When Merrymeeting Behavioral Health Associates of Brunswick announced its closure due to budget cuts under Section 17 of the Medicaid Benefits manual, 400 patients, adults and children, mostly in northern Cumberland, Sagadahoc and Lincoln counties, were left scrambling for care that they say they desperately need in order to continue functioning.

The manual is being revised to provide care only to the most seriously mentally ill patients who are currently on waiting lists.

According to Steve Trockman of Mid Coast Hospital, the parent agency of the Brunswick and Damariscotta Addiction Resource Centers, about 200 of those patients were from the greater Brunswick area, while the rest were from as far away as Scarborough to the south and Rockland to the north. It is not known exactly how many Lincoln County patients were involved. There are several other agencies who are attempting to offer care, including Maine Behavioral Healthcare, Sweetser, and more.

Under the changes, mentally ill patients with MaineCare could only receive Section 17 services if they are diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. The Maine Department of Health and Human Services reportedly notified more than 24,000 Mainers recently that they could lose community support services. Many have issues like Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, severe depression, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and other conditions that affect how well they are able to function in society. The services being lost include caseworkers who provide daily support, help negotiating daily living chores, such as going to the laundromat or grocery store, transportation if they cannot drive due to their condition, and more.

Samantha Edwards of the DHHS stressed that the changes were to make sure that people with the most serious mental illnesses who are now on waiting lists could get care immediately. “Merrymeeting Behavioral Health Associates were supposed to contact us before taking any action,” she said. “They were contractually obligated to inform us that they were closing. That left us scrambling for care for their patients.”

Edwards said that opiate addictions are not treated under the same section of DHHS' mandate, which means that for now, Damariscotta's Addiction Resource Center is not going to face the serious cuts that other mental health agencies are facing.

“In fact, there has been an increase in funding for addiction services,” Edwards said. “For people without medical insurance, there has been an increase of $20 million, with an overall increase of $70 million statewide.”

Trockman agreed that these changes will not directly affect the Addiction Resource Center. “Addiction Services are under another section of DHHS,” he said.

Lincoln County is expanding a program known in southern Maine as Operation HOPE (Heroin-Opioid Prevention Effort) to obtain care for people who cannot get assistance through MaineCare or from the state. Many of those individuals must go out of state to obtain “scholarship” care.