Wheeler Transforming Clinic Site in Plainville to Full Community Health Center (Location was the original site of the mental health outpatient clinic since 1972)

Wheeler, a leading statewide provider of integrated primary care and behavioral health services, is transforming the services at its original behavioral health clinic location at 91 Northwest Drive, Plainville, to offer fully integrated primary and behavioral health care in one location.

The federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) recently approved Wheeler’s application to bring the behavioral health clinic into its federally qualified health center scope and expand the services offered at the location.

Effective immediately, the new Plainville Family Health & Wellness Center will join Wheeler’s four other community health centers in Bristol, Hartford, New Britain, and Waterbury—and more than 1,300 other federally qualified health centers across the country—as a frontline network of whole-person health care that keeps nearly 30 million Americans well. The Plainville location had previously been the only Wheeler outpatient site that was not a federally qualified health center.

Wheeler is committed to enhancing the continuum of services on-site at the Plainville Family Health & Wellness Center to soon include patient-centered and fully integrated health care, coordinated referrals to specialty care, and services to meet patient needs and advance individual and population health outcomes crucial to the Plainville community.

“At the Plainville Family Health & Wellness Center, we will address barriers in access to health care, reduce health disparities, and build health equity in our community, vital for a healthier, better future for us all,” says Sabrina Trocchi, Ph.D., MPA, Wheeler’s president and chief executive officer. “We have seen such wide chasms in inequity in 2020 across our state and country. Community health centers like Wheeler are the leading voice in ensuring America is healthier tomorrow.”

Wheeler will continue to provide behavioral health services for children, adolescents, and adults at the Plainville site, with plans to expand services to include primary care for the whole family, as well as medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for alcohol and opioid addiction, which is fully aligned with Wheeler’s integrated model of care.

“It’s hard to overstate how important this move is,” Trocchi says. “When a group of visionaries broke ground at Northwest Drive in 1972, in what had been a cow pasture, they were looking to change the model for how behavioral health care was delivered in Central Connecticut. They did, and today we are taking that vision and making it so far beyond their wildest dreams.”

Wheeler Family Health & Wellness Centers
Wheeler’s Family Health & Wellness Centers are community health centers that provide medical and dental care (or linkages to dental care) for the whole family, as well as behavioral health care, and referral and linkages to specialty services.

Wheeler’s Family Health & Wellness Centers in Hartford, Plainville, Bristol, and New Britain are funded in part by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an operating division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Wheeler is a Health Center Program grantee under 42 U.S.C. 254b and a deemed Public Health Service employee under 42 U.S.C. 233(g)-(n).

Medicaid, Medicare, and commercial health insurance welcome. No patient will be denied health care services due to an individual’s inability to pay for services.

Improvements to the Family Health & Wellness Center in Hartford are supported in part by the State of Connecticut Nonprofit Grant Program, the Connecticut Health & Educational Facilities Authority, the Maximilian E. and Marion O. Hoffman Foundation, and the Ensworth Charitable Foundation. Additional support is provided by Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation.

Wheeler
Wheeler provides comprehensive solutions that address complex health issues, providing individuals, families, and communities with accessible, innovative care that encourages health, recovery, and growth at all stages of life. Our integrated approach to primary and behavioral health, education, and recovery creates measurable results, positive outcomes and hopeful tomorrows for more than 30,000 individuals across Connecticut each year: www.wheelerclinic.org