Governor Maura Healey’s plan to shut the Pocasset Mental Health Center as a cost-saving measure drew an impassioned turnout of advocates and Cape Cod families at a community meeting last night.
Many of the roughly 150 in attendance cited numerous examples of patients facing acute mental health crises each year, and receiving help at the 16-bed inpatient facility.
Cliff Calderwood said the Pocasset Mental Health Center treated his son, in 2017, when he struggled to stay on medication for schizophrenia.
“And he came out of the Pocasset facility, and he stayed on meds ever since. He manages his own meds. He has a part time job and he drives his own car,” Calderwood said. “So it’s a real success story for Pocasset and we need to preserve that for other people.”
The Center helps patients with depression, bipolar, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicidal ideation, among other conditions. Unlike other facilities where patients must leave after a few days, the Pocasset Center takes patients for over a month.
Last month, the Governor announced plans to close the Pocasset Center, and another state-run facility in Canton, in her 2026 proposed fiscal budget. Healey also plans to cut the mental health case manager workforce. She has said Pocasset has a "low utilization rate," and members of her administration have assured families that they’re taking “these steps to improve the care and services we are able to offer.”
But Jeanne Calvert McClure, a social worker with the Department of Mental Health, says the Pocasset Center is one of just two inpatient psychiatric facilities on the Cape. Without it, she said, there will be less than two dozen inpatient mental health beds to serve the region. And she said that she fears for what the consequences might be.
“It's a disaster,” she said. “This is going to mean that our ER’s are going to be full. People are going to languish waiting forever. … We're going to see an increase in suicides. We're going to see an increase in domestic violence and all of the other public health emergencies that we see.”
Not only will emergency rooms be full, Barnstable County Sheriff Donna Buckley warned, jails will be, too.
“The people who are in our jails, they commit crimes, but a huge percentage of those people commit crimes because they are in crisis. And we are criminalizing mental health because we do not have appropriate early intervention and stabilization and case management services to keep people safe in the community,” Buckley said, addressing the gathering. And she continued, “There are some people who think that by having a center in Hyannis, that we are providing early intervention and crisis stabilization services. The crisis stabilization unit has been closed for two years. There's a three month wait for early intervention services. That is not acceptable.”
Some speakers in attendance, former patients themselves, spoke to the loss of the Pocasset Center in personal terms.
“What’s happening here is really upsetting to me,” said a woman who identified herself as Jenny. She said she participated in the Pocasset Mental Hospital’s day program around 2008. “We gotta fight this."
Another former patient, who said her name is Danielle, said she spent 50 days in the facility, which gave her the tools to survive.
“I learned a lot,” she said. “They respected you. And not only that, you got to play volleyball.”
Many other speakers pointed to how difficult it would be for families on the Cape and Islands to see their loved ones, if the Pocasset Center closed.
“This village has a young man that's there [in the Pocasset Mental Hospital] right now facing being moved to Westfield, Massachusetts,” said state Rep. David Vieira. “How is the family ever going to go visit Westfield, Massachusetts? That's like 2 or 3 hours, depending on the traffic.”
Vieira, a Republican representing the 3rd Barnstable District, was part of a large audience of bipartisan lawmakers, who listened and weighed in on the potential closure.
“We are one of the most geographically isolated places in all of Massachusetts,” said State Senator Dylan Fernandes. “And so to take nearly 50% of our inpatient beds in our region and make people go even farther—that, to me, is not moral. That is an immoral thing to do.”
The Democrat, who represents Plymouth and Barnstable, said that the Governor needs to understand that the Center must remain open, and in fact, even more mental health support is needed in this part of the state.
Cutting services at Pocasset Mental Health Center, Fernandes said, would not provide the state with a great cost savings. “It is not a ton of money," he said. "It's around $4.4 to $4.8 million out of a $62 billion budget. So this is something that I think demands support.”
Advocates for the Pocasset Mental Health Center are planning a rally at the Bourne Rotary this Friday. They’re also circulating a petition to the Governor.
Officials said the Center should remain open until the budget is done in July.
Vieira, Fernandes, and other representatives said they would work together to save the facility before funding runs out at the end of this fiscal year — beginning with introducing a budget amendment.
