WILBRAHAM — The Wilbraham Select Board approved the grant application for a multi-town shared mental health clinician during its Aug. 5 meeting.
Presented by Police Chief Ed Lennon, the application supports a fully state-funded clinician through the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. Although the clinician would be based at the Wilbraham Police Station, the position would support both Hampden and Wilbraham, he said.
The clinician would provide assistance in mental health situations for both towns, including follow up appointments, Lennon said.
As an employee of the Behavioral Health Network, the town would not be required to pay for benefits or other administrative expenses for the clinician, Lennon stated. While there would be a few “negligible” costs, such as a phone and radio, most costs would be reimbursed through quarterly reports sent from the BHN and then passed to the Department of Mental Health.
Lennon noted that Wilbraham currently receives reimbursement through a similar grant with the Department of Mental Health, highlighting that those reimbursements through the department have experienced no issues in the past and typically occurred within a few weeks.
“This is currently working very well in other towns. I would recommend that we apply for this grant. All indications are it’d be automatic, we would get it and we can get it started as quickly as possible,” Lennon stated.
If Wilbraham and Hampden were awarded the grant, it would last for a duration of one year over the course of fiscal year 2025. At that point, the towns could decide to request to maintain the grant. This would require submitting a “new statement of work” to the Department of Mental Health in order to reassess costs and receive final approval for a potential additional year, Lennon said.
While an additional year of funding is not guaranteed, Lennon stated that he thought it was likely the grant will be continued since mental health “seems to be a pretty high priority for the [Healey] administration.”
If the grant is not maintained before FY25, Wilbraham and Hampden would not be required to maintain the position, as the mental health clinician is employed through a contract. However, if desired, the towns could pursue the option of funding a clinician through its own budget, Lennon confirmed. This clinician would not need to be an employee of BHN and could be from a competing company.
“They are a certified contractor under BHN so the state has already really approved their setup so the state already knows what these figures are and they are already certified to be able to work under this grant. We’re just asking as a community that we want to hire them under the grant,” Lennon explained.
The Select Board unanimously supported moving forward with the grant application, requesting that Lennon return to the board in three to fourt months to provide an update on its progress.
