Health Dept. Move Centers ​“Wellness”

City officials cut the ribbon on a ​“health and wellness” center — and hoped the fresh color scheme and branding strategy could sell STI tests, school physicals and flu vaccinations to the public as presents rather than punishments.

More than 50 people crowded Thursday afternoon into the new lobby for the ribbon-cutting, at the New Haven Health Department’s relocated offices and clinic, which moved this winter from its former 54 Meadow St. home to 424 Chapel St.

The move means that the 100 employees who make up that department now work together on one floor in open-plan offices, as opposed to on the first and ninth floors of the previous building. And what was once the New Haven Health Department Clinic will now be known as the city’s ​“Health and Wellness Center.” 

“The doors are open for all of you,” Director Maritza Bond announced to her audience: ​“Make sure you capture this moment. Take some selfies.”

Don’t forget to hashtag NewHavenHealth, added Bond, whose blouse matched the building’s ​“Elm City Green” paint job. 

“Oftentimes our work is behind the scenes and goes without notice,” she continued. ​“Today it’s exciting to be at the forefront.”

The pandemic brought the value and complexities of collective health into mass consciousness, Bond noted. As people across the globe, nation and municipalities reconceptualize their relationships to their health, Bond said, it’s more important than ever that ​“people actually know who and where the health department is.”

Using ​“holistic” words like ​“wellness,” she said, can also make spaces that feel intimidating or stigmatized, like public clinics, feel more accessible to people overwhelmed with technical medical jargon. 

“Nobody wants to go to a clinic,” Bond argued — but a ​“wellness” center suggests preventative care rather than scary sickness.

The new building offers the same services as the previous health department headquarters, including eight exam rooms to administer vaccines, get kids caught up with school health requirements, check out and treat sexually transmitted diseases.

The clinic, er, wellness center, provides sliding scale care for under– and uninsured patients. Now, it also has a bright blue and green waiting room with a playspace for kids. 

The overhauled offices also place supervisors and their staff more closely together than before. All employees working on everything from community health to epidemiology have been relocated to one floor to promote more rapid and collaborative communication. 

As she aims to make New Haveners more health-forward through approachable, public campaigning, Bond argued that the new location is more physically accessible than 54 Meadow. The former location was at the edge of downtown and the Hill by the train station and Board of Education offices. 424 Chapel is ​“right between neighborhoods, on the bus line, and has parking,” Bond stated.

Ultimately, Bond said, through judgment-free care, bilingual communications, and, yes, bold colors, ​“we want to make people feel welcome.”