Webster, MA, October 29, 2021 – The UMass Memorial Health – Harrington Behavioral Health Department is expanding its adult inpatient services with the opening of a new Adult Psychiatric Unit (APU) at its Webster campus located at 340 Thompson Road.
On Thursday, October 28th, UMass Memorial Health – Harrington held an official Ribbon Cutting Ceremony in honor of the expansion and relocation of the new unit. Those in attendance included Brooke Doyle, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH); Doug Brown, CAO & President of Community Hospitals for UMass Memorial Health; and Ed Moore, President of UMass Memorial Health – Harrington, along with local legislators and several members of Harrington’s Board of Directors.
The new APU will replace an existing unit that is currently located in Harrington Hospital’s Southbridge Campus. The new unit in Webster will consist of 24 newly renovated inpatients beds and will help to address the significant shortage of behavioral health services in the Commonwealth.
In addition to the Inpatient Adult Psychiatric Unit, UMass Memorial Health – Harrington’s Webster Campus includes a 16-bed Co-Occurring Disorder inpatient unit, as well as a full continuum of outpatient behavioral health services, including Partial Hospital and Intensive Outpatient programs and Addiction Immediate Care, as well as group therapy and counseling.
“Our new Adult Inpatient Unit was made possible through a $1.2 million grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, along with the resources and support provided to us by our new partners within the UMass Memorial Health leadership,” said Ed Moore, President of UMass Memorial Health – Harrington.
“Through our ongoing partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, we’ve been able to become one of the very few healthcare organizations to offer a continuous care model of mental health and addiction treatment,” Moore said. “This model provides care for individuals all the way from crisis intervention through treatment and ongoing recovery and support. This expansion represents the latest step forward in our commitment to provide the best care possible to our patients.”
“This move is something that we’ve wanted to do for a long time,” said Greg Mirhej, Vice President of Behavioral Health Services at UMass Memorial Health – Harrington. “Not only does this new unit offer an improved environment of recovery for our patients requiring inpatient psychiatric care, it also centralizes our behavioral health services to one location. Additionally it will strengthen the ability for patients to access continuous care in one convenient location throughout their entire treatment journey and road to recovery.”
“The pandemic has exacerbated the behavioral health crisis we were already in before March of 2020,” said Eric Dickson, MD, president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health. “The communities we serve in Central Massachusetts deserve to have the best care when it comes to behavioral health. The opening of the Webster Behavioral Health Unit at UMass Memorial Health-Harrington is an important resource to provide that kind of world-class care”
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UMass Memorial Health – Harrington provides outstanding health care to patients in more than 25 communities throughout south central Massachusetts and northeastern Connecticut. We are dedicated to our role as the health and wellness partner of the people in our communities and we are relentless in the pursuit of healing. Our comprehensive array of health care services and locations provides our patients with unparalleled access to care. Harrington Hospital in Southbridge provides medical and surgical inpatient care, 24-hour emergency services, inpatient adult psychiatry, an intensive care unit and comprehensive outpatient services. Harrington Hospital at Webster, Harrington at Charlton, Harrington at 169 and Harrington at Sturbridge offer primary care and specialty physicians, diagnostic imaging and more. Harrington Physician Services is our primary care and multi-specialty physician group, UrgentCare Express at Harrington in Oxford serves as a walk-in medical center for non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries, and the Cancer Center at Harrington in Southbridge allows patients to receive advanced, local oncological and hematology care. Visit www.ummhealth.org/harrington.
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