Mental health workers are decrying the planned closing of Providence Hospital's inpatient psychiatric unit in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
On February 28, Providence's parent company announced that as of June 30, it will no longer provide inpatient psychiatric services — and will cut 200 jobs, almost half its staff.
Trinity Health New England, which owns Providence, filed notice of the closing with the state Department of Public Health.
Providence is the only free-standing mental health hospital in western Massachusetts, and the only inpatient facility for children in psychiatric crisis.
"With everything that's going on with kids in this day and age, and mental health in general, I just don't understand that decision," said Michelle Reardon, a recovery specialist at Providence, and vice president of the union. "The kids will have really nowhere, other than, at best, the eastern part of Massachusetts."
Trinity said it can't recruit enough psychiatrists to run the facility.
Reardon said the bigger question is: Why can't they? She said the union is talking to state legislators about whether they can help prevent the closing.
Baystate Health does have a few dozen psychiatric beds across its facilities in western Massachusetts. It announced last year that it's hoping to open a new mental health facility in Holyoke, but an initial partnership with a for-profit company fell apart.
Brattleboro Retreat, another facility that treats western Massachusetts families, has also struggled with financial problems, and has said it could close or shrink without state assistance.
