    
The Brien Center The Brien Center is a private, not-for-profit corporation
that operates a network of comprehensive and integrated community mental health
and substance abuse services in Berkshire county Massachusetts.
Service Area:
Berkshire County (see Service Area description) Values:
The Brien Center is dedicated to protect the dignity and the rights of each person it serves. Services are individualized, based on the needs and preferences of those served. Services are provided in the least restrictive, clinically appropriate setting feasible. Service goals strive to assist clients to achieve the greatest levels of recovery, independent functioning, and quality of life that are possible. The Brien Center is committed to providing assessment and treatment services that are of the highest clinical quality, utilizing state-of-the-art knowledge and methods within multi-disciplinary treatment teams. Clients:
Clients are individuals or families of any age who live or work in Berkshire County who need any level of mental health or substance abuse services. Services are provided based on client need, regardless of income and ability to pay. Specific services are designed for children, adolescents, adults and seniors. The Brien Center's clients reflect the diversity of the Berkshire population in gender, race, ethnicity, income, education, employment and life style. Programs and Services:
Services are designed to be geographically, physically and culturally accessible and responsive to persons of all levels of disability, including persons with serious persistent mental illness and emotional disorders, chronic addictions, the dually diagnosed and persons or families with transitional, developmental , adjustment disorders who need brief, time-limited interventions. The Brien Center also provides a variety of psycho-social educational services aimed at the prevention of serious mental health or substance abuse disorders, especially in young people. (see Programs and Services) Referrals and Appointments:
Prospective clients may be self referred, or referred by family, friends, physicians, hospitals, health insurance and managed care organizations, state agencies, schools, courts, police, attorneys, other mental health or substance abuse professionals and agencies and by human service agencies. Persons seeking services may call for an appointment or, in urgent situations, may walk in for immediate service. (see Location Directory for program addresses and phone numbers) Staff:
All assessment and clinical services are provided by multi-disciplinary teams of licensed or certified mental health and substance abuse professionals. Clinical teams include: psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, psychiatric social workers, psychiatric nurses, mental health counselors, alcoholism and drug abuse counselors and rehabilitation counselors. The Brien Center programs serve as internship sites for graduate programs in social work, psychology, counseling, medicine, nursing and other disciplines. The Brien Center also employs and trains paraprofessionals for direct care work in residential and rehabilitation sites and in community outreach roles. The Brien Center's staff reflect the gender, racial, ethnic and life style diversity of its clientele and of the Berkshire community. (see Current Staff Openings) Funding, Payers and Fees:
About 50% of the agency's funding is generated from various contracts with state agencies, including: the Massachusetts Departments of Mental Health, Public Health (Bureaus of Substance Abuse, Family and Community Health), Social Services, Mental Retardation, and Elder Affairs. 45% of the agency's funding is generated from third party reimbursements pursuant to contracts with the entire range of public and private health insurers. The agency and its staff are credentialed to provide services to enrollees of Medicare, Medicaid, the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership (MBHP), Champus, Blue Cross & Blue Shield, HMO Blue, Merit Behavioral Care (MBC), Health New England (Access), Harvard Community Health Plan, Kaiser Community Health Plan, MCC, Options Mental Health, and United Behavioral Health. Clients who are uninsured are provided services on an adjusted sliding fee scale. These services are subsidized under certain state contracts and by allocations from the Berkshire United Way, Northern Berkshire United Way, Williamstown Community Chest and various cities and towns. These local sources of funding account for the remaining 5% of the agency's funding. Structure:
Programs and services are highly decentralized in twenty-five sites in Berkshire County. Each program is under the direction of a Program Director and one or more Program Supervisors, all of whom are also licensed or certified mental health or substance abuse clinician/managers. (see Program Site Directory for program names, addresses and phone numbers, as well as the names of Program Managers) To maximize access, many services are also provided on an outreach basis in clients’ homes, hospital emergency rooms, in other agencies, schools or other suitable community locations.
Licensure:
Mental health and substance abuse outpatient clinics are licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Mental health and substance abuse residential sites are licensed by the Massachusetts Departments of Mental Health and Public Health, respectively. Mergers:
The Brien Center of the Berkshires is the result of two mergers. The first (1995) involved a merger between the former Berkshire Mental Health Center and the Northern Berkshire Mental Health Association to create Mental Health Services of the Berkshires. Subsequently (1997), Mental Health Services of the Berkshires merged with the Berkshire Council on Alcoholism and Addictions to form (MHSAB) Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services of the Berkshires. Later changing the organizations name to The Brien Center by dedication of long time service Ray Brien. The result is a county wide network of The Brien Center community. System Integration:
The Brien Center is in Joint Venture (1993) with the Berkshire Medical Center (BMC) Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences to create a fully comprehensive, integrated and locally managed system of The Brien Center in the Berkshires. BMC adds two psychiatric and a substance abuse inpatient units to the mix, as well as a partial hospital program and a consultation/liaison service to primary care. The two parties share a psychiatric staff that work in both inpatient and outpatient settings and jointly operate the system’s crisis/emergency service.
Affiliations:
The Brien Center is an active member of the following state and national provider organizations:
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