WESTFIELD – Construction of Baystate Health’s behavioral health facility in Holyoke is underway, and members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) are expressing concern over how the facility will impact local mental healthcare.

The new facility in Holyoke is projected to have 150 beds, and is scheduled to open in August 2023. At that time, the mental healthcare facilities at Baystate Noble Hospital in Westfield, Baystate Wing Hospital in Palmer, and Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield will close.

The MNA’s official stance has been to oppose the new facility and the subsequent closures. Closing the local behavioral health units in favor of the larger behavioral health center, the union says, will make it harder for some people to get care.

Paul Dubin, the MNA co-chair and a nurse in Baystate Noble’s Fowler Wing, said that having units in smaller local hospitals is key in providing adequate care, as it allows for quick transfer from one unit to another if a patient in the psychiatric unit needs physical healthcare, and vice versa.

Should the Fowler Wing in Westfield close, he said, it would make it much more difficult for any residents of the surrounding Hilltowns to get to Holyoke to receive proper psychiatric care, especially if they are in the middle of a mental health crisis.

“In speaking with the nurses on the Fowler unit, it’s clear we still need local care for the Hilltowns. We need smaller units at local hospitals where they can be triaged in the emergency room and sent to the psychiatric unit of that facility and won’t have to travel to Holyoke away from their support systems and families,” said Dubin.

Dubin said nurses in the local psychiatric units have been offered positions for the same rate of pay at the Holyoke facility when their smaller units close. The major stipulation, he said, is that employees at the new facility will not be allowed to remain in the nurses union.

“Not having a union there is quite concerning, as union nurses are able to speak up in a protected way about patient care and have an equal voice in negotiating care and working conditions. Recruiting and retaining nurses and other caregivers is difficult and critical right now, and having a union voice helps with that,” said Dubin.

Donna Stern, a psychiatric nurse at Baystate Franklin Medical Center and MNA co-chair, has worked in the mental health unit there for nearly 17 years. She said that she has seen the general mental health situation worsen since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago, and that taking away local psychiatric care in the middle of such a crisis will make patients worse off.

“It is proven that people are served best in their own community,” said Stern. “We have people so poor they can’t even afford to get to Franklin Medical Center.”

The Holyoke facility will have 153 total beds, but the closure of the three local facilities will result in a loss of 70 beds. Stern said that there will be an improvement in the number of pediatric and geriatric beds, but that emergency services being in proximity to psychiatric services is better for the patients.

“Mental health issues can be accompanied by physical issues. There is better treatment when it is part of a full-service hospital,” said Stern.