Closed facility has one program site remaining

A mental health residential treatment program with nine sites in Massachusetts closed its doors last fall – but one of its sites lives on.

One of the Wild Acre Inns, an Arlington, Massachusetts-based program that was founded in 1972 by Bernard Yudowitz, M.D., remains in Belmont and continues to house many of the individuals that lived there.

“The Belmont house was home for a number of long-term patients and Dr. Yudowitz felt he wanted to keep their home intact,” said John N. Sciretta, LICSW, who purchased the Belmont Wild Acre Inn in October 2014 from Yudowitz.

There were 12 people living at the Belmont site when it was purchased, he said. That has now almost reached its capacity of 16.

Sciretta folded the Belmont house residential treatment program into his private practice which already offered supported apartments and home-based case management services for those dealing with mental illnesses.

“I have a community residential treatment center which is the Belmont Wild Acre, I have two supported apartment programs – one for men, one for women – and  I have expanded my home care and now serve about 20 people who are living in their own residences,” Sciretta said.

The programs serve people dealing with various mental illnesses, he said.

His company, which previously went under his name, is now called Wild Acre and Mental Health Solutions.

“I kept the integrity of the Belmont Wild Acre and the people who lived there for a long time continue to use that as their home,” he said.

Sciretta used to serve as chief clinical officer for Wild Acre Inns until 1996 when he expanded his private practice. In 2000, he purchased two homes in Belmont to create his supported apartment program.

“I had a small home care division where I provided case management services for people in their own homes and then I developed the apartments to serve the needs of people who were coming for treatment in the Boston area and wanted to extend their time in outpatient treatment,” he said.

He was contacted by Yudowitz in late 2013 about purchasing the Wild Acre Inns system. Yudowitz was 80 and dealing with health issues, Sciretta said.

All emails and phone numbers for Wild Acre Inns have been disconnected since the company’s closure, although a Web site remains.

Sciretta served as acting CEO from March 2014 until October, he says, while he tried to put together a package to purchase the entire Wild Acre Inns system.

However, an overseas buyer made an offer to purchase most of the Wild Acre Inns sites. “He was able to find a buyer that offered more money to buy the property only,” Sciretta said.

Sciretta and other Wild Acre Inns staff helped place about 70 people who were living at the Wild Acre Inns. “We were able to place everybody in a safe and supportive environment that matched their needs,” he said, most of them in Massachusetts near family members.

He also helped about 40 full-time employees find other jobs – six joined Wild Acre and Mental Health Solutions, which now has about 20 full-time people on staff.

He says the Belmont Wild Acre program offers valuable information for therapists about how patient’s live their day-to-day lives through ongoing collaborative contact, assuring medications are taken as prescribed, and providing ongoing supervision.

“They can do therapy while coming back to a supportive environment…it’s a very important component for treating people who are dealing with serious mental health issues,” he said.