More Good Days, Together: Why One of Bloomfield's Largest Mental Health Providers Doesn't Appear in the Town's Budget
By Peter C. Frank
Editor-in-Chief, the Bloomfield Community Dispatch
We all have our definitions of a "good day."
For some, a good day is waking up before the alarm goes off, grabbing a coffee at the local drive-thru, and coasting through an easy commute. For others, a good day is simply making it through a shift without a panic attack. For a teenager struggling with the weight of the world, a good day might be finding the courage to walk into a classroom.
For someone living with a traumatic brain injury and the complex, often invisible mental health challenges that accompany it—something I know about firsthand—a good day is often just surviving the cognitive fog without feeling entirely overwhelmed by the noise of the world.
The theme for May, designated as Mental Health Awareness Month in 2026, is "More Good Days, Together." It is a powerful message that recognizes that healing does not happen in isolation. Stigma grows in silence, but recovery begins in community.
Here in Bloomfield, that community safety net is largely held together by organizations like Community Health Resources (CHR). CHR operates on the front lines of our town's mental health crisis, providing an essential continuum of care for children, families, and adults. They are the ones doing the heavy lifting to ensure that our most vulnerable neighbors can piece together more good days.
But as the Dispatch recently discovered, while CHR is fighting tooth and nail to support the residents of Bloomfield, the Town of Bloomfield's administration seems largely unaware of how to support CHR.
In a town that prides itself on being "business-friendly," why is one of our most critical healthcare providers operating in the dark regarding municipal assistance? And what happens to our community's mental health when Town Hall is too distracted by administrative chaos to offer a helping hand?
The Frontline Triumphs of CHR
To understand the gap in municipal support, you first have to understand the massive scope of what CHR provides to Bloomfield.
Community Health Resources is one of the most comprehensive, nonprofit behavioral healthcare providers in Connecticut. They serve individuals whose lives have been touched by mental illness, substance use disorders, trauma, and homelessness.
"Our services range from 24/7 crisis care to outpatient, intensive outpatient, and school-based services to in-home teams and residential treatment programs," explains Maureen McGuire, Senior Vice President for Advancement for CHR. "We also help individuals and families find safe and affordable housing that supports their health and recovery. All services are recovery-focused, trauma-informed, and reflect the voice of the families and individuals we serve. We strive to create welcoming and supportive environments for everyone and do not turn people away because of an inability to pay for services."
Over the past year, CHR's Bloomfield location on Bloomfield Avenue has achieved remarkable milestones:
- Open Access for Adults: In a critical move to remove barriers to care, the Adult Outpatient clinic in Bloomfield now offers an "open access" model. Any individual can walk in Monday through Friday, between 9:00 AM and 3:30 PM, to access mental health and addiction treatment without a prior appointment.
- School-Based Support: As the school year wraps up, CHR reports that an increasing number of children, teens, and families utilized their convenient, on-site mental health services at Bloomfield High School and the Global Experience Magnet School (GEMS).
- Youth Addiction Treatment: The Child Outpatient practice in Bloomfield is fully staffed and recently launched a new, evidence-based treatment model specifically designed for teens struggling with substance use.
- Holistic Health Integration: CHR has continued a highly successful collaboration with the Charter Oak Health Center, which provides primary care services directly within the CHR clinic, ensuring that residents receive both mental and physical healthcare under one roof.
Furthermore, for youth (ages 5-18) experiencing severe mental health emergencies, CHR recently opened a 24/7 Subacute Crisis Stabilization Center. While located in Norwich, this facility is available to youth from any part of the state, including Bloomfield, providing a vital alternative to crowded hospital emergency rooms.
It is no surprise that CHR has been named a "Top Workplace in CT" for 12 consecutive years, and has recently earned special recognition from Newsweek for culture and belonging. "This is incredibly gratifying since we know that creating a supportive culture for our staff... translates into excellent care for the people we serve," McGuire noted.
They are doing the work. They are answering the call. But they are doing it against an increasingly difficult economic headwind.
The Challenge of Doing More with Less
Like all nonprofits, CHR operates on incredibly thin margins.
"Recruiting and retaining staff continues to be a challenge for CHR," McGuire told the Dispatch. "As a nonprofit, it's often hard for us to compete with salaries offered by the state or larger healthcare systems," she confided.
To survive, CHR has to be fiercely disciplined in strategic planning and in setting organizational priorities every three years. "Our budget operates on a thin margin, and we closely manage all aspects of our operating budget," McGuire said. "In addition, we aggressively pursue new sources of revenue through new programs and funding opportunities. This is especially important in times of budgetary uncertainties."
CHR notes that throughout their history in Bloomfield, they have enjoyed a "collaborative and meaningful relationship" with the West Hartford-Bloomfield Health District.
Asked about coordination with the municipal government — distinct from the regional Health District — McGuire offered a diplomatic but telling response: "We are grateful to the town for their continued support and would love to learn about funding opportunities through the town that could bolster CHR's services."
