News from Wheeler

Wheeler Health has earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for Behavioral Health Accreditation in numerous programs by demonstrating continuous compliance with its performance standards.

Intensive Family Preservation supports families involved with DCF due to concerns of abuse and neglect. The program is designed to maintain children safely in the home by helping parents develop skills to manage their lives, improve their parenting and connect to needed community resources.

Supportive Housing for Families provides families with support services, and access to safe, quality, affordable housing. The mission of SHF is to help DCF families thrive by finding homes in safe neighborhoods, learning skills to manage their housing independently, in order to provide their children with a stable home environment.

Care Coordination is an in-home, community-based program that collaborates with families of children and adolescents with behavioral and emotional challenges by identifying family strengths and arranging appropriate supports and services to maintain children or adolescents in the community.

A Community Baby Shower for expectant families and new parents living in Norwalk, Bridgeport, Stamford, Fairfield, Stratford, Trumbull, and surrounding areas will take place on May 30 from 3 to 6 pm at the Triangle Community Center (CT Pride Center), 650 West Avenue, Norwalk, CT.

Wheeler’s Emily Kahnke, LMFT, associate director, was a guest yesterday on Connoisseur Media’s “For the People” radio program, where she highlighted our Mobile Crisis Intervention Services (MCIS) program and how we’re serving youth and families experiencing a crisis.

In May, members of Wheeler's senior leadership team will enjoy cold buckets of water over their head to support mental health awareness, and raise funds for Wheeler.

Wheeler Health and the City of Bristol invite all students in Bristol to celebrate this amazing community by creating and sharing original artwork featuring their favorite places in Bristol! Submission deadline is May 30, 2025.

This year, Wheeler celebrates the 40th anniversary of the construction of Northwest Village School (NVS) but its delivery of therapeutic education services nearly spans our entire 55-plus-year history.

Wheeler’s Community Support for Families (CSF) program marked its 13th birthday in recently, and there was a lot for this team to celebrate.

What do glitter jars and classical music have to do with occupational therapy? As it turns out, quite a bit. This is according to Adrianne Smith, Wheeler’s Northwest Village School (NVS) occupational therapist who has served students for 22 years after graduating from the University of New Hampshire. Working collaboratively with a team of transdisciplinary professionals, Adrianne develops traditional and out-of-the-box strategies to help students perform necessary tasks throughout their school day and beyond.

Wheeler’s Extended Day Treatment (EDT) program offers comprehensive, intensive therapeutic afterschool services designed to support youth aged 6 to 17 and their families.

Dru Breslav, LCSW, senior director of community-based family services, and Elisabeth Cannata, Ph.D., vice president, community-based family services and practice innovation, are among the authors of a chapter in a new book by the Child Welfare League of America, entitled "Child Neglect, Inequity, & Poverty. Volume II: Practice Innovations, Concrete Resources, and Justice."

Dozens of attendees honored an anniversary in Bristol for two decades of a highly successful model of home-based behavioral health treatment. Wheeler was intimately involved in the development of the Multisystemic Therapy – Building Stronger Families model in 2004-2005 and continues to be a leading provider around the state.

For more than 16 years, Wheeler’s Mobile Crisis Intervention Services (MCIS) program has served children and youth in the Greater Hartford region, right in their homes, schools, and communities. This approach helps to divert unnecessary visits to the emergency room or inpatient hospital stays.