Nightingale Award

May 16, 2019

The nightingale award is the highest international distinction a nurse can achieve and is awarded to nurses or nursing aides for “exceptional courage and devotion to the wounded, sick or disabled or to civilian victims of a conflict or disaster”. The Root Center for Advanced Recovery is proud to announce this year’s recipient Lisa Barbati. Lisa Barbati has devoted herself to a career of care, providing the Root Center for Advanced Recovery with 20 years of nursing experience. As an agency that focuses on mental health and addiction services, Lisa has proven to be a dedicated employee assisting individuals on their path to recovery. The journey to recovery is difficult as it presents obstacles that in some cases can be life threatening. With 50,000 people dying every year and 1,000 overdoses each day, there is no denying that the opioid epidemic has affected many communities here in Connecticut. Henderson Johnson, where Lisa is primarily deployed, supports approximately 800 clients daily for methadone maintenance, mental health, and education on eliminating the stigma of substance disorder.

Recent Posts

May 12, 2025
Our Community Forum was a success! Burnout: More than Just Stress, was a wonderful, insightful, and at times even funny conversation about occupational and personal burnout, shifting legislature, personal coping strategies, systemic changes, the effect of burnout in children, and so much more! The Root Center is proud to offer free events like this as part of our Advanced Recovery Institute (ARI). The ARI is committed to research and training to elevate clinical care. It is our hope that by organizing these forums that we will help expand our understanding and awareness of topics that impact our communities. Special thanks to all of our panelists for your insight and expertise: Samantha Alzate LCSW , - Owner of Mindful Transformations Brent Heineman, MD/MPH - Psychiatry Intern at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine Christian Damiana - Public Policy Manager at Mental Health Connecticut, Inc. Dr. Cassandra Holinka, PsyD - Clinical Psychologist & Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Jay Lasser, M.D - Founder of The Center for Work Stress Reduction Kristine Olson , M.D., M.S. - Chief Wellness Officer for Yale New Haven Health
March 27, 2025
Back in 2023, Root Center for Advanced Recovery's education initiative, the Advanced Recovery Institute, offered its first ever grant to fund research by Dr. Yifrah Kaminer and his team at UConn. Now in 2025, the study is finally published!
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