BREAKING: Members of the Legislature’s Health & Human Services Committee voted UNANIMOUSLY to endorse capital construction resources in the Governor’s supplemental budget to create Maine’s first psychiatric residential treatment facility!

Senator Moore and Representative Meyer …made the motions in a strong showing of bipartisan support for the project. We deeply appreciate the committee’s longstanding commitment and leadership in filling this critical gap in the continuum of care for youth behavioral health.

Approving these one-time capital construction funds ensures the state:
✅ Saves & keeps taxpayer dollars in-state
✅ Strengthens oversight by having an in-state facility instead of one out of state
✅ Keeps Maine families together in the healing journey by preventing family separation

THANK YOU:
Senator Henry Ingwersen
Senator Marianne Moore
Senator Tim Nangle
Representative Michele Meyer
Representative Michael Lemelin
Representative Lucien Daigle
Representative Flavia DeBrito
Representative Ann Fredericks
Rep. Annie Graham
Representative Abigail Griffin
Rep. Dan Shagoury
Representative Sam Zager
Representative Julie McCabe

We also want to give a shout-out to our initial bill sponsors, led by Senator Ingwersen, for introducing the measure before it was included in the Governor’s supplemental budget:
Rep. Lori Gramlich
Rep. Drew Gattine
Rep. Holly Stover
Sen. Donna Bailey
Rep. Meyer
Sen. Moore
Rep. Daigle

This is a priority item this session for the Maine Alliance for Addiction and Mental Health Services and the Behavioral Health Community Collaborative.

Thank you, Governor Janet Mills, for including nearly $3.4 million in the Supplemental Budget proposal for capital construction resources to create Maine’s first psychiatric residential treatment facility.

We fully support this section of LD 2212 and urge our friends in the legislature …to keep this funding in the final version. Without filling this funding gap, Maine families from Kittery to Eastport to Madawaska will continue to see their at-risk youth shipped halfway across the country for more expensive care, without the natural support of loved ones close by, or continue to languish in emergency rooms. This supplemental budget appropriation gets this therapeutic 16-bed facility across the finish line.

WGME CBS 13 News, Portland: “This gives families the chance to keep their children close to home while they receive the highest level of care,” Chenette said. “It also provides a real alternative to emergency rooms, where kids are languishing simply because there’s nowhere else for them to …go.”

Sweetser is aiming to open the facility in 2026 and is calling on businesses, foundations, and individuals to help close the funding gap.

“We are truly building a home for hope,” Chenette said. “But we cannot get this across the finish line without the community stepping up.”

Sweetser to build Maine’s first psychiatric residential treatment facility for youth

For decades, Maine has stood alone in New England without a psychiatric residential treatment facility for youth with the most severe mental health…

wgme.com

Our Corporate Partners in Hope help fuel our mission. Thank you, University Credit Union for your support! 🩵

Pictured here: UCU's Community Engagement Manager Whitney Blethen & Sweetser's Development Director Jodie Hansen.

“Sweetser has extensive experience operating intensive residential and psychiatric services,” said Sweetser Chief Financial Officer John McAnuff. “That experience has taught us two things: first, there is a clear clinical need for a PRTF in Maine; and second, these facilities are expensive to… build, not because they are elaborate, but because they must be safe.”

Public hearings on supplemental budget continue in Augusta

Discussions in the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee continued in Augusta on Wednesday surrounding the governor’s proposed supplemental…

www.wabi.tv

Busy day for Sweetser up at the State House today! 🏛️

First, David Cameron-Rosenfield with Sweetser's Support ME Peer Center and Kassandra Kuzil with our Mobile Crisis Team, provided resources in the Hall of Flags as part of the Consumer Council System of Maine’s Peer Advocate …Legislative Education Day. Since 2016, the event has allowed those who have lived experiences with mental health to influence the laws that impact them directly.

Then, Sweetser Executive Team members, John McAnuff, Kristie Worster, and Justin Chenette spoke in favor of Governor Janet Mills’s supplemental budget during a joint hearing before the Appropriations & HHS Committees. The budget includes additional resources for the construction of Maine’s 1st psychiatric residential treatment facility.