Centerpoint Adolescent Treatment Services, which has long provided counseling and educational services to hundreds of at-risk young people, is scheduled to close on September 1 — even as the number of teens needing mental health support soars.

Centerpoint, which also runs a therapeutic school for teens, will shut down unless a new provider steps up, the three organizations that currently operate it said. Howard Center, Northeastern Family Institute Vermont and Matrix Health Systems blamed financial pressures for the closure; by one estimate, Centerpoint has lost $1.5 million over the past two years.

The operating partners "have been working with program leadership over the last several months to develop a new agency that could run Centerpoint," NFI Vermont executive director Chuck Myers said in a statement. "Unfortunately, at this time that has not happened, although efforts are continuing."

He cited "significant financial losses" over the past two years and "multiple decades of chronic underfunding of mental health and substance use services" that have made operating Centerpoint unsustainable.

Other local nonprofit service providers said they, too, face financial strain as inflation drives up costs, state funding remains stagnant and insurance reimbursement rates don't cover expenses. Another one of Vermont's roughly 30 therapeutic schools, Mosaic Learning Center, closed in June after 20 years. With campuses in Colchester and Morrisville, it served elementary through high school students.

All 36 Centerpoint employees will be laid off effective September 1, including its director, Mitch Barron.

Barron declined Seven Days' request for an interview. But in a written statement he said the "urgency, timing and style" of the layoffs caught his organization by surprise.

Centerpoint's leaders are exploring "a variety of opportunities and options for continuing the client care that we provide" and are hopeful that they'll be able to continue their services, Barron said. "We have heard such tremendous feedback — appreciation, concern, confusion, fear — from the amazing young people and families we serve. Now is not the time to turn our backs."

Centerpoint's therapeutic school has campuses in both Winooski and South Burlington. It serves students with learning disabilities or emotional, behavioral and mental health issues in small groups while emphasizing relationships and community,  its education director, Katie Cunningham, told Seven Days in May. Last year, 21 students attended the school.

For Courtney Quinlan of Burlington, whose 18-year-old son, Avery, graduated from Centerpoint School in June, the potential loss feels devastating. 

"Centerpoint was a place of refuge for my son after struggling in public school," Quinlan wrote to Seven Days. "He was able to be in a small classroom there and really developed trusting relationships with the staff and learned to advocate for himself and his disabilities." 

Quinlan said Centerpoint staff worked closely with her family to help them navigate challenges. Avery discovered a talent for photography and learned how to run the darkroom at the school. She said neither of them imagined that he might be in the last graduating class.

Each week, Centerpoint also provides individual, group and family counseling for more than 300 teen and young adult clients who are struggling with mental health, substance abuse and other issues.  Those services will end on September 1, according to Myers.

The looming closure is troubling to the state, as well. In a statement, Mental Health Commissioner Emily Hawes said she was "deeply concerned" and noted the organization "plays a crucial role in offering invaluable treatment services."

While those services are "irreplaceable," the state said it will work to "bridge service gaps and ensure Vermonters receive the necessary care they deserve," in part through the rollout of new, community-based mobile crisis teams. Those teams have been in the works for months and are not a direct response to Centerpoint's closure.

The organizations that operate Centerpoint provide a number of other programs for youths.

NFI Vermont runs four other therapeutic schools outside Chittenden County, as well as several small group homes. Howard Center operates the Baird School in Burlington, which has 48 students in grades K through 8 with social, emotional and behavioral challenges, and the Jean Garvin School in Williston, which has around 40 students in grades 7 through 12 who are struggling to be successful in school. The third operating partner, Matrix Health, is a medical practice of mental health, psychological and psychiatric providers.

Along with ending its affiliation with Centerpoint, Howard Center also announced last month that money woes will force it to trim its budget and cut several other programs, including one for toddlers with autism and a Public Inebriate Program in St. Albans

Howard Center's chief client services officer, Beth Holden, said in the release that it was "heartbreaking" the organization needed to cut services but that the agency would help clients "make a smooth transition" to other programs. 

That won't be easy in Chittenden County, where a limited number of programs provide mental health services to adolescents, said Amanda Talbert, a counselor with Spectrum Youth & Family Services' Riverstone Counseling Program. Talbert described the potential closure of Centerpoint as "a huge deal."

If Centerpoint shuts down, "where are those people going to go?" Talbert said. "We're in a mental health crisis, especially with teens."

The data bear that out. According to the most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey, administered every other year by the Vermont Department of Health, 35 percent of high school students in the state reported in 2021 that they had recently experienced poor mental health. The rates were significantly higher for LGBTQ+ and female students.

The issue has the attention of Vermont's congressional delegation. Last Thursday, U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) held a town meeting at Spaulding High School in Barre to discuss the "national emergency" in youths' mental health and the severe shortage of critical services. In April, Balint introduced a bill that would establish a grant program to train teachers, caregivers and students to recognize symptoms of mental health disorders in children and adolescents and refer them to resources in the community. She also cosponsored the bipartisan Protecting Young Minds Online Act, which would require the federal government to develop a strategy to address the effects of social media and other new technologies on children's mental health.

In an interview, Balint said she knows from speaking with parents and kids in northern Vermont that the closure of Centerpoint will be "devastating."

"It's the worst possible time for this to happen, given that we're in the midst of this terrible mental health crisis," Balint said. "The solutions, long-term, are going to require the kind of money you can only get from federal funds." Balint said that's a challenge considering the "incredible dysfunction" in Congress.

Community advocates say Centerpoint's struggles are indicative of a larger problem.

"As nonprofits struggle to meet an increasing demand for services — without an increase in funding — Vermont communities will continue to feel the direct impact of lower service capacities and a shrinking workforce," United Way of Northwest Vermont CEO Jesse Bridges said in a statement. 

Mark Redmond, executive director of Spectrum, agreed.

"The majority of human service providers have been funded at the same level by the state for years on end — Spectrum included — and insurance companies don't reimburse for the full cost of care," Redmond wrote in an email. "With inflation at 8 to 9 percent, nonprofits who rely on state or insurance dollars to accomplish their mission are in an almost impossible position. Simply put, we cannot do 2023 work based on 2013 dollars."

The landscape is similarly challenging for therapeutic schools — specialized programs that serve students with social, emotional and behavioral challenges.

Aside from Mosaic and Centerpoint, there are only five therapeutic schools in Chittenden County. Many are small or serve only specific groups, such as students with autism.

New ones won't open anytime soon. This legislative session, lawmakers passed a moratorium on all new independent schools in an effort to better regulate them.

Erin Maguire, student support services director at Essex Westford School District, told Seven Days that therapeutic schools typically have long wait lists. Her district is trying to tackle the problem by starting an in-house therapeutic program for around 20 students in grades 3 through 8 this fall.

Melinda Neff, the CEO of Two Roads Academy in Colchester — a therapeutic school that enrolled 10 middle and high schoolers last year — said adolescents' needs are greater than they've ever been and public schools have struggled to hire staff to support students with mental health and behavioral needs.

Two Roads is planning to increase its enrollment to 15 students in the fall. Neff said she's already received calls from families whose children attended Mosaic and Centerpoint asking if any spots are available.