News from Wheeler

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!

The strong, ongoing partnership between Wheeler and the Mott Corporation of Farmington was the focus of a Leadership Greater Hartford breakfast on November 17 focused on social responsibility and employee engagement.

In a bylined article from Wheeler’s October 2017 Education Spotlight newsletter, Dr. Mike Russo, vice president of Education and Early Childhood Services, highlights the effects of anxiety, root causes and strategies to manage this condition so that students can succeed in school and beyond.

The Child Health and Development Institute, Inc. released an Issue Brief focused on the results and success of a federal Project LAUNCH grant, managed and implemented by Wheeler in collaboration with community partners in New Britain.

Wheeler’s Sabrina Trocchi, Ph.D. Candidate, MPA, chief operating officer, and Melissa Mendez, LCSW, IMH-E , director of Early Childhood Programs, received Women in Leadership awards from the YWCA of New Britain on May 11 at the Aqua Turf in Southington.