The Counseling Center at MOC opens in Fitchburg

By Danielle Ray

FITCHBURG — Making Opportunity Count hosted a grand opening on Monday of its first outpatient mental health clinic, The Counseling Center at MOC, inside its program headquarters on Nursery Lane.

The event featured remarks from Making Opportunity Count executives, Congresswoman Lori Trahan, state Sen. John Cronin, D-Lunenburg, state Rep. Michael Kushmerek, D-Fitchburg, Mayor Stephen DiNatale, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony following a tour of the clinic.

The clinic was born out of a need for accessible mental health services in the area and reducing the months long wait time it typically takes to access those types of services. Making Opportunity Count Vice President of Programs Scott Carignan said the agency has gathered feedback from and interviewed community members over the years about their needs.

“It kept coming back to needing more mental health services,” he said. “It was time to meet the needs of the community and put our best foot forward and open the clinic.”

Making Opportunity Count Executive Director Kevin Reed said it was personally important to him to help make the clinic a reality “as someone who has struggled for years with mental health issues.”

“Our work in community action is founded on identifying and filling gaps in critical services so our communities can thrive,” he said. “For far too long, individuals and families across North Central Massachusetts have been struggling to receive the mental health care they need. We’re proud to invest in a facility that will grow access to the quality care and essential services our community deserves.”

Kushmerek, a member of the Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse, said his mother died this year after a lifetime of mental health issues.

“I would ask her how she’s doing, and she would always say, ‘not doing good’,” Kushmerek said. “We need to normalize that … that it’s OK to admit you’re not having a good day. So often we are hesitant to talk about our mental health.”

Cronin, Kushmerek and Trahan all applauded Making Opportunity Count for its efforts to provide mental health services.

“We need to meet the challenge with resources and services,” Cronin said. “I am so grateful to your staff and organization, you are providing dignity and care to a population that needs and deserves it.”

Trahan echoed those sentiments, saying that Making Opportunity Count “diagnosed something that was endemic before the COVID-19 crisis,” the mental health crisis.

“I really do have to hand it to MOC,” she said. This “is needed now more than ever”

MOC was established in 1966 (and initially was called the Montachusett Opportunity Council) for the primary purpose of promoting the well-being of low-income people in the cities and towns of North Central Massachusetts with the mission to empower families to achieve economic security by eliminating barriers and creating opportunities. The MOC service area encompasses 30 cities and towns in the region including Ashburnham, Ashby, Fitchburg, Lancaster, Leominster, Shirley, Townsend and Westminster, and it works to fulfill its purpose by providing direct services, collaborating with other public and private entities and by applying comprehensive strategies that help to address the complex issues of poverty.

Counseling Center at MOC will assist us to serve the community by providing access to high quality mental health services that can help our clients to reduce anxiety, improve mood, increase self-esteem, and have an overall greater sense of calm,” Carignan said. “We have struggled to connect clients with this much needed health care and found it difficult to assist clients with other critical needs such as housing, nutrition, and financial literacy as their most basic needs, including mental health, went unmet and prevented them from making progress in these areas. By creating the counseling center, we hope to change that history and help our clients to find new opportunities.”

Core MOC programs include Head Start, North Central WIC, Family Resource Center, and Meals on Wheels, some of which are under the same roof as the new mental health clinic that has four private, individual counseling rooms and two group counseling rooms.

Carrigan said they “made some big investments” for the clinic including electronic check-in kiosks, dividers in the reception area, brand new furniture, high-definition cameras in the rooms for remote sessions, electronic health records and an agency wide electronic referral system, a website dedicated solely to the clinic, white noise pumped into the clinic area, and more, “all in place right now.”

Clinic staff members include a full-time director, a bilingual medical assistant, five masters level psychotherapists, and they are looking to hire additional staff. Carrigan said they welcome clients from all walks of life such as those on MassHealth, Medicare, and private health insurance plans, as well as those in the LGBTQ+ community.

“These people deserve the highest level of service,” he said. “We hope we can be a beacon of light.”