Demonstrators also asked Healey to stop the layoffs of 170 DMH workers, which are part of an $82.7 million cut to the department's budget.
"Because of your work, we're able to stand here today and say thank you to Governor Healey for pausing the closure of Pappas and Pocasset," Kevin Brousseau, Massachusetts AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer, told the the crowd. "Just as importantly, we are engaging with all of you in a discussion on how to save them permanently."
The group, which was comprised of DMH case managers, employees and patients of both the threatened facilities, and several local unions, called on the state to use its $9 billion rainy day fund to prevent the budget cuts.
"What is this, if not a rainy day? Now more than ever, it's time to invest in our care services, and we are calling on elected officials to do right by our communities," Kim Daley, who's been a teacher at Pappas Rehabilitation Center for Children for 15 years, said.
The governor has said the two facilities are underused and aging and that the services they provide will be redirected. The cuts are needed, the administration has said, since tax revenues aren't keeping up with rising costs. State officials expected to save about $31 million through hospital consolidations.
Healey's proposal, released in January, also includes tax changes, cuts to an assistance program for families facing eviction, and new funding for the MBTA, the Globe previously reported.
Healey paused the closures of the two facilities pending a review by patients, families, medical providers, local officials and other advisors.
"Over the past few weeks, I have heard directly from patients, families and staff about the important role that Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children and Pocasset Mental Health Center play in their communities," Healey said in a statement Monday. "I'm deeply grateful for their feedback, as well as for the hard work of our teams at the Department of Public Health and Department of Mental Health, who are focused on ensuring that all patients receive the high-quality, modernized, specialized care they need and deserve."
Tara Frizzell, a DMH case manager in the metro Boston area, said workers heard their jobs were at risk a day before Healey made the plan public. Case mangers on average have about 25 to 30 clients at a time, so cutting 170 positions would mean thousands of people could lose care, she added.
"There is no plan for our clients," Frizzell said, adding that she was concerned about how the cuts would affect her livelihood.
Donna Wallace, a case manager who works in Hyannis, said she and her colleagues provide what other care facilities, such as Community Behavioral Health Centers, wouldn't be able to. Managers routinely help clients get food stamps, apply for housing, and connect with other health providers, in addition to regularly calling them and visiting their homes.
"Every day we're doing something to keep [our clientele] out of the hospitals. Every day we're doing something to make their lives better," she said.
Pocasset is one of only two inpatient psychiatric units on Cape Cod. It provides inpatient and outpatient care, including psychotropic medication, psychotherapy, group therapy, and suicide prevention services for "adults with serious mental illness and children and adolescents with severe emotional disturbance," according to the Barnstable County Department of Human Services. It has 56 employees.
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Alanna Stanley, a nurse at the center, said that in addition to providing care to underinsured and uninsured people, the facility is "vital" in addressing the shortage of acute psychiatric beds in the state.
"What will happen to these people when these services are gone? We already see patients in our emergency departments waiting for a bed for days," she said.
Pappas, in Canton, has offered disabled children services for more than a century, but officials say it's too old to meet the state's standard for more modern care.
Closing Pappas is part of a proposed 5 percent budget cut to the Department of Public Health. The nearly 40 people who live there now would move to Western Massachusetts Hospital, which advocates say cannot provide the same level of services.
"I've seen firsthand the impact we have on children and their families. Pappas is a place where children thrive, not just medically, but academically, socially, and emotionally," Daley said. "It is a sanctuary of hope, joy, and possibility. These children deserve investment."
Alma Ritualo Alisch, whose son Billy Alisch has been living at Pappas since 2016, said she was "shocked and saddened" by the news that it could potentially close.
"All the services, amenities, and expertise have allowed my son Billy to continue to grow and do things we had never thought possible when we had received the diagnosis of cerebral palsy," she said.
One DMH client, 24-year-old Jillian Igoe, said the department's services "mean everything to me" and were a "lifeline" for her and her family while navigating a "broken" mental health system.
"This isn't just neglect, it's a deliberate decision to abandon people with mental illness," she said. "So, we're here today asking for a future where mental health services are not an afterthought, but a vital part of a strong and healthy society."