Assistant Speaker Clark Secures $500,000 For Advocates Community Behavioral Health Center in Framingham

FRAMINGHAM – Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark has secured $500,000 for Advocates for its new Community Behavioral Health Center on Route 9 in Framingham.

The $500,000 is included in the $1.7 trillion bill that the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives passed. The Omnibus spending bill now heads to President Joseph Biden for him to sign.

The Center will be located at 1094 Worcester Road, near the intersection of Winter Street and Worcester Road.

The funding will be used for the renovation of a 20,000 square foot building to create a Community Behavioral Health Center (CBHC) where patients will receive coordinated and integrated mental health and substance use disorder treatment.

The Center will provide outpatient services, mobile crisis intervention, and community crisis stabilization for thousands of low-income children and adults.

In July of 2022, Advocates announced it has been designated by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services to operate a Community Behavioral Health Center (CBHC), part of a new state initiative designed to provide accessible and equitable mental health care, including to people in crisis who otherwise would seek care in a hospital emergency department.

Advocates’ new CBHC will become operational in January 2023 and serve 31 communities in Eastern and Central Massachusetts.

The new Advocates CBHC will serve individuals and families in the following communities: Acton, Ashland, Arlington, Bedford, Belmont, Boxborough, Burlington, Carlisle, Concord, Framingham, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hudson, Lexington, Lincoln, Littleton, Maynard, Marlborough, Natick, Northborough, Sherborn, Southborough, Stow, Sudbury, Waltham, Watertown, Wayland, Westborough, Wilmington, Winchester, and Woburn.

“Advocates is excited to be part of this new model and standard of care that will make it easier for anyone – from those with a routine behavioral health concern to those experiencing a crisis – to gain access to high-quality, community-based care,” said Diane Gould, President and CEO of Advocates.  “We are grateful for the work of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services to bring new solutions to the table at a time when so many community members are struggling with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and for the collaborative way in which they have approached this challenge.”

The new community-based model seeks to shorten wait times to see providers in a close-to-home setting.