News from Wheeler

A visit to Wheeler’s Connecticut Clearinghouse in 1990 was a harbinger of the next career move for Judith Stonger, MA, CPS, vice president of Prevention, Wellness and Recovery. Judy retires after 24 years with the organization.

A five-year, $2-million federal grant will help individuals with behavioral health and substance use disorders returning to their communities in central Connecticut after incarceration.

If there's anything we've learned from the past year, it's the power of--and need for--community, particularly communities that work together for a better future that is focused on wellness, justice, and peace for all. Wheeler's new tagline, COMMUNITY | HEALTH | CARE, reflects all of these.

Wearing a blue surgical mask, Sabrina Trocchi stood outside the Susan Walkama Health and Wellness Center at the Wheeler Clinic’s expansive Hartford campus, not far from the center’s COVID-19 testing site. Trocchi, a former chief of staff with the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services a.nd previously Wheeler’s chief operating officer, was promoted to president and CEO in November 2019. Four months later, the coronavirus pandemic tested virtually everything she knew about leadership.

Wheeler is a 2020 Top Workplaces award winner from The Hartford Courant for the seventh time. In addition, Wheeler President and CEO Sabrina Trocchi, PhD, MPA, received “Top Leader” in the Large Employer category of the same survey.

"This is an individual, organizational, community, national, and international issue, and it starts with a mirror." Letters to Wheeler's staff on June 1 and June 6 by Sabrina Trocchi, PhD, MPA, President and CEO.

Intimate partner violence (IPV)—often aggravated by external events—has moved to forefront during the COVID-19 outbreak, as families and partners spend more time together at home, struggling with the tensions and mental health impact of job loss, food and other forms of economic insecurity, health-related fears, and isolation.

An update from Wheeler about COVID-19.

Hope that today will be better than yesterday. Hope that you can make things right.

When James left prison in early 2018, he found a world that he didn’t recognize in many ways. There was new technology, new ways of communicating, new challenges. One major challenge remained, however, and that was addressing many of the factors that led him to prison to begin with, including addiction.

As we’ve celebrated our 50th anniversary this year, we’ve highlighted partners in our work, including AFCAMP, Saint Francis Healthcare Partners, FAVOR, the Connecticut Health Foundation, the Town of Plainville, and many more.

Wheeler Clinic is a Hartford Courant Top Workplace for a sixth year in a row, based on feedback from employee surveys.

For Bill Carbone, MPA, partnering with statewide non-profits has always been an essential part of maintaining youth and adults safely in the community. As former executive director of the State of Connecticut Judicial Branch, Court Support Services Division (CSSD), Mr. Carbone worked with Wheeler for many years until his retirement from state government in 2014.

For more than twenty years, Beresford Wilson has tirelessly worked for Connecticut families with children with mental, emotional, behavioral health challenges, and developmental and intellectual disabilities. Like many advocates, he found a calling to social change through his own lived experience. His future in family advocacy became clear shortly after he became a father himself; Wilson’s oldest son weighed fewer than two pounds at birth.