LEWISTON – When local children and teenagers needed help for major mental illnesses, they had only two choices: weekly counseling sessions or hospitalization.
Counseling kept them at home, but didn’t provide the constant, intense help often they needed.
The hospital offered round-the-clock support, but caused more trauma by pulling them away from home.
Now Sweetser and Tri-County Mental Health Services believe their new programs will give young people the best of both choices, with constant help right from home.
“Basically it’s like providing residential services without the walls,” said Arabella Perez, clinical supervisor for the Tri-County program.
Both serve only young people who are eligible for MaineCare.
Assertive Community Treatment, or ACT, programs help people who are 20 years old and younger and who have major depression, a bipolar disorder or other severe mental illnesses.
ACT programs give children and their families a child psychiatrist, a nurse and counselors; offer 24-hour help; and provide in-home crisis intervention. The team works with children and families for six months, long enough to get them out of crisis and past the need for intense psychiatric help.
Sweetser started its program in May. Tri-County started its own program in July.
Before that, only southern Maine had an ACT program, said Lisa Burgess, who helped start the Sweetser program. Children and teens from western Maine were forced to enter the hospital or stay at home and forgo some of the intense help they needed.
“This fills in the gap,” Burgess said.
Sweetser’s program has five people enrolled. It can serve 28 from Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin counties.
Tri-County’s program has 20 people enrolled. It can serve 30 from Androscoggin County and parts of Oxford County.
Officials plan to expand it throughout Oxford and Franklin counties by next summer.
Although only months old, both programs report success. Officials say their young clients are getting the help they need while they continue with their lives.
“It wraps the children around with all of the providers,” said Perez at Tri-County.
Sweetser’s first ACT members will graduate from the program next month. Tri-County’s still have a few months to go.
Sweetser and Tri-County Mental Health Services are both nonprofit mental health agencies that serve children and adults.
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