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Parents and providers urge Ways and Means to halt DMH cuts, warn closure of Pappas and Pacasset would worsen crisis
Summary
County mental-health providers, parents and hospital staff told the Ways and Means committee that proposed cuts to Department of Mental Health services and plans to close or repurpose Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children and Pacasset Mental Health Center would displace patients, increase emergency-room boarding and raise long-term costs.
Parents, clinicians and unions told the Joint Committee on Ways and Means that proposed fiscal changes to the Department of Mental Health would deepen a behavioral-health crisis that already leaves children and adults waiting in emergency rooms for care.
"Pappas is like the human body: nurses are the heart, teachers are the brain," said Louis Bellows, a Pappas resident. "Without Pappas, I wouldn't be who I am today."
Several witnesses described rapid and accelerating discharges and the uncertainty surrounding a February plan to close or restructure Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children in Canton and to pause operations at Pacasset Mental Health Center on Cape Cod. Clinicians and family members said alternatives proposed by the administration '…
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