We were happy to see the other day that the Athol Selectboard approved a boarding house license for a residential program for veterans seeking recovery from addiction.
The board didn’t just approve the license for GAAMHA Inc. The board’s members seemed genuinely supportive of the nonprofit social service agency, which wanted the permit to run a sober house for veterans, and others, at the former Cass Farm on Chestnut Hill Road.
In support of their application, GAAMHA representative Shawn Hayden and manager Christopher Jones presented information on the program to town leaders and residents. Hayden reported that there is a need in the Athol-Royalston-Phillipston area for sober housing for veterans. GAAMHA is open to all people in substance recovery and is licensed by the state.
The program offers a stable, supportive and sober living environment with staff available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on site. GAAMHA operate other homes in the area — four in Gardner and one planned to open in Greenfield this spring.
GAAMHA says its mission is to provide meaningful support, training, treatment, avenues to employment, and personalized opportunities to individuals with disabilities and substance use disorders.
It is dedicated to providing a wide range of services to individuals throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire. It proves help to people in Gardner, Fitchburg, Leominster, Athol, Orange, Winchendon, Ashburnham, Westminster, Templeton, Hubbardston, Lunenburg, Rutland and Barre.
Selectboard Chairman Lee Chauvette reached out to area towns and heard nothing but praise for GAAMHA-run facilities. He said GAAMHA works hard to maintain the building and grounds and do not advertise its presence.
The agency plans to house eight clients, 21 and older.
While neighbors of such programs often worry about intrusion into their lives and lowered property values, Hayden says research shows this type of supportive housing actually improves property values, provided they were well run and maintained, which of course the scouting reports on this agency verifies.
GAAMHA provides two case managers and a facility manager on site. Residents are expected to work, enter behavior contracts and follow curfew rules. The average stay is three months to two years.
Selectwoman Rebecca Bialecki, a nurse with a Ph.D. and a long career involving behavioral help programs, has said this would be a wonderful addition to the area and a nice complement to Quabbin Retreat, another treatment facility for those seeking recovery from substance addiction. She’s a trusted advocate for the health of the North Quabbin’s people, and so we trust her assessment in such matters.
GAAMHA house manager Jones told local officials he has seen many success stories at the agency’s other locations and that their program works. And that’s good news, because while local officials and residents should care about the impact on their town of a sober house, it’s most important that the program actually benefit the veterans who need help with addictions and related, perhaps underlying, mental health afflictions.