May 17, 2025
Vinfen, Spectrum Health Systems partner to offer crisis diversion programs
By 2026, the roughed out and under construction office building off Technology Drive, will be transformed into the Restoration Center of Greater Lowell, the first-of-its-kind crisis diversion program in Massachusetts.
Community behavioral health nonprofit Vinfen is partnering with Spectrum Health Systems to offer an alternative to emergency rooms and incarceration for individuals with mental health and substance use disabilities.
“This center is the frontier when it comes to innovation,” Vinfen President and CEO Jean Yang said during a tour of the of the building Monday with Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian and Spectrum President and CEO Kurt Isaacson. “This model is new. How do we create a holding spot for when people are in a critical period?”
Historically, the model has been either incarceration or the emergency room, said Koutoujian, whose Middlesex Sheriff’s Office has been the driving force behind the project. Among his many other duties, the sheriff runs the Middlesex Jail & House of Correction in Billerica.
“Fifty-five percent of our population have a diagnosed mental health issue,” Koutoujian said. “And that’s just those diagnosed. The idea is to get people before they are justice involved so they don’t have to come into a place like the House of Correction.”
What’s going to be an overnight success was almost 10 years in the making when the Middlesex Restoration Center Commission started work around a compassionate premise, built on science-based practices, that people suffering from mental illness or substance abuse disorders needed a different approach to the incarceration and hospitalization model that had proved to be both costly to taxpayers and ineffective to the impacted individuals.
Members included Koutoujian, co-chair Danna Mauch, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health, and state Sen. Cindy Friedman, D-Arlington. They modeled their work on restoration centers already in place across the country.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Lowell has almost twice the average of individuals seen for substance use needs across all settings. Current substance use visits to Lowell General Hospital’s emergency department are 147 times above the state average. Region 3, an Executive Office of Health and Human Services zone of 50 communities, including Lowell, had one of the highest emergency department boarding rates in the state.
Boarding refers to the practice of holding patients in emergency departments or hospital hallways, while waiting for a bed to open up, tying up both emergency department beds and police officers.
The Greater Lowell region has faced a shortage of patient beds and mental health providers for years. Lowell General Hospital closed its 34 inpatient psychiatric beds in 2002. In 2018, after 17 years of offering inpatient hospitalization and partial hospitalization for adolescents and adults seeking treatment, the Lowell Treatment Center with its 41 beds, also called Solomon Mental Health, closed its doors.
Established in 1977, Vinfen is one of the largest community mental health and disability providers in the commonwealth. Among its many services, it helps to stabilize people who are having a psychiatric crisis.
Last year, it opened a crisis stabilization services program for adults and youth at 391 Varnum Avenue, the old Solomon site, in Lowell’s Pawtucketville neighborhood. The CSS program includes six beds for youth ages 13-18, and seven for adults (18-plus), and allows for short-term stays of three to five days. It fills an important gap in the continuum of behavioral health services available in Lowell.
Through a procurement process in 2023, the state chose Vinfen as the provider for the Restoration Center and Lowell as its location. The two-story, 32,000-square-foot building sits on almost 6 acres, and is located in the office park zoning district off Wood Street, just before the North Chelmsford line.
Vinfen, which will occupy the first floor, will provide a range of walk-in and other services to adults. A triage and first responder drop-off area will provide needs assessment and what Yang called “universal access” to care outside of the emergency department or jail.
A 10-bed, 24/7 area called sober support services, provides a supportive environment for individuals experiencing the effects of substance use. An area called “the living room,” will be a low-barrier community space dedicated to harm reduction and will include showers, laundry, computers, telephones and a kitchenette, along with a respite care area.
In general, all the areas will be staffed in 24/7 shifts by about 50 people including a nurse or paramedic, peer specialists, recovery coaches, and clincial and program staff.
“The idea is it can be open to anyone,” Yang said. “They all come through the main door.”
Spectrum, which owns the building, will occupy the second floor with 64 beds – a 16-bed detoxification unit and a 45-bed clinical stabilization unit staffed by between 60-75 people. Insurance, including MassHealth, will be billed for the cost of the services.
Spectrum’s Chief Operating Officer Kristin Nolan said most of their referrals will originate from Vinfen’s first-floor clients.
“The idea is you’ll come in here and do the sober beds, get referred upstairs, go to 16 detox beds,” she said. “It depends on what substance you’re using, how much, how long and what your withdrawal looks like. You could be here three days or 7-8 days.”
The stabilization services are a two-week to 30-day program.
The goal, said Koutoujian, is to support the community.
“While I’m proud of the programs I run at the House of Corrections, you shouldn’t have to come to jail to get good treatment,” he said. “You should be able to get that on the streets so that you don’t become justice involved.”
