News from Wheeler

Late-night stories. Songs by the campfire. Hikes, games, and more. These were among the many memories made by nearly 100 Connecticut foster children, including youth in Wheeler’s care, and their siblings, at the 11th Annual Siblings Connections Camp, August 4-9, at WFSB-TV Channel 3’s Kids Camp in Andover.

Wheeler’s Heidi Levitz, early childhood specialist, was part of Access Health CT’s series on National Health Center Week (August 4-10, 2019) and highlighted how community health centers serve many generations within families.

Wheeler’s early childhood team recently contributed to CHDI’s June 2019 Impact Report, “Helping Young Children Exposed to Trauma: A Systems Approach to Implementing Trauma-Informed Care.”

As part of a comprehensive effort to meet the mental health and primary care needs of its youngest patients, Wheeler is implementing HealthySteps, a program of ZERO TO THREE, designed to strengthen parent-child bonds through screening, referral, and treatment.

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.

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.

Wheeler’s Autism Evaluation Services are now available at 20 Tuttle Place, Middletown, as well as at 91 Northwest Drive, Plainville, for Medicaid-enrolled families.

Wheeler received a five-year federal grant in the amount of $2.5 million to serve families in Hartford, whose infants and children age birth to 12 have experienced trauma, and are at risk for, show early signs of, or have been diagnosed with a mental illness or Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS).

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and co-author of the bipartisan Mental Health Reform Act signed into law in 2016, released a statement applauding Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for awarding an Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Program Grant to the Wheeler Clinic in Plainville.

Wheeler’s Foster Care Programs were featured on Fox 61’s Coffee Cup Salute this morning, which included facts about the number of children in foster care and the need for families in Connecticut.

On any given day, there are more than 4,000 children in foster care in Connecticut. You can make a difference in the life of a child or youth in your community by becoming a Wheeler foster parent.

Darcie’s four-year-old son, Connor, was at risk of being removed from his preschool program.

Wheeler's Foster Care team and AMP Radio have teamed up on commercials designed to recruit foster families for children and youth. These messages are running at local gas stations in Plainville, Bristol and surrounding towns. Listen below!