Sweetser, one of Maine’s largest providers of behavioral health care, plans to close its Learning and Recovery Center in Brunswick because of inadequate state funding, the agency said in a statement released Wednesday.

The center, which has operated for more than a decade, provides peer counseling to about 1,000 clients a year who suffer from mental illness. Peer counselors are people who have been treated for mental illness or depression and can talk to people who are still struggling. Peer counseling is an alternative to treatment by a doctor or a psychiatrist.

The Learning and Recovery Center, on Mere Point Road, also offers social opportunities and a place for clients to go during the day. It looks more like a home than a facility or hospital.

“The services of the Peer Center have brought hope and healing to thousands,” said Cindy Fagan, Sweetser’s vice president of programs, in the statement. “We’ve been working diligently to try and save this service but the state hasn’t engaged with us to find a solution. Closing the Peer Center will break hearts and spirits.”

Fagan said the Learning and Recovery Center will close June 30, forcing dozens of clients in the midcoast to seek support for their mental health issues elsewhere.

According to Sweetser, the center has served more than 11,000 clients since it opened. Sweetser says the center is the only peer-managed respite facility for people whose mental illness would otherwise require hospitalization. The center offers four respite beds where clients can live for varying periods of time.

“It’s a huge loss. My heart and soul are in this place,” said Kathy Watts, a Sweetser client from Bath.

Watts, 49, said she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder, and suffers from rapid mood swings.

She said the center’s peer counselors give her a sense of comfort that she can’t find anywhere else. She has no family support to speak of, she said. Her stepfather, who she was close to, died in February.

“I cried when I heard the news this morning,” she said. “It’s devastating. This place has been my home. It saved my life, honestly.”

Stephanie Hanner, Sweetser’s spokeswoman, said the center will have to be closed because of the state’s unwillingness to provide more financial support.

Sweetser provides more than $90,000 a year to support the center while the state contributes about $200,000 a year. Hanner said Sweetser’s share has increased over the years from $40,000 to the current funding level.

Sweetser began discussions with the Department of Health and Human Services a year ago about increasing the state’s share to $250,000 a year and lowering Sweetser’s financial commitment, Hanner said, but the talks broke down.

“It has been very frustrating and very complicated,” she said. “We were hoping to engage in a more meaningful conversation with the state but that has not happened.”

The DHHS issued a statement on the pending closure of the Learning and Recovery Center. Spokesman John Martins said the state has been in discussions with Sweetser for nearly a year regarding its requests for additional funding and its “desire to revamp this program and provide different types of services.”

“The Department cannot justify providing additional funding to a program that was underspending in its current contract by more than $40,000 and will not approve a change in the scope of work as defined in the existing contract without engaging in a competitive bidding process,” Martins said in an email to the Portland Press Herald.

“We will be working to transition those who are currently participating in these peer support programs over the next several months in an attempt to minimize the impact and disruption of support,” Martins said.

Hanner said she was not aware that Sweetser had spent $40,000 less than what was available. She denied that Sweetser was going to revamp its program and provide different services.

Watts, the Sweetser client from Bath, has no idea what she will do after June 30.

“If they close, what is going to happen to all of us?” she said. “We’re going to end up in a hospital.”

Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:

dhoey@pressherald.com

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