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

Root Welcomes New Director of Finance

July 17, 2025
Root Center is so excited to welcome Cory Porter as our new Director of Finance! Cory attended Southern Connecticut State University to study Finance, and has since spent most of his career working for nonprofits. While in college he worked for years in DDS group homes where he assisted disabled individuals with daily living, including assisting in personal care tasks, shopping trips, and social outings. He then spent over 17 years at Planned Parenthood where he started out as a Financial Analyst and worked his way up to Director of Finance. While there, he worked on implementing multiple practice management systems, moving from paper charts to electronic health records. He oversaw audits and an almost $50M operating budget, and assisted with starting new lines of business which include an in-house lab that brings in more than $3M in annual revenue. In Cory's free time he enjoys hanging out with his friends and family. He is also a special Olympics coach for the Waterbury Knights. We are so excited to welcome Cory for this new chapter in his life. We know he will do amazing work, and we can't wait to see him shine! Welcome Cory!

Spring 2025 Newsletter

June 25, 2025
Summer is here following a busy spring packed with excitement! From our Lafayette Street Clinic Grand Opening to the Middletown Pride Parade, we kept ourselves busy in our communities. In our last newsletter, we were close to opening our Lafayette Street Clinic, a new location in Hartford where our Doctors Clinic staff and patients (currently on Main Street) will move when we begin accepting patients starting June 23rd! But that's just the beginning! We have hosted many exciting events this spring, including our most recent Community Forum on Burnout, our Annual Years of Service Awards, and a documentary screening of an independent film focusing on four women in recovery.  It's been a jam-packed spring, and there's so much to share. Keep reading for some special announcements and updates!

Root Center Community Forum - Breaking Free From Burnout: More Than Just Stress

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
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