by | Aug 28, 2024 3:38 pm | Comments (7)
Dereen Shirnekhi photo
Jim Farrales and Nancy Navarretta: This center is the "first of its kind" in the state.
The city’s non-cop crisis response team now has a central location on Winthrop Avenue where first responders can bring adults who need short-term help for substance use and mental health challenges — while keeping them out of hospitals.
by | Aug 22, 2024 2:59 pm | Comments (6)
As New Haven Public School (NHPS) students get ready to return to the classroom next week, the district is working to remediate “surface mold” from its buildings. Again.
by | Aug 12, 2024 9:36 am | Comments (1)
Thomas Breen photo
Retreat affiliate attorney Richard Weinstein: "You have a receiver in place. If he wants to throw out perishables, obviously, he can throw out perishables."
(Updated) An abandoned drug rehab center on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard feels a bit “like the rapture,” a foreclosure-pursuing attorney said in state court on Friday.
There’s rotting food in the kitchen. There are utility-turn off notices lying around. And there’s now more than $300,000 in back property taxes due.
It’s as if “people just picked up one day and left,” the attorney said — even though the addiction treatment center has been closed for a month and a half.
by | Aug 6, 2024 3:27 pm | Comments (30)
Thomas Breen photo
Blumenthal: Not drunk, ready to drive.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal sat in the driver’s seat of an electric Ford Mustang and breathed.
A monitor behind the steering wheel flashed green — indicating that his blood alcohol content (BAC) was below the state’s legal limit of .08, and therefore he was all clear to drive.
If the car’s sensor had detected too high of a BAC, the monitor would have flashed red, and Blumenthal wouldn’t have been able to get the car to move.
by | Aug 5, 2024 3:10 pm | Comments (9)
Thomas Breen file photo
Retreat's now-closed 915 Ella T. Grasso location.
Patient records, narcotics, and piles of mail allegedly remained inside a drug rehab center on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard a month after the facility abruptly closed — and were all accessible to anyone able to push through the shuttered complex’s back door.
Continue reading ‘Foreclosure Suit: Closed Drug Rehab Center Left Open To Trespassers’
by | Jul 30, 2024 4:00 pm | Comments (3)
The following email press release was sent out on Tuesday by Yale New Haven Hospital about New Haven’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC.
by | Jul 26, 2024 1:27 pm | Comments (4)
Maya McFadden Photo
Yahya, Rayyan, and Amira stay cool in Hillhouse's pool for open swim.
Growing up in Syria and Jordan, 18-year-old Ibrahim Alhraaki didn’t learn to or take an interest in swimming. Then he began attending Common Ground High School — and was offered a chance to become a city lifeguard.
by | Jul 23, 2024 3:47 pm | Comments (3)
Maya McFadden Photo
A 55-meter race at Bowen field with 4th through 6th graders.
Four-year-old Kairo Johnson had her eyes glued on her mother standing behind the finish line of a 55-meter race, motivating her to speed past her opponents and take the win.
The race took place during a community track meet to celebrate a month-long summer track program run by Hillhouse track coach Gary Moore.
by | Jul 10, 2024 5:28 pm | Comments (2)
Arthur Delot-Vilain photos
Stacey Cannon: Working to "overcome lack of trust" as a community health worker ...
... at New Haven's new mobile pharmacy-clinic.
A National Institute of Health (NIH)-funded mobile pharmacy van is taking to the streets of New Haven to provide clinical testing, prescriptions, and medical treatment to underserved communities — i.e. “healthcare for everyone.”
by | Jul 8, 2024 9:09 am | Comments (4)
The New York “daisy” model of syringe disposal structures.
Fewer syringes in public spaces.
by | Jul 3, 2024 3:11 pm | Comments (0)
Thomas Breen file photo
The now-closed addiction treatment center on the Blvd.
Late Retreat exec Scott Korogodsky: Sought to answer employees' questions, days before taking his own life.
