WINDSOR, Conn. – Heather Gates, President and CEO of behavioral healthcare provider Community Health Resources (CHR), was featured in a recent CT Mirror article reporting on the CT Community Nonprofit Alliance’s request to the General Assembly and Governor Ned Lamont to boost non-profit spending by $186 million in the upcoming fiscal year. The article was published following a press conference held by the CT Community Nonprofit Alliance on January 25, which was attended by Gian-Carl Casa of the CT Community Nonprofit Alliance, Gates, Senator Cathy Osten, Senator Matt Lesser, Barry Simon of Oak Hill, and Melanie Alvarez from Friendship Service Center.
The proposed $186 million increase in spending would help bolster resources for nonprofits like Community Health Resources (CHR) in providing life-saving support such as mental health and addiction services, as well as provide a budget increase of 5% in FY25 for all non-profits. This increase in spending would help to offset inflation loss.
Gates is featured commenting on the impact that the current spending has had on CHR this fiscal year, which has forced the organization to leave 42 clinician jobs unfilled. “‘That means there are increases in suicides…There are children who are not getting the behavioral health services we know they need.’” Gates is also quoted in stating: “‘This is not an abstract discussion. This is about real individuals dying because the state of Connecticut is not addressing the needs.’”
Senators Cathy Osten and Matt Lesser are also featured in the article sharing that legislators must find a way to support Connecticut’s non-profits.
The full article published by Keith M. Phaneuf in the CT Mirror can be read here.
About CHR: CHR is Connecticut’s most comprehensive, nonprofit behavioral healthcare agency, offering a broad range of services for people of all ages whose lives have been touched by mental illness, addiction, trauma, homelessness and more. Accredited by The Joint Commission, CHR was the first nonprofit in CT to meet all of the rigorous federal criteria as a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic and has repeatedly been named among the Top Workplaces in the state. Learn more at www.chrhealth.org.
January 29, 2024
For more information, contact mmcguire@chrhealth.org.