Connecticut Mental Health Center's new video tribute, Recovery Discovery Together, features people in recovery who testify to the important place CMHC holds in their lives.
CMHC, a community mental health center, was founded in 1966 and continues today as a close partnership between the State of Connecticut and Yale University. It provides essential services to people with mental illness and/or addictions; serves as a training site for students and young professionals; and conducts research into the causes and treatments of mental illnesses.
Commissioner Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, PhD of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services also appears in the video, along with Michael J. Sernyak, MD, Chief Executive Officer of CMHC and professor in the Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry.
“CMHC has a vibrant history,” said Dr. Sernyak. “It’s a great story, and the people we serve tell the story best. They understand the power of the work we do. They’ve lived it.”
The people we serve tell the story best.
Michael J. Sernyak, MD
“Recovery Discovery Together” was created by American Beat, a documentary film company based in New Haven, for the Center's 50th anniversary year. Elihu Rubin, associate professor in the Yale School of Architecture, co-directed the video. Rubin specializes in the Urban Renewal period of urban planning and design, during which CMHC was constructed. An interdisciplinary thinker and scholar, he co-founded American Beat in 2000 after completing his undergraduate degree at Yale.
"The Connecticut Mental Health Center is one of the positive legacies of the Urban Renewal period in New Haven," said Rubin. "It was incredibly rewarding to meet some of the people who have been helped by its programs."