A new rehab center plans to open in the former Sweet Brook nursing home facility, upping county's inpatient beds for substance use treatment (2024)

WILLIAMSTOWN — People don’t always enter themselves into rehab at their lowest moments.

Andrew McKenna, an expert on substance abuse and mental health, knows this and that a one-size-fits all approach to substance abuse treatment just doesn't work.

“They could be college students, professionals, struggling, still have their jobs, still have their families, or it could be the other extreme, literally someone who’s lost everything,” saidMcKenna, who will be leading a new rehab center set to open inthe buildings of the former Sweet Brook nursing home facility.

Greylock Recovery, which could open this fall, is currently pursuing its license. The center plans to offer residential care — lasting a minimum of 28 days — and detox, which involves managing medical withdrawals. It will start with 65 available beds, up to 20 of which will be dedicated to detox.

The center will not be admitting people based on economic status, according to McKenna. Greylock Recovery will be taking a mix of commercial insurance and MassHealth, the equivalent of Medicaid, and will not have a cap on the number of beds on MassHealth.

Bankrolling the project is G8 Financial, an investment group out of New York with a health care focus. Williamstown Recovery Realty LLC purchased the former Sweet Brook Nursing Home for $1.2 million in 2022.

Sweet Brook closed in 2020 after a history of abuse of residents and safety violations. While there was some pushback two years ago to the proposal of the rehab center, McKenna says the “very real not-in-my-backyard attitude” for similar facilities across the country was not as prevalent in Williamstown.

The Greylock Recovery team hired more than 20 people earlier than originally planned — they had expected to open in early 2024, “but the boiler and heating and hot water system went, so that had to be replaced” McKenna said. In a demonstration of their commitment to the business, investors kept all the staff members on, conducting extensive training with them and paying them for 40 hours of work a week, and expending north of $500,000 to do so.

McKenna said G8 is “in it for the long haul.”

“They know this is going to work, we’re going to run this place effectively, and they’ll get the financial rewards when they come,” he said.

A GAP TO FILL

Asked if there are gaps in the current substance use treatment options in Berkshire County, Berkshire Harm Reduction Director Sarah DeJesus said, “There are always gaps.”

“But I think the more support services, the more of a variety of programs and avenues we have for people, the better off we’ll be as a community,” DeJesus continued. “A cookie-cutter approach to substance use treatment is rarely successful because people have a variety of facets that determine successful outcomes.”

DeJesus said when it comes to inpatient beds and substance abuse, there's no such thing as "enough beds."

“An inpatient program not only is able to treat people’s substance use, but other things they may not have outside of that treatment: medical care, food, housing, counseling," DeJesus said. "Basic necessities people sometimes don’t have, they get access to in an inpatient facility. They try to build skills and be better when they leave.”

Currently, regional options for substance use treatment include Carlson Recovery Center in Springfield, which offers somewhat similar services to what Greylock Recovery will. Other organizations like the Brien Center and Berkshire Harm Reduction offer services, and there's the McGee Recovery Center, which is a detox unit run by Berkshire Health Systems. Detox can last three to five days at McGee, and clinical stabilization services can go on for a couple weeks.

Clinical Director Rick Berger said Greylock Recovery will be able to release "some of the pressure" on the McGeeRecovery Center by offering more detox beds.

“We are understaffed across Berkshire County, and that’s the gap we’re trying to fill. When we are fully online, we’re going to double the amount of detox beds in Berkshire County,” Berger said.

Berkshire Health Systems spokesperson Michael Leary said in response, “We look positively on any resources that people who are suffering from SUD would have access to.”

BLANK CANVAS

In developing plans for Greylock Recovery, McKenna said he and Berger sat down with investors and set out to answer a few important questions: Why are the recidivism, or return to treatment, rates in the country around 60 to 70 percent? Why do so many people coming out of 28-day programs relapse? What’s missing from traditional treatment?

For one, it’s family connection, Berger and McKenna say.

“[McKenna] and I really aren’t radicals, but I’ve been in recovery now for 36 years, and [McKenna 's] been in this business for 20, so we’ve seen a lot, and we’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work as well,” Berger said. “We said to G8, ‘Hey, we want to do something different, we want to move closer to the cutting edge and not just do standard 12-step recovery. We want to bring in the family.’”

Greylock Recovery will be seeking to involve family in treatment, avoiding cutting them off while maintaining effective boundaries.

DeJesus said treatment plans depend on people’s circ*mstances, but, “The more positive, supportive people, especially family members, who can help people, guide people, support people, the more likely they are to be successful.”

“Oftentimes family relationships can become strained because of substance use and everything that comes along with it,” DeJesus continued, “but there are some good groups for family support and reunification. I think that’s a huge component of it.”

Berger said the center plans to stay connected with people after they are discharged, “as long as they’ll allow it. Connection, staying involved, staying engaged, is the opposite of addiction.”

The staff consists of nurse practitioners, nurses, medical technicians, therapists, kitchen, housekeeping, and so on. There will be roughly one nurse for every four patients, Director of Operations Dawn Clark said.

The medical unit rooms will be two or three beds each, residential will start at two or three, as well. Rooms will differ based on a person’s situation. For example, there will be a room or more designated for people who are pregnant.

There will be cameras and security for safety, not surveillance, McKenna said. There will be an all-purpose room as well as an exercise room, two day rooms and more. Greylock Recovery is trying to make the building more welcoming physically and less “institutional.”

McKenna said he told Berger when they were gearing up to open Greylock Recovery, “We have an opportunity, we have a blank canvas, and they’re going to let us create this program. This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”