The acknowledgment of "continued support" warrants examination. A review by the Dispatch of the Town of Bloomfield's FY2026 Adopted Budget Book, the FY2027 Town Manager's Proposed Budget (v3), and the verbatim transcripts of every FY2027 budget meeting found no reference to Community Health Resources — by name, by service, or by funding line. The Town's only documented behavioral health budget item is a per-capita contract with the regional West Hartford-Bloomfield Health District, budgeted at $309,228 for FY2026.
Whatever "continued support" means from the Town's side, it does not appear in any of the Town's published budget documents. And one of the largest behavioral healthcare providers in Bloomfield is openly inviting the Town to begin a more substantive conversation. McGuire added that "the town has always been supportive and collaborative when CHR has asked for assistance, particularly through the Social Services Department" — a characterization that illuminates the Dispatch's core finding: the channel exists, the relationship is cordial, and the capacity for partnership is there. What is absent is any documented evidence of the Town's executive administration proactively initiating it.
The Operational Disconnect: Where is Town Hall?
If CHR is unaware of how the Town can assist them, it represents a catastrophic failure of communication and economic development strategy by the municipal administration. For years, the Town of Bloomfield has paid external consultants hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to manage "Economic Development" and "Strategic Communications." As documented in the Town's audited Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports (ACFRs) since July 2014, the Town has utilized Goman + York Property Advisors to aid its economic development—a role tasked with retaining and expanding existing local businesses.
Furthermore, according to an executed professional services agreement obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request (Bloomfield Town FOIA Request #2025-36), the Town entered into a six-month public relations engagement with the Avon-based firm Adams & Knight at a discounted rate of $5,000 per month, a $30,000 total commitment. The agreement was addressed to then-Mayor Danielle Wong and executed by Town Manager Alvin D. Schwapp, Jr. on July 17, 2025. In the firm's own words, the engagement was commissioned to "effectively address recent negative attention" and to "enhance the town's image" through media relations, message development, and press releases.
Yet, with all these highly paid consultants and "business-friendly" initiatives actively on the municipal payroll, a cornerstone non-profit like CHR is left politely asking to "learn about funding opportunities."
If CHR—a massive organization with a dedicated strategic planning board—is operating in the dark regarding municipal support, what does that mean for the small mom-and-pop businesses on Blue Hills Avenue? What does it mean for the independent contractors on Cottage Grove Road or Bloomfield Avenue? If the Town isn't proactively reaching out to support the therapists keeping our kids out of crisis, who exactly are they helping?
The Dispatch submitted written questions to the Town Manager's office and the Economic Development Commission, requesting any records of formal engagement, grant collaborations, or service-delivery coordination with Community Health Resources during FY2024, FY2025, or FY2026. As of publication, the Town had not responded. Under a directive issued by Town Manager Schwapp earlier this year, all Dispatch inquiries are routed through outside counsel Andrew Crumbie of the Crumbie Law Group, the Town Attorney.
It's important to note that CHR isn't completely isolated from Bloomfield’s public infrastructure. In fact, they maintain highly successful, deeply integrated partnerships with the Bloomfield Public Schools—operating satellite clinics in school buildings—and maintain a formal contract with the Bloomfield Police Department to provide an embedded Crisis Clinician within the department alongside their 24/7 Mobile Crisis Response Team. We must commend the Board of Education, the Police Department, and the town's Social Services staff for recognizing CHR's immense value and deploying their expertise directly to the community.
Yet, this makes the silence from the Town's executive and economic administration all the more baffling.
CHR's Bloomfield clinic is located at 693 Bloomfield Avenue. Town Hall sits at 800 Bloomfield Avenue. They are separated by a mere tenth of a mile—a mere 1,000 feet away, or a simple three-minute walk down the exact same street. But administratively, they might as well be in different states. Speaking directly with the Dispatch, McGuire confirmed that CHR currently has no direct engagement or planning discussions with the Town Manager's Office or the Economic Development Commission regarding facility support, state grant co-sponsorships, or the use of town business initiatives—though she emphasized that their relationship is very cordial and they would welcome the opportunity to work together. Furthermore, while public records show the regional West Hartford-Bloomfield Health District runs a massive, month-long schedule of community programming and wellness clinics for Mental Health Awareness Month, McGuire confirmed that CHR is not collaborating in any formal programming with the District this May. The municipal administration remains completely disconnected from leveraging these built-in networks to financially or structurally champion our local, state-licensed providers.
The Resources Left on the Table
The tragedy of this disconnect is that the Town of Bloomfield actually possesses significant mechanisms to assist an organization like CHR. The administration simply hasn't activated them.
