‘These are our people’
Danbury nonprofit expands medical care amid crisis
DANBURY — Roberta Stewart remembers the terrible toll in the Danbury area the last time the nation was gripped by a public health crisis in the 1980s, as AIDS ravaged communities.
“We were going to 10 memorial services a month,” Stewart said. “I would get a call from the emergency room that another one of my clients was dying, and all we could do then was to hold their hand and try to honor them and give them dignity.”
Stewart is the CEO of Apex Community Care – a Danbury-based nonprofit that has extended its services so successfully since its humble start helping HIV patients that it has outgrown its own projections of just three years ago.
In response, Apex purchased a four-story medical office building one block from Danbury Hospital where it plans to consolidate its behavioral health and harm reduction services under one roof, and add primary medical care to its menu of services for people who are underserved, marginalized or in crisis.
“The disenfranchised in the community — these are our people,” Stewart said. “We ask ourselves, ‘What do our folks need that they can’t get someplace else?’ because we are (determined) to be that place that embraces people that no one else does.”
The expansion of services for a nonprofit that for decades was known as the AIDS Project of Greater Danbury comes at a time when the coronavirus is stressing the American spirit unlike any time since World War II, experts said. As more Americans feel anxiety and depression, the need for psychological first
aid is increasing, the experts warn.
“It’s become more and more apparent as time has gone by that our mental health system does not even come close to meeting the need,” said state Rep. Bob Godfrey, D-Danbury, the deputy speaker of the House in Hartford. “Both nationally and across the state, we are seeing calls for increasing mental health clinics and treatment – and this Apex acquisition represents a big expansion of services.”
The 20,000-square-foot medical office building, which Apex bought for $1.3 million, will feature a primary care clinic and an LGBTQ drop-in center, as well as the nonprofit’s substance abuse treatment programs. Apex’s harm reduction and prevention services, which include confidential testing, free contraception, sexual health outreach and a syringe services program, have already been moved to the new building at 16 Hospital Ave.
Other programs, such as Apex’s HIV services at 30 West St., will be among the last elements of the nonprofit to move under the new roof.
The reason: much of the building needs to be renovated. Apex has launched a $250,000 fundraising campaign toward that end. As of Friday, $16,000 had been raised.
Godfrey, a longtime supporter of Apex and the senior member of Danbury’s state legislative delegation, said the nonprofit had long been doing work in the public interest and deserved its support.
The 16-term Democrat co-sponsored a bill last week that would grant Apex $1.3 million for the cost of the building purchase.
“The agency has been growing tremendously and has expanded its services to new groups of people dealing with addictions and mental health issues in general while still taking care of people with AIDS,” said Godfrey, a nonpaid member of Apex’s Board of Directors. “They outgrew the building they have at 85 West St., and they had to move quickly on the purchase of the Hospital Avenue site while it was on the market.”
It’s too soon to say whether the grant will be funded, but it’s a good sign that both Republicans and Democrats in Danbury’s legislative delegation have co-sponsored the bill. The bill was referred to the Joint Committee on Finance, Revenue and Bonding on Thursday.
Apex’s headquarters at 85 West St. were supposed to be permanent for the foreseeable future when the nonprofit bought the property three years ago.
“We started growing so much that we couldn’t fit any more,” said Stewart. “We were paying overhead at these separate places and we needed an easy place for people to get to – so when the building on Hospital Avenue became available, it all came together.”
In addition to three locations in Danbury, Apex has a satellite office in Torrington. Apex also conducts regular weekly outreach in New Milford and Waterbury.
The plans are to sell its building at 85 West St. once renovations are complete at 16 Hospital Ave. HIV services at 30 West St. are expected to move to the Hospital Avenue site by the middle of the decade.
Stewart said the same spirit of delivering care with “dignity, equity and cultural humility” that guided the nonprofit in its formative years is informing its medical services initiative.
“We’ve had clients who have been dropped or fired by their primary care physicians for being late to appointments or missing them,” Stewart said. “We’re trying to break down the barriers to health care access … so our message is if you screw up and don’t show up, you’re not going to get fired by your primary care physician.”