News from Wheeler

Here’s a brief message from Allison Casinghino, Wheeler’s senior foster care recruiter, about how individuals and families can help a child or youth through foster care.

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.

Citing the sometimes-difficult financial balance for parents in frontline health care and teaching careers, for the second year in a row and with a larger gift, an anonymous donor is again supporting childcare and summer camp costs for Wheeler Health employees.

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.

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’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 has announced it has earned the 2025 USA TODAY Top Workplaces award. Issued by Energage, a purpose-driven organization that develops solutions to build and brand Top Workplaces, the Top Workplaces program has a 15-year history of surveying more than 20 million employees and recognizing the top organizations across 60 markets for regional Top Workplaces awards. 

From “Poopons” that incentivize patients to do colorectal screenings, to deep dives into the patient check-in process, Wheeler staff routinely work across disciplines in continuous quality improvement (CQI) teams to improve health outcomes in our patients.

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.

Every day, across the state, dozens of Wheeler clinicians step out of their cars, ring a doorbell, and change lives in the most intimate setting, a family’s home.