Proposed drug abuse treatment center may strain police, EMS resources
Gosnold representatives sit with Wareham Police Chief Walter Correia, third from left, before the Wareham Zoning Board of Appeals. Photo by Liam Mayo
Gosnold representatives sit with Wareham Police Chief Walter Correia, third from left, before the Wareham Zoning Board of Appeals. Photo by Liam Mayo
A proposal to use the former Forestview Nursing Home as a drug abuse treatment center could bring an average of one additional ambulance per day and a police car every other day to the facility on Indian Neck Road.
The proposal involves Gosnold Behavioral Health, a non-profit treating alcoholism, mental health and addiction, moving its headquarters and its in-patient treatment from Falmouth to Wareham.
Wareham town officials discussed statistics about Gosnold’s existing facility in Falmouth during a Zoning Board of Appeals meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 14, trying to understand the impact the move could have on public services in Wareham.
The Falmouth Police Department has logged around 100 calls since the start of the year to Gosnold’s Falmouth headquarters, according to Wareham Police Department Chief Walter Correia.
“I am concerned that this is another project that’s coming to town that’s going to certainly have impacts on an already busy town in terms of public safety,” Correia said.
He added, “However, the community servant in me is glad that a program like this, where it can help people who are fighting addiction... I can get behind that.”
Correia said that the volume of calls in Wareham is already going up, and that he has 44 officers now and needs 54 to “make a dent” in public safety.
The statistics had a similar tale to tell regarding Gosnold’s use of Emergency Medical Services.
Town of Wareham Land Use Coordinator Josh Faherty said that, according to Falmouth Fire and Rescue, there were 395 medical incidents at Gosnold’s Falmouth facility between August 2023 and August 2024.
It’s “not unreasonable” to expect that Wareham’s ambulance would go to the Indian Neck Road facility once per day, said Jim Eacobacci, clerk of the Zoning Board of Appeals.
It is currently unclear how this compares to the EMS response from when the facility on Indian Neck Road, Wareham was used as a nursing home.
Attorney Jilian Morton, representing a group of homeowners near the proposed facility, said the group will have to look into the impact the facility would have on town services.
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