recovery, our team of exceptional caring staff are currently responding to those who have entered our doors looking for support to live healthy, satisfying lives,” Paglia said. “Since we launched MiraVista just 17 months ago, we have served 15,000 inpatient bed days and have had over 300,000 outpatient visits.”

The exterior illumination by Jim Powers of CJC Event Lighting and Production features a centrally positioned ribbon in deep purple. Several dozen staff members and clients were in attendance for the inaugural lighting.

During the event, Paglia noted the observance of International Overdose Awareness Day on Aug. 31.

“The tragedy of lives lost to addiction and the grief of families call us together as a community to support those in recovery,” he said. “We must work together against stigmas that continue to be a barrier for people seeking help for what is a chronic, but treatable, medical condition. Recovery is something we can work on every day, together.”

Paglia said MiraVista is in the process of a renovation to expand inpatient psychiatric beds and its outpatient substance-use-disorder treatment services.

MiraVista’s recovery programs for substance use include acute treatment services (detox), clinical stabilization services (post-detox), and outpatient services that offer medication-supported recovery, individual and group counseling, as well as day-treatment programming.