News from Wheeler

Wheeler received its second year of funding for $50,000 from Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation, Inc. to address the oral health needs of children and families in Greater Hartford.

Wheeler’s evolution of integrating health care over the last 20 years has rapidly advanced, with behavioral health experts like Adam Harrison, Psy.D. working side-by-side with primary care and dental practitioners, community health workers, and many others, in one setting, working as one team, with a full range of resources for patients.

The Wheeler Family Health & Wellness Center, a community health center at 43 Woodland Street in Hartford, and Genoa Healthcare marked the opening of a full-service, on-site pharmacy with a ribbon-cutting event on April 2.

A free Spring Health Screening Camp provided by The Greater Hartford Sathya Sai Center in collaboration with Grace Lutheran Church and Wheeler Clinic will take place on Saturday, April 27 from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. at Grace Lutheran Church, 46 Woodland Street, Hartford.

Wheeler’s Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) program has doubled the number of teams in Region 5 (Waterbury/Danbury/Torrington) and tripled its number of teams in Region 2 (New Haven/Milford). The program now serves youth and families in more than 55 cities and towns in Connecticut.

Wheeler’s Care Coordination teams in New Britain and Hartford were awarded a one-year grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to assist and treat families who fled to Connecticut from Puerto Rico after the devastation of Hurricane Maria.

Our phones, the TV, and the devices all around us make this an age of distraction. How can parents and caregivers of young children ensure their kids have the best experiences for growth and development? A Wheeler early childhood expert says that storytelling is one very effective method to reconnect with what matters.

Wheeler's toddler nutrition program provides parents and families with free hands-on lessons and demonstrations for how healthy eating improves overall wellness and child development.

The Boston Red Sox Foundation is philanthropically supporting programs for children and adolescents living in Wheeler’s community-based congregate care programs.

Health and wellness is so much more than going to the doctor or getting prescriptions filled. If individuals and families leave the physician’s office and return home to environments that don’t promote or sustain healthy behaviors, treating diseases like asthma, depression or heart disease can become difficult or even impossible. The social determinants of health influence everything else in our health care system.

The only community health center in Connecticut with both primary medical care and behavioral health home certifications, Wheeler is also one of five organizations nationally to earn four specific accreditations and certifications from the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body for providing quality, coordinated, patient-centered health care.

Earlier this year, Zaida A. of Hartford struggled to advocate for her elementary school-age son and secure basic resources including assistance with paying her rent. She was connected with Wheeler’s Community Support for Families (CSF) program through the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, CSF’s funder.

Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu today announced the receipt of a grant from the State of Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) that will enable the City of Bristol to directly address the opioid crisis with a $150,000 grant.

Wheeler’s new Basic Needs Fund, addresses a range of environmental and social factors that interfere with clients’ health and well-being, that are not addressed by other means of funding.

From the early start-up years to the leading edge of addressing today’s opioid crisis, Wheeler’s addiction programs have consistently approached the disease of addiction with innovative methodologies at the intersection with other health conditions.