News from Wheeler

A November 10, 2020 Connecticut Public Radio (WNPR) website story highlights how community health centers are serving patients with diabetes during the COVID-19 crisis. Wheeler's Keturah Kinch, MPA, site director, Susan Walkama Family Health & Wellness Center, Hartford, is interviewed.

Wearing a blue surgical mask, Sabrina Trocchi stood outside the Susan Walkama Health and Wellness Center at the Wheeler Clinic’s expansive Hartford campus, not far from the center’s COVID-19 testing site. Trocchi, a former chief of staff with the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services a.nd previously Wheeler’s chief operating officer, was promoted to president and CEO in November 2019. Four months later, the coronavirus pandemic tested virtually everything she knew about leadership.

Wheeler is a 2020 Top Workplaces award winner from The Hartford Courant for the seventh time. In addition, Wheeler President and CEO Sabrina Trocchi, PhD, MPA, received “Top Leader” in the Large Employer category of the same survey.

Wheeler, a leading statewide provider of integrated primary care and behavioral health services, is transforming the services at its original behavioral health clinic location at 91 Northwest Drive, Plainville, to offer fully integrated primary and behavioral health care in one location.

Wheeler has received $108,000 in federal awards for quality care, including special recognition as one of only two community health centers in Connecticut that met or exceeded goals for reducing health disparities across different racial and ethnic groups between 2018 and 2019.

"This is an individual, organizational, community, national, and international issue, and it starts with a mirror." Letters to Wheeler's staff on June 1 and June 6 by Sabrina Trocchi, PhD, MPA, President and CEO.

Black Breastfeeding Week is approaching, which provides an opportunity to reflect on what we can do as partners, friends, and family members to increase support for black breastfeeding/chestfeeding parents.

Wheeler and its on-site pharmacy partner Genoa Healthcare will provide information about Naloxone (NARCAN®), a lifesaving medication used to reverse overdoses, and medication assisted treatment (MAT) for addiction at a community outreach event on Wednesday, September 23 from 1 pm –4 pm at Wheeler’s Family Health & Wellness Center at 855 Lakewood Road, Waterbury.

Some of the clearest ways that private philanthropy saves lives at Wheeler is at our community health centers.

Behavioral health is a historic core service in Wheeler’s continuum of care, and we asked Vice President of Family Health & Wellness Center Outpatient Services Teodoro Anderson Diaz, LCSW, LADC, how behavioral health is integrated in Wheeler’s community health centers.

Each year, more than 28 million individuals receive care in community health centers like Wheeler...one in 12 Americans! The complete, whole-person care delivered by health centers improves health outcomes and addresses some of the most pressing issues in health care today like: access to affordable care; treatment for substance use disorders and chronic diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure; equity and injustice; and much more.

Wheeler’s health care personnel and patients at our four community health centers are delivering care in a safe environment amid COVID-19, thanks to a $50,000 grant from Direct Relief, in partnership with the National Association of Community Health Centers.

For young professionals, the COVID-19 crisis is taking its toll in areas ranging from working remotely, to limited travel and social engagement, to worries about the safety of parents and other loved ones, and more. There are things that young professionals can do to manage these dynamic and challenging circumstances, which still may linger even as the state and country reopen.

Community leaders, donors, friends, and staff gathered online for a virtual building dedication on June 25 in honor of former Wheeler President and Chief Executive Officer, Susan Walkama, LCSW. The primary five-story building at Wheeler’s flagship community health center at 43 Woodland Street in Hartford was renamed the “Susan Walkama Family Health & Wellness Center.”

Teodoro Anderson Diaz, LCSW, LADC, vice president of Health and Wellness Center Outpatient Services, Wheeler, recently talked with Access Health CT about the importance of prevention in maintaining men’s health.