BRUNSWICK — Providence Service Corporation of Maine, a behavioral health provider serving children and their families struggling with mental health issues, autism and developmental disabilities, will be expanding four of its programs to Brunswick Landing in August.
Providence has negotiated a deal with developer Jim Howard of Priority Group in Topsham and signed leases on March 22. Providence will lease more than 26,000 square feet of space in two buildings to create a state-ofthe art campus from which to better serve its clients in the Mid-coast area.
At Brunswick Landing, Providence will be operating four programs, employing 90 professional staff. According to a news release, the programs include:
— Merrymeeting Center: A treatment and education center for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders utilizing applied behavior analysis to increase a child’s level of functioning in order for them to more fully participate educationally as well as with their families and communities.
— Achieve! Program: A treatment and education program for children and adolescents with a mental health diagnosis and who struggle in a typical school environment. The goal of this program is to stabilize the youth behaviorally and academically in order to transition them back to their sending school district as quickly as possible.
— Specialized Home and Community-based Treatment Program for children and adolescents with diagnoses on the autism spectrum. The goal of this program is to stabilize youth in their home environment through skill building and parent training. Through this program, Providence also works with youth with autism to help them acquire life and vocational skills in order for them to integrate into their communities and to live as independently as possible.
— Child-care and Developmental Preschool: Providence provides child-care and preschool services to typically developing children as well as children identified with developmental delays. It integrates kids at varying levels of development into a normalized setting, with specialized interventions depending on each child’s individual needs. Providence partners with area Child Development Services (CDS) agencies to provide specialized instruction to children served under their umbrella.
Providence will be expanding each of these programs as it transitions into the new space at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. In particular, Providence will be increasing the capacity of its child-care and preschool program with the anticipation of being a resource to employers on the former base whose employees are in need of convenient child-care and preschool services.
Bart Beattie, Providence Service Corporation of Maine’s CEO, said, “As a company, our mission is to partner with the communities we serve to reduce the cost of health care services through providing and managing high quality cost-effective behavioral health services. We are very excited to relocate some of our most successful programs to Brunswick Landing where we will be able to expand our partnership with the state, school districts, the university systems, industry and the community that is developing on the base to better serve youth and their families. There is a real opportunity at that location to expand and improve what we do.”
About Providence
¦ PROVIDENCE EMPLOYS more than 325 staff throughout Maine and is the largest provider of home-based behavioral health treatment services to children and families in the state, serving communities from Lincoln to Kittery and most places in between.
¦ NATIONALLY, PROVIDENCE is the largest provider of home and communitybased behavioral health services and nonemergency medical transportation in the country. It provides services in 43 states, the District of Columbia and parts of Canada.
¦ FOR MORE INFORMATION about Providence and its programs, contact Bart Beattie at (207) 373-0620, email bbeattie@provcorp.com or visit Providence’s website at www.providenceofmaine.com.
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