Main Street Team Providing Critical Services in Biddeford

Jessica Thomas, Office Coordinator; Betsy Emmons, RN; Connie Carrier, Administrative Team Specialist; Curtis Brown, Program Manager

For more than 30 years, a dedicated team of behavioral health professionals has provided critical services to the Biddeford community from their offices on Main Street. Under the banner of two MaineHealth health care entities, the teams served a vulnerable population of individuals living with significant mental health diagnoses and substance use disorders (SUD). Last summer, Maine Behavioral Healthcare (MBH) welcomed both teams as an outpatient department of Spring Harbor Hospital.

This action created a united team that Program Manager Curtis Brown, RN, BSN, CNML, is proud to lead.

“I can’t say enough about the team here,” Brown says. “I love the program and it’s successful because of them.”

A unique program

Dr. Mark Lim, Addiction Physician and Dr. Cynthia Burnham, Psychiatrist

What makes the Main Street program different is the variety of specialized services it offers to the community. Brown, who previously worked as a charge nurse at Spring Harbor Hospital, has had a pivotal role its growth. It was 2012 when Brown was recruited for the role of nurse manager for the Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) and Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP).

His passion fueled education about the need for these services throughout the community and within the organization.

“We were seeing a lot of people stuck in the emergency room and on the psychiatry unit,” Brown says. “I made the case that these services can help decrease the length of stay on the inpatient unit and potentially the number of admissions by referring people to the partial hospitalization program.”

The PHP and IOP grew prompting development of a co-occurring program to address the increasing need to treat people with SUD combined with significant mental health conditions. In response to the opioid crisis, the team soon began offering Intensive Medication Assisted Treatment (IMAT) for opioid use disorder.

An amazing team

L-R: Samantha Guerra, LCPC; Elizabeth Keith, LCSW, Tammy Kelley, LCSW; Jessica Thomas, Office Coordinator; Dr. Mark Lim, Addiction Physician; Betsy Emmons, RN; Curtis Brown, Program Manager; Joyce Cotton, Clinician; Michael Dee, LCSW, Guy Gosselin, LCSW; Ellen Moscinski, LCSW; Connie Carrier Administrative Team Specialist; Dr. Cynthia Burnham, Psychiatrist.

Aligning the full care team together under one roof adds a feeling of camaraderie among members. In 2018, the addition of Cynthia Burnham, DO, as a full-time psychiatrist and Mark Lim, MD, as an addiction physician last winter helped solidify the group even more.

“Dr. Lim and I work seamlessly together,” Dr. Burnham says. “Even though our programs operate under a different licensure, we often share patients and collaborate.” The same is true for many members of the team and that makes for seamless and coordinated care for the patient.

“This team is very dedicated to the patient experience and clinical support, so it’s important to them – and all of us — that this center continues to be a cornerstone in the community for their care,” says Maria Hadjiyane, MBH COO. “I’m proud that MBH is there to support them.”