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Ribbon Cutting
Generations Family Health Center recently opened on Rt. 44. Left to right: Arvind Shaw, Generations CEO, The Reverend Canon Robert J. Brooks, Generations’ Board member, Daniel Rovero, State Representative, State Senator Donald Williams, Mae Flexer, State Representative. Courtesy photo.
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- The official opening of the Generations Family Generations Health Center may have been earlier this month, but its beginning stretches back at least a decade.
Town administrator Douglas M. Cutler, speaking at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the health care facility on Rt. 44, talked about studies and investigations into what the northeast corner of Connecticut needed for health care. Studies showed that there was a much higher than normal level of asthma in children in the area, little dental care for kids without insurance and many more health problems that cried out to be addressed. Instead of the report "sitting on a shelf gathering dust," he said, partnerships were formed to fix those problems instead of just filing them away.
"Then Generations came to the table and boy, did they come to the table," he said. "You start with people in a group sitting around a table and it comes to this facility we're going to cut the ribbon on today," he said.
Arvind Shaw, CEO of Generations Family Health Center, Inc., praised Cutler's "insistence that kids get this care." He said Cutler kept the group focused and on target. "Thank you for lighting this flame, Shaw said. Carl Asikainen, chairman of the Generations board, praised Shaw's focus, determination and grit.
The 10,000 square foot facility has eight exam rooms, six dental operatories and three behavioral health clinician offices. It's the second geothermal community health center in the country, the first being the Generations' new Willimantic facility.
Generations will provide medical, dental and case management services, and in the near future, Generations officials said, behavioral health services as well. The group had operated out of a temporary facility on Kennedy Drive for the approximately 11 months it took to build the facility. The expansion allows the center to grow from its current 5,000 visits per year to 22,000.
Mayor Pete Place said "These services mean so much to this community. Their commitment to health will serve for generations to come," he added.
Donna Grant, executive director of the Thompson Ecumenical Empowerment Group, eloquently recounted the early days of surveys and work. The partnership, early on, she said "recognized the synergy that could happen."
"We are indeed a stronger community with you among us," she said.