MDI/Blue Hill Peninsula (Portland, Bangor: public schools, income, living)

[overleaf]

Hi All,
I have wriitten similar posts like this in the past. Sorry, if I am too redundent.
My family is moving to Maine in 2 years. We currently live in MA where my husband is finishing up his training as a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. We both fell in love with MDI and the Blue Hill Peninsula. The practical part of me thinks that our family should move near Portland but I feel that the Portland area is a bit too similar to any progressive, attractive area on the west and east coast. It doesnt have that special "Maine feel" that I felt way up North. I have never lived in a rural area before and I am a little apprehensive but in my heart I feel that is where I should be. My husband grew up on a farm in southern WA state. Where do people work that live on the Blue Hill Peninsula and on Mount Desert Island? I have heard great things about the public schools in Blue Hill and on MDI. I wonder if my husband could build a fine practice in Ellsworth? We are planning to stay in Blue Hill this summer to check it out more. Last summer we stayed in Southwest Harbor. The feel I was getting from people on MDI is that is essentially shuts down in the winter. Is that true, does Bar Harbor "shut down" in the winter?

[Newdaawn]

I live in Bangor and Bar Harbor really is not very active in the winter. Summer is very different in MDI as the population more than doubles with the summer people. If your husband considers working in Ellsworth you could live somewhere within an easy commute for him and also use Ellsworth as your major town. Summering on the island is one thing but living there over the winter is another. Blue Hill is a lovely area but I would recommend at least a visit in mid-winter.

[AustinB]

Bar Harbor does indeed shut down in the winter. That's when we get it back.

Blue Hill is also even more dead in the winter. The nice thing is that Ellsworth is close by.
Boat building has been a large part of the work for the island and the Blue Hill area. This economy has put a serious hurt on that though. Jackson Lab is on the island and the hospitals are among the major employers. There's the mill in Bucksport and a lot of smaller businesses that make the area go.


The Blue Hill area is considered to be on the other side of the tofu wall. (think liberal)

[Acadianlion]

I think your husband needs to do a LOT of research into how child and adolescent psycho docs get paid, and then consider the NUMBER of people that live in the entire state of Maine, and compare that with the number of shrink docs that already practice in Maine.

Basically your husband's income will likely come from state aid and state funded programs. Since this is a very small state, in the throes of a major economic depression, the amount of money being funneled into social programs here is severely curtailed.

If you can move to either MDI or Blue Hill...that is to say, you can AFFORD to move to either of those locales AND support yourselves for, oh, say, two to three years on your own funds while you develop a practice and establish a reputation that is wider than those communities, then you will do fine. But if you think you are going to land here and be welcomed like some sort of new messiah, you will be cruelly surprised: there are quite a few mental health "professionals" here, ranging all the way from MSW's to BA social workers who got licensed as a counselor, therapist or otherwise....some are good a lot are very very bad. But all of them stick their snouts in the same narrow channel that the few funds that exist run through. While there is a wide difference between a social worker who is counseling and a psychiatrist with a specialty such as your husband will have, there still remains only one major fact from whence all others flow in Maine: Maine is a big state with only 1.3 million people in it, and for the most part, they are all of modest means.

[Zarathu]

If your husband can get a job with Kids peace in Ellsworth, or something like that he might be able to make it.

Unless your income is from retirement and SS in another state, you may have a bit of a problem financially. Of course if he wants to practice as a PT shring and part time family doctor, it might be an interesting move.

[Newdaawn]

I just remembered that "Community Health and Counciling Services" otherwise known here aw CH&CS has a branch in Ellsworth that might be worth looking into. They are always looking for good people for employees.