Author: sperling

Link House Appoints Christine Turner to Succeed Gary Gastman as Executive Director

To bring new vision, strategic planning, and continued financial stability to the organization

Amesbury, MA August 29, 2023 – Link House, Inc., a leading nonprofit provider of mental health services in the greater Newburyport community, today announced that Christine Turner has been named executive director to succeed Gary Gastman who has spent the past 8 years in the position and steps down on October 20. In this role, Turner, Link House’s first female executive director, will oversee aspects of the agency’s operations.

With Link House since 2019 and currently the senior director of services, Turner oversees all aspects of Link House’s residential and outpatient treatment programs, bringing more than 25 years of experience leading human service organizations to this role.

Prior to joining Link House, Turner held leadership positions at Lowell House in Tewksbury, where she served as the clinical director for women’s treatment services and was instrumental in procuring grant funding for the development and oversight of specialized addiction treatment programming for women. Turner was also the director of the Department of Public Health-funded Community and Residential Substance Abuse Services at The Psychological Center in Lawrence.

“After a four-month national search, Chris was found to be the best choice to lead the organization. Chris brings several decades of experience in the substance abuse and mental health arena and has been instrumental in our organization’s successes since she arrived at Link House. The board and I have complete confidence in Chris’s ability to bring new vision, strategic planning, and continued financial stability to our organization,” says outgoing executive director Gary Gastman.

Tyler Livermore, president of the Link House board, noted, “The board is thrilled that Chris has accepted this new role. She has worked continuously to improve our programs and the services that we provide, prioritizing professionalism and compassion. I can’t imagine a better outcome of our search and extend my sincere thanks to the search committee for their terrific work.”

“I chose to take on this role after working beside Gary for the past four and a half years,” says incoming executive director, Chris Turner. “Addiction and mental health challenges are on the rise post-Covid. Kids and adults are experiencing anxiety and depression like we have not seen before. People are feeling disconnected and lonely. I look forward to continuing to grow and develop our services, helping those in need overcome these challenges by providing a welcoming, kind, and compassionate place where they can rebuild their lives with dignity and hope.”

About Link House

Since Link House was founded in 1972, the organization has continuously evolved to meet a growing need for mental health services in the greater Newburyport community. What began as a single residential program for men struggling with addiction to alcohol, today Link House runs five residential programs for men and women with 118 beds in total, and two outpatient programs — the Center for Behavioral Health (CBH) for adults, and the Children and Teen Center for Help (CATCH), for young people ages five to 18.

Over its history, Link House has helped more than 6,500 individuals improve their mental well-being and take positive steps towards living sober, independent, and productive lives. The organization embraces a supportive philosophy that addresses the behavioral health challenges that underly substance use disorders at every stage of the recovery process, and provides wraparound services aimed at making it possible for its clients to build healthy, productive, and meaningful lives.

To learn more about Link House, please visit: https://www.linkhouseinc.org

Media Contact

Kelly Martin

Link House

978-807-5462

communications@linkhouse.org

 

The Daily News of Newburyport, September 20, 2023

To the editor:

Christian Wade’s September 18 article, Lawmakers seek to ease backlog of “stuck” kids, shines a welcome spotlight on many of the barriers facing children and families – particularly those from low-income households – seeking to access behavioral health care. In the face of an unprecedented mental health crisis for children and teens coupled with a severe shortage of clinicians, we must look for ways not only to prevent children from being stranded in hospitals but to prevent them from landing in the hospital in the first place.

Here at the nonprofit Children and Teen Center for Help (CATCH) in Amesbury, a program of Link House, our focus is prevention. Ninety-five percent of the children we serve are insured by MassHealth, and many have complex behavioral health care needs. Half are experiencing school failure, and many have a parent who is struggling with substance use disorder. About 20% are being followed by the Department of Children and Families, close to 30% of those under 12 are living with or have been adopted by a grandparent or other extended family member, and 12% are in foster care.

CATCH currently serves 80 children and teens, including on location in five local schools, but there are many more on our waiting list in need of care. We’re working to hire additional staff to meet the need and hope that we can provide support to some of these young people before they experience a crisis that would send them to the emergency room or a residential program. Like many other nonprofit organizations, we face the intertwined challenges of a state-wide shortage of qualified staff and funding constraints that limit our ability to offer competitive wages to attract and retain qualified candidates, particularly for young people worried about paying off student loans.

Governor Maura Healey’s pledge to increase funding and resources to expand the number of beds and provide more incentives to alleviate the workforce shortage is a positive step. We urge elected officials at every level to look at the entire spectrum of behavioral health care services as they work to alleviate the behavioral health crisis for children in Massachusetts. CATCH is one such invaluable service on that spectrum. We could reach more children and teens to do essential prevention work, and keep children and teens out of the hospital, with the allocation of increased resources right now.

Carolyn Gayler-Romero
Program Director
Children and Teen Center for Help
Amesbury, MA
catchkidsnow.org