Community Health Center turns 50, to expand school services

STAMFORD — Connecticut's Community Health Center has grown from a small second-floor apartment to multiple centers across the state, but it was nearly derailed initially by a single hallway.

In the early days of the center, which opened in Middletown in 1972 as a free dental clinic, the concept of a non-doctor-run medical business offering services free of charge was a radical one.

Mark Masselli, who cofounded the original clinic and is currently the organization's CEO, said the first Community Health Center was hardly embraced by all when it first opened.

In fact, a complaint signed by 30 local doctors at the time led to an inspection by the state Department of Health. During that visit, inspectors measured one of the hallways in the second floor walk-up apartment and found it was too narrow according to the standards of the day, by about an inch or two. The state issued a cease and desist order, putting Community Health Centers out of business.

“It turned out to be a blessing,” Masselli said, remembering those early days. “We found our resilience.”

Eventually, a group of supporters managed to cobble enough money together to open a new location in the North End of Middletown, setting CHC on a trend of expansion that has only grown since.

“Needless to say, when we opened, we had very wide hallways,” Masselli said.

This year, Community Health Center is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

And as the organization looks toward its second halfcentury, one area of likely growth will be inside Connecticut's school buildings, officials said.

Community Health Center opened its first school-based center in Middletown in the 1990s, first with an elementary school followed by a middle school and high school in the same city.

Staff quickly realized the impact the centers were having.

“It doesn't take you too long to say, ‘Whoa, this is high impact, this is going where the kids are,'” said Margaret Flinter, the senior vice president and clinical director of CHC. “Now we have generations of kids in Middletown, Meriden, New Britain who have gone through their entire elementary and high school experience without ever having to question where to get health care.”

Currently, CHC operates about 180 school-based health centers, or SBHCs, which offer students mental and physical care services at no cost within their school buildings.

A recent statewide report recommended expanding SBHCs and telehealth services for students in the state.

The mental health crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has only amplified the need for such services, according to proponents of the school-based health services model.

“And we have so many schools reaching out to us right now,” said Amy Taylor, vice president of CHC's western region, which includes Stamford, Norwalk, Danbury, Meriden, Bristol and Waterbury.

In Stamford schools, for instance, CHC offers behavioral health support at Roxbury, Northeast, Springdale, Stark and Hart elementary schools. A behavioral health clinician is stationed at each. The organization also has a presence inside J.M. Wright Technical School in Stamford.

Taylor said three schools in Stamford are currently being considered as the sites of future SBHCs.

“I think school-based health centers are truly one of the greatest ways to level the playing field for our youth and adolescents ... it provides access to kids right where they are,” she said.

But CHC offers more than school-based services. It has 16 fixed sites across the state, including a relatively new one in Stamford on 5th Street, and provides care in another 240 locations, including schools.

Over the decades, the organization has dealt first-hand with a number of epidemics: homelessness in the 1980s, AIDS in the 1990s, and opioid abuse and COVID-19 currently.

When the state needed help setting up vaccination clinics to combat the spread of COVID-19, it turned to CHC. The organization responded by operating the first and biggest sites. Also during the pandemic, CHC advocated for loosening tele-health rules to reach as many patients as possible.

The center has been a pioneer in many other ways, as one of the first organizations to include patients on its board of directors and provide integrated medical services under one roof.

“Nobody integrated oral health into medical and pretty much nobody integrated behavioral health,” said Flinter.

The organization has also changed the way it operates since its beginnings as a free clinic. Now, CHC serves lowincome residents and offers services based on a sliding scale to allow patients to be billed based on their income.

No matter who you speak to at the CHC, it won't take long until you hear them say “health care is a right, not a privilege.”

Compared with countries that offer free health care for all, Flinter said CHC is not far behind in comparison.

“We come as close to it as anything else in the country,” she said.