NORTH CANAAN — Since opening last summer, the new federal health center serving the Northwest Corner has treated more than 1,000 patients seeking help for medical and mental health issues.
“Everything is going very well,” reported Joanne Borduas, CEO of the North Canaan Regional Community Health and Wellness Center (CHWC), in an interview in mid-December.
“We saw 800 patients for medical and mental health services, and 426 children in our school clinics. We see what we expected, and probably more.
High demand prompted the hiring of several additional providers at the new health center, which is expected to be fully staffed by early 2025 and will help expand the facility’s scheduling capacity.
A full-time family nurse practitioner position is expected to begin in mid-January, and CHWC has tapped Sarah Humphreys to take on the role of chief medical officer, whose area of expertise includes infectious diseases.
Humphreys is expected to join North Canaan Health Center in early March.
“We are very happy to have it and to bring this specialty to the region. She grew up in the Salisbury area and left to practice medicine in New York, and now she’s coming home,” Borduas said.
The new hires will bring the staff to 15 at the North Canaan health center, which took two decades to build and was unveiled at a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by elected officials and major donors on May 10 . The next day, CHWC hosted a town hall meeting to introduce the two-story, 7,300-square-foot regional center to the public. At the end of June, practitioners were seeing patients.
A “great need” for mental health services
It didn’t take long for the need to arise, the facility’s CEO said.
“In the surrounding cities, we have experienced over time a great shortage of primary care physicians, which has led to people living with a large number of health problems, and there is clearly a great need for primary care services. mental health,” Borduas explained. “The severity of the disease in this region is enormous. »
The northwest corner is home to an aging population, and Canaan, in particular, has a large low-income population, Borduas said. These factors, she noted, “contributed to what people could do for themselves.”
Addressing this need, she noted: “We brought in an additional doctor, which was not part of the original plan. »
Dr. Deborah Buccino, a board-certified pediatrician, was hired to better serve the pediatric needs of the community at the North Canaan facility. Borduas noted that Buccino specializes in the evaluation and treatment of children with autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, depression and other learning and functioning problems. behavior.
FHC is on track with its mission to provide integrated medical and behavioral services aimed at addressing the region’s shortage of healthcare providers, limited access to care, and transportation issues that affect both financially stable families and less fortunate individuals.
“We’re not just a doctor’s office,” Borduas said. “Our mission is to be part of the community. » As a recent example, CHWC recently hosted a sold-out Christmas show at the historic Colonial Theater.
Helped by community partners
Since its inception several decades ago, the new health center has been helped by a coalition of community partners to address what Borduas describes as a “health care desert” in rural northwest Connecticut.
Residents living in health care deserts may face inadequate access to primary, emergency, mental health, and dental care and face food insecurity.
Just recently, she said, Northwest Corner’s largest employer, BD, awarded a $20,000 grant to the North Canaan Health Center.
“We are using the funds to address the social determinants of health. We will use this grant to purchase gift cards from Stop&Shop so that we can offer them to people experiencing food insecurity.
Through the BD grant, another local employer, Lindell Fuels, Inc., will help CHWC provide fuel to families who need help keeping their homes warm this winter.
“We will supplement the costs for Lindell through the use of the grant,” Borduas said. “It has truly been a wonderful and generous gift.”
For now, the health center’s focus is on meeting the immediate needs of the community, and in early spring, CHWC plans to conduct an updated community needs assessment.
It has become clear that there are still health care gaps in the rural Northwest.
“We are trying to educate the community that we are not a walk-in emergency clinic and that we operate by appointment only,” said Borduas, who emphasized that although people with urgent medical problems have not been refused, this will not be the case. possible to continue as the health center becomes busier.
The closest urgent care center is in Torrington, she said, or for Sharon area residents, locations across the border in New York. The closest emergency rooms are at Sharon Hospital or Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington.
“It speaks to the need that continues to exist there.”
Borduas selected for governor’s health care cabinet
Community Health & Wellness Center (CHWC) CEO Joanne Borduas has been appointed by Governor Ned Lamont to the 38-member Health Care Cabinet (HCC) as a representative for Connecticut’s community health centers .
Borduas will serve a four-year term ending in November 2028.
The HCC was established to advise the Governor and Lieutenant Governor alongside the Office of Health Reform and Innovation on health-related issues such as the implementation of federal health reform and the development of an integrated health care system in Connecticut.
The nonprofit CHWC, which operates health centers in North Canaan, Winsted and Torrington, serves more than 7,000 patients and is the only Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in the northwest corner providing comprehensive services.
In making the announcement on November 21, Lamont thanked Borduas for his extensive experience working within the Connecticut health care community.
“His appointment to this group will provide valuable insight into our efforts to strengthen and improve our state’s health care system.” I appreciate his willingness to be part of this firm.
Borduas said she is honored by the appointment and intends to be the voice of patients, staff and community health centers across the state to address the challenges faced in the health care sector health.
“I look forward to tackling challenges such as the rural health care crisis, pharmaceutical prices and Medicaid reimbursements.”
The cabinet, which meets every two months, convenes working groups to make recommendations regarding the development and implementation of health care provider service delivery and reimbursement reforms, including multi- payers, medical centers, electronic health records, pharmaceutical pricing, and evidence-based healthcare quality improvement. .
Cabinet members include government officials, medical practice leaders, insurance, union representatives, small business leaders, mental health and addiction services, and public health.
Through this group, the committee will present recommendations to address key health care challenges through legislation, funding initiatives, or restructuring current efforts, according to the 2024 HCC report.
The report also details various subcommittees dedicated to issues such as the rural health care crisis, mental health, and urban health care affordability and accessibility.