CANTON, Mass. – Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children is not a typical hospital. For the medically complex children it serves, it is often the only place that can provide the specialized rehabilitation, education, therapy, and long-term care their conditions require. No comparable alternative exists in Massachusetts. For many families, Pappas is simply irreplaceable.
"We are their safety net," said Denise Mackinnon, vice president of AFSCME Local 1517 (Council 93), who has worked at Pappas for more than two decades. "These kids have no alternative. We are there for them. We become part of their family. We watch them grow up, we celebrate their milestones, and we carry them in our hearts. Every one of them deserves a full life. We're here to make sure they get that chance."
Parents reach out to staff all the time, Mackinnon said, sharing stories about what Pappas has meant to their children and their families.
"They want us to know what it means to them, that their child was seen, that someone cared," she said. "And right now, families are scared. If Pappas closes, they don't know where their children will go or who will care for them the way we do."
So when Gov. Maura Healey’s administration moved to close the facility, AFSCME members and the families they serve refused to accept it.
Workers and families packed the State House. They testified before lawmakers, flooded officials with calls, and delivered more than 17,000 petition signatures. The coalition was loud, unified, and impossible to ignore.
It worked. Earlier this year, the administration paused its closure plans and approved a temporary funding extension.
"We got a pause," Mackinnon said. "But the threat is not over. They're continuing on the same path."
The concern is rooted in what workers see happening on the ground. Admissions criteria have grown so restrictive that children who once would have qualified for care are now turned away. Long-term patients have been discharged on the grounds that they no longer meet the state's definition of "hospital level of care." The result is that families who need care are not getting access to the beds and services Pappas was built to provide.
That is why the fight continues.
"There are moments when you're going through a fight like this and you ask yourself, 'Is anything I'm doing going to matter?'" Mackinnon said. "But when you see other people come to support you and fight alongside you, you keep going."
For Mackinnon and her colleagues, the stakes could not be clearer. A hospital does not become unnecessary because policymakers stop filling its beds. And a community that has fought this hard has no intention of stopping now.
The fight isn't over
The temporary funding extension bought time, but it did not secure the future of Pappas. Families, workers, advocates, and community members must continue speaking out until the hospital's future is protected and every child who needs its services can access them.
"If we ultimately keep this facility open for the children of Massachusetts," Mackinnon said, "it will be because the people who care for these kids every day refused to stay silent. We know what's at stake. We know what these children need. And we were willing to fight for them.”
The children at Pappas deserve more than uncertainty. They deserve the security of knowing the care they rely on today will still be there tomorrow. The fight that won a reprieve for Pappas showed what is possible when workers, families, and communities stand together. Now they need that support again.
Join AFSCME members and families in the fight to save Pappas. Contact your elected officials and tell them Massachusetts must protect Pappas and the children who depend on it.