MANSFIELD — Members of the Connecticut Congressional Delegation, including U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, recently  announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development has approved United Services’ application for a $9.9 million loan.

Approval of the financing will allow United Services, a non-profit community behavioral health care center, to borrow funds to construct a new Windham Region Clinical Center in a region of the state where a recent Community Health Needs Assessment determined Mental Health was the No. 1 need.

The new facility would co-locate adult and family services on public transit routes in Mansfield just over the Windham town line. The $14 million project is shovel-ready and integrates several green technologies, has the strong support of the Windham Regional Chamber of Commerce and has been granted all zoning and site plan approvals from the Town of Mansfield.

Since the start of the Great Recession, United Services Outpatient Mental Health volume has more than doubled – and as of 2016 is now 256 percent the volume of the community behavioral health center’s outpatient mental health services provided in 2007, with no end in sight to the increased demand for services. 

“We appreciate the leadership of our Congressional delegation in helping to make behavioral health care a higher priority in the nation, and remain hopeful that the State of Connecticut will also become a partner in this long-overdue expansion,” said United Services President/CEO Diane L. Manning. “Behavioral health care is as important, if not more important, in efforts to maintain healthy bodies and minds, yet public policy and support for mental wellness has yet to receive the same support as physical health.”

“Expanding and consolidating these vital services on a public transit line will help ensure improved service to residents of the Windham region, while every dollar invested in the Windham Region Clinical Center can also achieve significant taxpayer savings by diverting care from the more expensive alternatives of hospitals, prisons, and emergency room admissions,” added Manning.

United Services continues to seek the support of the Governor and the Windham Regional General Assembly Delegation in its effort to secure state Bond Commission assistance in the project. The agency has sought state support since 2011, and will soon launch a capital campaign to help secure the additional funding needed for the project. Currently United Services is seeking a state investment of  $3.5 million towards the costs of the expansion and consolidation of behavioral health services.

Adults in the Windham Region are currently served at United Services Willimantic clinical office, while children and families in need of behavioral health services are currently served in United Services Columbia clinical offices, which is not on a public transportation route.  

The existing United Services Willimantic clinic space was constructed in the 1950s and includes space leased from Windham Hospital. The facility cannot accommodate the existing or expected growth in demand for services, nor accommodate co-located services for children and families, including services offered by the United Services Center for Autism. Federal Health Care Reform and other government mandates also require that United Services begin offering integrated primary care for clients with Serious Mental Illness, who die, on average, 25 years earlier than the general population due to the additional challenges and complications their treatment requires.

United Services is currently involved in Connecticut’s Behavioral Health Home initiative to provide and manage primary health care and promote wellness initiatives for clients who have incurred high hospitalization costs, seeking to improve the health care of individuals while saving state taxpayers significant dollars. United Services was also recently competitively selected to implement the InSHAPE pilot project to promote healthy living among many of the clients it serves, and has was one of five agencies selected by the State of Connecticut to participate in state efforts to secure a federal Certified Community Behavioral Health Center planning grant.

The USDA loan announcement was made recently at a Mental Health Forum organized by Murphy to gain input into his Mental Health Reform legislation intended to provide long-overdue federal supports to community behavioral health care.

 

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