Riverbend to expand services to Concord’s Pleasant Street Posted on June 3, 2019June 3, 2019 By CAITLIN ANDREWS Monitor staff Published: 5/31/2019 3:28:25 PM Riverbend Community Mental Health is looking to expand its substance abuse services in downtown Concord. The organization purchased the 17,000-square-foot Phenix Mutual Fire Insurance building at 42 Pleasant St., this month for $1.2 million. CEO Peter Evers said the goal is to house Riverbend’s drug court and jail outreach services in one building. Riverbend provides all the clinical services for Merrimack County’s drug court and works with people once they’ve left jail to ensure they still have access to clinical services. The organization has two other buildings in downtown Concord, and has outgrown them both, Evers said. The new space will allow them to expand the mobile crisis unit as well as Riverbend’s crisis treatment services, he said. Riverbend is one of nine hubs in the state’s “hub and spoke” addiction treatment system, a model that is meant to provide easy access for people seeking substance use or mental health treatment. It’s also the provider for the state’s first 24-hour mental health treatment center through a $4.4 million contract with the state. That facility opened in May at Riverbend’s 40 Pleasant St., location, Evers said. It’s open to those 18 and older facing a mental health crisis, offering stabilization and de-escalation services at all hours of the day. The center will be available to those walking in or those diverted from law enforcement, mobile response units and hospitals, and will also cater to those with substance use disorder. Evers said the building will need to undergo renovations and the office space will have to be rearranged. Evers said the new space will be operational in the fall. (Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, [email protected] or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)