A top executive at a for-profit drug rehab company sought to reassure hundreds of employees — including more than 160 in New Haven — who hadn’t been paid in weeks.
They needed to hear from someone in charge, especially after the company’s CEO had just died by suicide, leading to the sudden closure of addiction treatment centers in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Florida.
So he wrote everyone an email.
When will employees be paid? “We hope to have a definitive answer toward week’s end,” the executive, Retreat Behavioral Health Chief Administrative Officer Scott Korogodsky, wrote on June 23.
What are the chances these employees would keep their jobs?
Retreat is committed to continuing the late CEO’s mission “to provide quality substance abuse care and mental health services to all our communities.”
Three days after sending that email, Korogodsky took his own life. The clinics and treatment centers stayed shut.
Now Retreat’s workers are turning to the courts to try to recoup lost pay.
by and | Jul 3, 2024 3:10 pm | Comments (1)
Arthur Delot-Vilain photo
Adam Enders, Jamen Vandervort, and Sandy Enders at the job fair.
Jamen Vandervort’s family went “from three house incomes to just one” when he and his father suddenly lost their jobs at a drug rehab clinic that closed amidst corporate chaos.
So on Tuesday the father-son duo joined dozens of their former colleagues at a job fair designed to help get Retreat Behavioral Health’s abruptly unemployed back to work.
by | Jul 1, 2024 4:41 pm | Comments (48)
Asher Joseph photo
Celebrating the expansion of CT's Medicaid.
At 9 a.m. Monday, Estefania Guanoluisa Valdez became the first undocumented teenager in Connecticut to newly enroll for health insurance with HUSKY, the state’s Medicaid program — thanks to a new state law that expands such coverage to children up to the age of 15, regardless of their immigration status.
by | Jul 1, 2024 11:07 am | Comments (8)
Abiba Biao photo
Crenshaw (right) teaches Tanasia Edwards how to perform a breast self exam.
Jacquelyn Crenshaw isn’t new to spotting breast tumors. Having worked in mammography for more than 40 years, she urged a crowd of over a dozen women to get their annual mammograms, perform monthly breast self-examinations, and above all, “know your breast density.”
by | Jun 28, 2024 10:20 am | Comments (0)
Thomas Breen file photo
At November's launch of Overdose Prevention Program.
A recent pair of resignations has left the city looking to fill two vacancies in a four-person program designed to combat overdoses by building relationships with people who use drugs and guiding them towards safe housing, medical care, and other supportive services.
Continue reading ‘OD Prevention Workers Sought After 2 Resignations’
by | Jun 27, 2024 4:29 pm | Comments (8)
Maya McFadden photo
Happier days, before the collapse: site director Jarel Gallman, public relations director Jackie James, CEO Peter Schorr, Alder (and former facility employee) Ron Hurt, Mayor Justin Elicker at New Haven facility's 2020 ribbon-cutting.
A drug rehab company that shuttered its two New Haven facilities amid two executive suicides over the last week is nearly $230,000 behind in local real estate taxes — with its next $103,000-plus city tax bill due next week.
That’s among the revelations that are emerging about years of financial woes and “corporate anarchy” that plagued for-profit Retreat Behavioral Health before its sudden collapse this past week throwing hundreds of patients and workers into the cold in three different states.
Continue reading ‘Retreat Owes City $230K & Climbing; Deeper Financial Chaos Revealed’
by , and | Jun 26, 2024 5:22 pm | Comments (15)
CEO Peter Schorr, CAO Scott Korogodsky: Both found dead in less than a week.
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Jackie James: "No one is responding from headquarters. We should come together to support people that are truly in need of support and jobs."
Thomas Breen file photo
All locations now closed indefinitely.
Chaos and uncertainty at the parent company of one of New Haven’s largest drug rehab clinics have left 160 workers burned by missed paychecks and patients hustling for new treatment options.
Retreat Behavioral Health’s facilities in three different states, including Connecticut, appear to be closed indefinitely — amidst a $17 million foreclosure lawsuit in Florida, and the second death of a company executive in less than a week.
