As the need for counseling services increases in the Bangor area, one center is expanding to meet the demand.
Higher Ground Services is adding nine additional counselors, a group therapy room and nine offices to its 235 Center St. building. Two of the nine will be added this fall with the others coming later.
The center offers many types of counseling including for substance abuse, mental health and trauma recovery. It specializes in treatment of anxiety, depression and addiction, and offers services for other mental health needs.
The expansion comes at a “vital” time as the combination of a shortage of counselors in Maine and the closures of local services has created a lengthy waitlist, according to Executive Director Jim LaPierre. As of December 2024, more than 260,000 Mainers lived in areas with mental health provider shortages, according to health policy research organization KFF.
In addition to the nine counselors, Higher Ground will bring in graduate interns from local universities, LaPierre said.
Higher Ground is attempting to offer services in the increasingly deserted area between nonprofits and private practices, he said. People who rely on such organizations are having an increasingly difficult time finding providers who accept MaineCare and Medicare.
Staff added through the expansion will attempt to quell a lengthy waitlist. The shrinking number of counseling options in Greater Bangor has created a “desperate need” for the expansion, and that need is “only going to grow” in the near future, LaPierre said.
Jim LaPierre, LCSW, is the executive director of Higher Ground Services in Brewer. Credit: Courtesy of Jim LaPierre
Specifically, the decision to add counselors came after evaluating the demand for in-person services. LaPierre said 98 percent of people who come to Higher Ground ask for in-person help, a large change from during the COVID-19 pandemic when telehealth visits were the norm.
The organization continues to offer telehealth services that expand to Washington and Aroostook counties, but the organization is focused on the Greater Bangor community, LaPierre said. This includes working with other area organizations, such as the Bangor Area Recovery Network, Food AND Medicine, and Needlepoint Sanctuary.
The additional counselors are a bright spot in an otherwise “tough” situation in the Greater Bangor community because of the long waitlist and limited choices in service providers, said Robert Fickett, executive director at the Bangor Area Recovery Network.
“It would be easy to say one additional counselor to handle a caseload would have an impact, but nine is absolutely huge,” Fickett said.
This expansion should show other local organizations and private practice providers that more services are needed, LaPierre said.
“If we can do these things, the Greater Bangor organizations that are 100 times bigger than us can too,” LaPierre said.