AUBURN —  After the main office staff at a locally based mental health agency apparently quit en masse, state officials paid two unannounced visits. The result is an upcoming Department of Health and Human Services report on deficiencies found there.

However, Possibilities Counseling CEO Wendy Bergeron said in an interview Friday night that while the company was shocked by the departure of almost all of its staff several weeks ago, the company has found new financing, is on solid financial footing and is back to paying the 550 clinicians it contracts with to provide services to 10,000 clients.

“We’re doing everything in our power to pay all our clinicians,” Bergeron said. “We are financially stable, we’ve got new financing and we have a half-million-dollar line of credit.”

In an e-mail sent from Bergeron to her clinicians on Sept. 7, she informed them that her main office staff had quit without notice about two weeks ago.

“Confused by this at first,” Bergeron wrote, “we are hearing that clinicians are being contacted by agents of those who left, informing them that a new agency is formed and soliciting their patronage.”

The note had been sent to more than 400 people under the subject “Valued affiliates.”

DHHS spokesman John Martins said that agency had learned much the same in conversations with Bergeron.

“It’s just a mess, an absolute mess,” said “Jane,” a therapist who received the e-mail and only agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity. “We have some clinicians who their livelihood is based on the clients they get through Possibilities.”

Members of DHHS’ Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services first visited the Center Street business on Aug. 26 after learning about the staff departures, Martins said.

Possibilities Counseling is licensed by the state as a mental health services provider.

“There was information available to us that talked about the fact that the staffing issues were still a problem, that prompted us to go back in and check (this week),” Martins said.

The state will issue a “statement of deficiencies” next week. Martins called such reports “basically a laundry list of the things they need to correct.”

“(The Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services) will continue to investigate any information that could potentially have a bearing on patient care. An inadequate staffing level is clearly one of them,” he said.

“Jane” said Possibilities referred clients to therapists all over Maine, “from the Canadian border to Kittery,” and later billed insurance, Medicare and MaineCare on the therapists’ behalf. Some had reported experiencing partial payments or checks that bounced, she said.

“I’m so fed up with the way things were done,” she said. “The state to me didn’t step in fast enough.” If the staff walked out two weeks ago, “why didn’t they let us know? These things happen. This is life; this is business. They left us out of the loop.”

Spokesmen for the Auburn police and the Maine Department of Labor said neither was involved in the issue.

In her e-mail, Bergeron said direct deposit to clinicians would resume “within a month” and that checks could not be picked up at the office. She also wrote that new staff was being hired and trained.

“While the next few weeks will be difficult, we remain fiscally and clinically sound and will enter October stronger and more vibrant than ever,” she said.

Bergeron said Friday night that she and her staff were talking to all clinicians to explain the situation and to assure them of the company’s commitment to them and their clients.

[email protected]