Continue reading ‘2nd Drug Rehab Exec Dies; Employees, Patients Left Scrambling For Answers’
by | Jun 24, 2024 4:11 pm | Comments (5)
Thomas Breen photo
Retreat's 1 Long Wharf clinic: Now closed, too.
A drug rehab facility that abruptly closed its in-patient center on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard last weekend has now shuttered its outpatient clinic on Long Wharf as of Monday.
by | Jun 24, 2024 12:15 pm | Comments (3)
Brian Slattery Photos
Thank you, water, on Whitney Ave.
Part architectural stunner, part essential public utility, the silver and glass structure of the Regional Water Authority’s water treatment plant was even more impressive up close than seen from Whitney Avenue across the street from the Lake Whitney Dam.
Just as impressive, as it turned out, were the inner workings of that plant and how it provides water to the city and elsewhere — as a group of 30 participants learned on a tour of the facility, guided by Jesse Culbertson, RWA water treatment team lead, as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.
by | Jun 23, 2024 4:29 pm | Comments (15)
Paul Bass Photo
Retreat Behavioral Health on the Boulevard.
McFadden Photo
Facility boss Jarel Gallman: "Some financial struggles" came to light.
One of the city’s largest in-patient drug-rehab facilities abruptly closed its doors this weekend, with questions lingering about why and what comes next for its employees and recovering substance abusers.
by | Jun 17, 2024 3:37 pm | Comments (9)
Thomas Breen photo
INSA CEO Peter Gallagher: Cannabis seller and consumer. Don't tell mom.
“It’s a very, very capital-intensive business that’s not without risk,” New Haven’s newest legal pot dealer, INSA CEO Peter Gallagher, said about his 500-employee company’s line of work.
There’s the challenge of finding lenders and lawyers and accountants willing to hire out their services in such a hazy market. There’s the prohibition on ferrying legal product across state lines. There’s the ban on billboard and TV advertising. There’s the reliance on cash and debit cards for retail transactions because of credit card companies’ continued aversion to the sector.
And then there’s Section 280E of the federal tax code.
Continue reading ‘Canna-biz CEO: It's Not Easy Selling Green’
by | Jun 12, 2024 2:04 pm | Comments (6)
Jabez Choi photo
Hill Health CEO Taylor (center): "It really did take a village."
Shouts of joy erupted in the Hill as community healthcare leaders, philanthropists, and local and state politicians cut the ribbon on a new 52-bed, $38 million addiction recovery center on Minor Street.
by | Jun 11, 2024 9:11 am | Comments (4)
RWA photo
Lake Whitney Dam: Ready to be improved for “the next 160 years.”
The Lake Whitney Dam on the border of New Haven and Hamden has been going strong since 1860, when Eli Whitney and the city built it. But it’s in need of rehabilitation — a major construction project — to prepare it for the climate challenges of the next century and beyond. That can be done while also keeping an eye on the community and environmental concerns of the present.
by | Jun 10, 2024 9:42 am | Comments (1)
Lisa Reisman photo
Nancy Jordan (right), with Mike Downing Jr. and Langston Dennis, checking out the threads.
There were t‑shirts and button-downs and pullovers, dress pants and jeans and sweatpants, jackets and hoodies and windbeakers, each meticulously organized by size. There were shoes of every style and make. There were household items like cleansers and kitchenware, and personal care essentials like deodorant, shampoo, and conditioner.
None of it was for sale, including the food. At Saturday’s 12th annual Free Market and Health Fair just outside the Dixwell Community “Q” House, everything was, as advertised, free.
by | Jun 7, 2024 9:01 am | Comments (9)
Thomas Breen File Photo
794 Dixwell Ave.
The leaky roof of 794 Dixwell Ave. will soon get fixed, with the help of $300,000 from the city, in time for a new all-boys charter school to open there in the fall.
Continue reading ‘Alders Fund Clifford Beers, Charter School Roof Repairs’