BRUNSWICK

Sweetser’s Learning and Recovery

Center, which has operated on Mere Point Road for 10 years, will cease operations on June 30.

Sweetser, a behavioral healthcare organization, blamed closure on lack of funding from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

According to a press release sent from Sweetser Wednesday afternoon, the organization has been trying since May 2013 to have a dialogue with DHHS leaders about peer support funding. Sweetser was notified in an email last week from DHHS that there would be no additional funding.

“Sweetser has been a funding partner in making this service possible for over 10 years, but the cumulative contribution has topped $900,000, and is no longer sustainable,” according to the release.

In an emailed response to Sweetser’s announcement, DHHS representative John A. Martins wrote that his department has been in discussions for nearly a year regarding additional funding for the center, as well as Sweetser’s desire to revamp the program and provide different services.

“The department cannot justify providing additional funding to a program that was under spending in its current contract by more than $40,000 and will not approve a change in the scope of work as defined in the existing contract without engaging in a competitive bidding process.

“We will be working to transition those who are currently participating in these peer support programs over the next several months in an attempt to minimize the impact and disruption of support,” Martins wrote.

According to information provided by Sweetser Communications Manager Stephanie Hanner, the center costs about $300,000 to run annually. The state was contributing $200,000, with Sweetser contributing the rest.

Sweetser was to contribute $40,000 annually, according to its contract with the state, but costs have increased during the last 12 years.

“Our costs have increased and the state’s contributions have not,” said Hanner in an email. “At contract last renewal (2013), we notified the state that at the current level of incurred costs to us, we would not be able to continue with the (center) — the state wasn’t willing to engage in meaningful conversations to explore additional options.”

Sweetser was notified via e-mail on May 16 that there would be no increase in the funding level from the state.

Five employees will be impacted by the closure, according to Hanner.

About 1,000 clients engage in programs at the center every year.

“The services of the Peer Center have brought hope and healing to thousands,” said Sweetser’s Vice President of Programs Cindy Fagan in the release. “We’ve been working diligently to try and save this service but the state hasn’t engaged with us to find a solution. Closing the Peer Center will break hearts and spirits.”

More than 11,000 adult clients from Brunswick and surrounding areas with behavioral health issues have come to the Learning and Recovery Center to receive respite, establish friendships and develop skills to assist them in moving forward in their recovery, according to Sweetser staff. The center’s respite service offered the only peer run and managed respite opportunity in Maine, allowing many struggling with a mental health crisis an alternative to hospitalization. Hanner described the center as a “home away from home” for clients, that allowed them to get support from others who have coped with similar mental health issues in their lifetime.

Sweetser does offer other mental health services, but the center was unique in Maine.

“There are services that will help support them, but not in this way,” Hanner said. “They’re not going to have a home away from home to go to.”

Hanner said Sweetser had been trying to save the center, but noted that it had become difficult to fund it when the state has “not been equally interested in helping us.”

State Sen. Stan Gerzofsky called the closure “a great loss to the community, the region and the state.”

Gerzofsky said the closure wasn’t completely unexpected as DHHS has suffered “deep cuts over the last couple of years.”

“It’s more than they can bear,” Gerzofsky said.

Sweetser runs one other facility in Brunswick on 329 Bath Road that provides mobile crisis services, outpatient therapy, and adult and child case management services, according to Hanner.

jswinconeck@timesrecord.com