If Town Manager Schwapp and the Economic Development Commission were truly prioritizing community health, they could immediately deploy several strategies to bolster CHR's operations:
1. Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Support:
Under Section 18-10 of the Bloomfield Code of Ordinances, the Town Council has established three Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts: the Town Center District, the Tobey Road District, and the Blue Hills District. TIF is a mechanism that allows a town to capture future property tax growth within a defined area and reinvest it in infrastructure or business support. The Town could utilize TIF policies to assist CHR with facility upgrades, expansion costs, or infrastructure improvements, freeing up CHR's capital to be spent on hiring and retaining clinical staff.
2. Opioid Settlement Funds and Targeted Grant Partnerships:
Municipalities across Connecticut receive annual distributions from the multi-billion-dollar national opioid settlements. Per Connecticut Public Act 23-92, these proceeds are restricted to substance use disorder abatement, prevention, treatment, recovery, and harm-reduction. According to the State of Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services' Municipal Settlement Proceeds Report dated January 9, 2025, the Town of Bloomfield received $50,166.07 in opioid settlement funds during fiscal year 2024 and expended $492.13 during the same period — drawing down a prior balance to a remaining $96,757.54 The Town's reported expenditures, processed through the West Hartford-Bloomfield Health District, focused on naloxone distribution, fentanyl test strips, safe medication disposal supplies, and community education events.
Those are unambiguously valuable activities. But notably absent from the State's reported Bloomfield activities, partners, and successes is any reference to Community Health Resources — a state-licensed substance use disorder treatment provider operating in Bloomfield that has launched a new evidence-based treatment program for teens struggling with substance use. The Town is spending opioid settlement money. It is not, on the public record, partnering with CHR in spending it.
3. State and Federal Grant Co-Sponsorship:
The Town of Bloomfield frequently applies for massive state grants, such as an $18.9 million Community Investment Fund (CIF) application that did not receive an award and is being resubmitted, alongside a $4 million congressional appropriation request and an $11.4 million senatorial appropriation request, according to statements by Mayor Anthony Harrington during the FY2027 budget deliberations. The Town employs professional grant writers and lobbyists. Why is the Town not actively partnering with CHR to co-sponsor state grants for mental health workforce housing or expanded clinical facilities? A joint application between the municipality and CHR would be incredibly competitive at the state level.
4. The Chamber of Commerce and Local Networking:
The Town's Economic Development office should be seamlessly integrating CHR into the local corporate ecosystem. Major taxpayers in Bloomfield (like Cigna and Kaman) have robust philanthropic arms and employee wellness initiatives. The Town should be playing matchmaker, actively connecting CHR with corporate sponsors and local businesses to create sustainable, private funding pipelines.
Stigma Grows in Silence
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) reminds us that "Stigma grows in silence."
In Bloomfield, that silence is echoing out of Town Hall.
While the Town Manager has been focused on issues ranging from a downgraded credit rating and overdue audits to a personally signed directive routing routine press inquiries through outside counsel Andrew Crumbie — Schwapp's longtime personal associate — and a 42.86 percent escalator on Crumbie's hourly rate that requires no future Council vote, no comparable attention has been documented for proactive partnership with one of Bloomfield's largest behavioral healthcare providers.
A "business-friendly" town does not wait for its vital nonprofits to ask for help. A responsible administration knocks on their door, lays out the available grants, TIF opportunities, and municipal partnerships, and says: "What do you need to keep doing your job?"
We can no longer afford the disconnect. As residents, we must demand that our Town Council and Town Manager shift their focus outward. They must direct the Economic Development office to formally liaise with CHR and other community health providers. The Town has budgeted approximately $632,098 for its internal Operations & Communications office in FY2026 — a 15.5 percent increase over the prior year — and proposes a FY2027 budget of $669,733, a further 6.0 percent increase. On top of those internal communications dollars, the Town separately retained Adams & Knight under a six-month, $30,000 outside agreement. According to the firm's own scope of work, the engagement was commissioned to 'effectively address recent negative attention' and to 'enhance the town's image.' By contrast, the Dispatch found no comparable budget item — internal or external — devoted to partnership-building with Bloomfield's existing behavioral healthcare infrastructure.
CHR is doing everything in its power to give Bloomfield's residents more good days. They are answering the crisis calls in the middle of the night. They are sitting with our teenagers in the schools. They are keeping their doors open for anyone who needs to walk in off the street.
It is time for the Town of Bloomfield to step up, break the silence, and give CHR the support they deserve. Because we can only build more good days if we actually do it together.
To learn more about the services offered by Community Health Resources, or to seek support, please visit www.chrhealth.org or visit their open-access clinic at 693 Bloomfield Avenue.
For employment opportunities with CHR, visit www.chrhealth.org/careers.
Editor's Note regarding Transparency & Conflict of Interest:
Editor-in-Chief Peter C. Frank is a local resident and a client who utilizes services at CHR's Bloomfield location. Before the investigative reporting and outreach conducted for this article, Mr. Frank had no interaction or communication with CHR's administrative offices, executive staff, or public relations team. The Bloomfield Community Dispatch is committed to absolute journalistic transparency and ethical reporting.
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