News

South Shore crisis center "misspoke" when announcing closure

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — There's relief for hundreds of families on the South Shore now that a crisis relief center will remain open.

Leaders from Child and Family Services was forced to call an emergency meeting to explain themselves after they admit they were wrong when they recently said they were closing the Plymouth Crisis Center.

"We started going to meetings and the words we were using were we're closing our community-based location," said Anne Sampaio, Executive Director Child and Family Services.

Sampaio promised in Friday's meeting that the crisis center will remain staffed 24/7 and that they misspoke when they announced a restructuring plan after seeing fewer walk-ins.

"We will no longer say I can't leave this office because I need to sit here and wait for someone to come in. If there is a need and we need to go into the community and I'm the last staff person there, I'm going to go into the community," said Sampaio.

The Plymouth Crisis Center provides walk-in and referral emergency services to mental health clients in 10 South Shore towns. They do between 1,600 and 1,800 evaluations a year.

The changes were supposed to kick in Friday, but they've been put on hold until they're approved by the Department of Health and Human Services.