AG Martha Coakley shows support for Taunton State Hospital at campaign stop 10/01/2014

AG Martha Coakley shows support for Taunton State Hospital at campaign stop

From Taunton Daily Gazette

By Marc Larocque
Taunton Gazette Staff Reporter
October 1, 2014

TAUNTON — Gubernatorial candidate and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley reaffirmed her support for keeping Taunton State Hospital open during a campaign stop at the mental health care facility on Tuesday.

Coakley met with administrators, nurses, social workers, and residents, calling the facility “a beautiful campus” that she would work to keep open as governor. Coakley’s stance on Taunton State Hospital directly contradicts the efforts of Gov. Deval Patrick, her fellow Democrat who worked to close it down and shift all 169 beds to a new state hospital now operating in Worcester, before the Legislature saved 45 beds that remain at the Taunton facility.

“I think it has great potential,” said Coakley, when asked of her plans for Taunton State. “I think a good start is keeping Taunton open and committing to providing additional beds there, but also additional kinds of care, and I think that model could be something we look at in the rest of the commonwealth. ... We have some work to do on this.”

Coakley, speaking at a press conference held in a campaign office on the Taunton Green, said that she believes there needs to be more mental health beds available throughout the state. In 2010, there were 834 mental health beds available in the state, but there are now 626.

Coakley said that as mental health beds have been cut in recent years, the state has not kept its pledge to provide more support for a continuum of care that extends into community settings.

“We need to keep the promise we made a long time ago when we closed these hospitals and cut beds, which was we would provide supports in the communities for people and their families,” Coakley said. “That’s the piece we haven’t done. Our commitment to both residential and community support is my commitment.”

With a reduced amount of beds available at Taunton State Hospital under the Patrick administration, Coakley said the situation is unacceptable.
“We know that particularly if Taunton were to be closed, anybody in the South Coast would have to go to Worcester,” Coakley said. “That’s not really acceptable or a good way to approach it. We have a shortage of beds throughout Massachusetts. There are no beds in some of the four western counties.”

Patrick’s administration has previously defended the amount of beds available statewide, while stressing community-based treatment and shifting away from older facilities like Taunton State, which was originally established in 1854 but went through a $19 million capital improvement in the early ’90s.
Coakley said that addressing the stigma of mental health issues is an issue that’s close to her heart, with the death of her younger brother who suffered from depression and committed suicide 18 years ago.

“I have seen and heard too much from too many families about the stigma attached to getting treatment, about the services that are available for people ... and particularly the very important issue of residential treatment,” Coakley said.

State Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, who joined Coakley on the tour of the hospital, warned that a Republican governor could mean the end for Taunton State Hospital. Pacheco alluded to the Republican administration of former Gov. William Weld, which closed down Lakeville State Hospital. Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker served in Weld’s administration, including as secretary for health and human services.

“When I think of the comparison, at least with the main opponent, you don’t have to go too far form here to see a memorial to the last time we had Republican rule in the corner office when it dealt with a hospital,” Pacheco said. “Go to Lakeville Hospital and see the remains of the closure of Lakeville Hospital. … It was a state-operated public health facility which the administration closed. There were families that were hurt by it.”

Asked Baker’s stance on Taunton State Hospital, whether to close it, increase beds or maintain current levels, a spokesman for his campaign said that the Republican “cares deeply” about keeping the mental health facility open.

“Charlie cares deeply about keeping Taunton State Hospital open and looks forward to working with the local legislative delegation to determine the best path forward for the facility,” said Baker campaign spokesman Tim Buckley, in an email to the Taunton Daily Gazette.

Pacheco said that Taunton State Hospital has the potential to become a center for collaborative educational opportunities under a Coakley administration, which would help cut costs for the facility while keeping it open for residents of the region who remain underserved and typically must wait for days in hospital emergency rooms before getting access to impatient treatment and acute mental health services.

Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr., who also joined Coakley for the visit, said he was impressed by the personal touch that Coakley brought to the Taunton State issue, and commended her for meeting with the patients and workers there, to understand the facility more deeply.

“I thought the most telling part was that she took the time to go in without cameras, to meet with staff and patients, to get a first-hand view and experience on the wonderful progress that goes on at this facility,” Hoye said. “She is supportive certainly of our efforts to keep beds at Taunton State Hospital, and more importantly supportive of mental health treatment across the Commonwealth.”