News & Updates

News and Updates
Warwick Police Chief: Kent Center a Valuable Community Team Member
June 24, 2015 Stephen M. McCartney shares the tremendous impact The Kent Center has made on the City of Warwick in a letter to the Editor of the Warwick Beacon.
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Warwick Rotary Club Presents $1,200 Grant to The Kent Center
June 10, 2015 Stephen M. Montaquila, OD, Chair of the Warwick Rotary Charity Committee, presented The Kent Center with a grant in the amount of $1,200 on Thursday, June 10. The funding will be used to install handicapped door access to TKC’s 2756 Post Road location, which houses its administrative offices, Community Support Services, Youth and Family Services, Psychiatric Services, Human Resources, Transportation Services, and Housing and Facility departments.
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Representatives of TKC Participate in Mental Health Summit
June 8, 2015 Providence Journal: Summit examines ways to deliver proper treatment to R.I.’s mentally ill (by Journal Staff Writer Rich Salit).
WARWICK, R.I. Recognizing that the state is falling short when it comes to caring for people with behavioral health problems and too often imprisoning those struggling with addiction and mental illness instead of treating them Governor Raimondo and other top state officials convened a day-long conference on Monday to discuss what’s wrong with the state’s health-care system and to identify potential solutions.
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TKC and East Greenwich Art Club Develop Alliance
June 1, 2015 The Kent Center had the honor of presenting before the East Greenwich Art Club, whose members have donated supplies so Hillsgrove House’s Creative Occupational Unit can continue to make beautiful works of art!
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The Kent Center’s Open House Featured in Warwick Beacon
May 26, 2015 Open house raises awareness of mental illness (written by The Warwick Beacon’s Nicole Bouchier).
“Now I have purpose.” Jean Nelson spoke those words about the impact Hillsgrove House, a service of The Kent Center for Human & Organizational Development, has had on her life. On Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. an outdoor open house was held by the center for Mental Health Awareness Month. All around the parking lot were staff and members of Hillsgrove House and various other services of The Kent Center.
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Warwick Rotary Holds Million Dollar Meal at Hillsgrove House
May 21, 2015 On May 21st, Rhode Island’s first Clubhouse hosted the Warwick Rotary Club for its Million Dollar Meal. The meal generates funds for the Rotary Foundation and serves as an opportunity for Rotarians to develop alliances with community partners.
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The Kent Center Hosts Outdoor Open House in Celebration of May is Mental Health Month
May 14, 2015 The Kent Center (TKC), a provider of community-based outpatient mental health, substance abuse, educational, housing, and primary care services, will host an Outdoor Open House to celebrate May is Mental Health Month. The Open House will take place Wednesday, May 20th from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM at 2756 Post Road in Warwick.
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TKC Client Shares her Powerful Story with Providence Journal: Part 3
April 27, 2015 Mental Health in Rhode Island Special Report: Katie’s Story
By The Providence Journal’s G. Wayne Miller
Katie’s Story, part three: Challenges on the way to recovery
Katie Hart begins to get her life together but encounters hurdles almost everywhere she turns. Still, with newfound strength and the support of her family, she has hope as spring arrives. Still angry with her mother, Jean Hart, she decided she would live in her car.
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TKC Client Shares her Powerful Story with Providence Journal: Part 2
April 26, 2015 Mental Health in Rhode Island Special Report: Katie’s Story
By The Providence Journal’s G. Wayne Miller
Jean Hart foresaw Katie’s life ending in terrible tragedy. She’d already lost a child that way. “I’m not going to let you die,” she told her daughter. Jean Hart foresaw Katie’s life ending in terrible tragedy. She’d already lost a child that way. “I’m not going to let you die,” she told her daughter.
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TKC Client Shares her Powerful Story with Providence Journal: Part 1
April 25, 2015 Mental Health in Rhode Island Special Report: Katie’s Story
By The Providence Journal’s G. Wayne Miller
Katie Hart, 42, was a respected art teacher when she began to experience symptoms of serious mental illness six years ago. So began a devastating journey through Rhode Island’s underfunded and fragmented mental-health system. If not for her mother and daughter, she might not have made it.
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Hillsgrove House Receives Legislative Grant for Career Scope Software
April 10, 2015 Rhode Island’s first Clubhouse, Hillsgrove House was awarded a legislative grant for $1,000 that will be used to purchase computer software.
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The Kent Center 2015 SECA Campaign Application Accepted
April 7, 2015 The Kent Center was notified that its application to participate in the 2015 Rhode Island State Employees Charitable Appeal was accepted. The State Employees Charitable Appeal (SECA) was formed in 1984 to allow Rhode Island’s state employees to conveniently contribute money to local and regional health and welfare organizations.
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The Kent Center Announces Makeover for Annual Gala and Fundraising Event
April 1, 2015 The Kent Center’s Annual Gala and Fundraiser “Swing into Spring” has undergone an extreme makeover, from locationto season of the yearto program of events! This year, The Kent Center has secured Aldrich Mansion (of Meet Joe Black fame) in Warwick Neck, Rhode Island to host its first annual “Some Enchanted Evening”. At 8PM on Saturday, October 31st, attendees will be swept up and awayand into a night of curiosities and enchantment!
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Community Development Block Grant Awarded to The Kent Center
March 23, 2015 On March 18, Mayor of Warwick Scott Avedisian informed The Kent Center that it had been awarded Community Development Block Grant Funding in the amount of $14,628. The funding will be used to provide comprehensive behavioral health services to Victims of Trauma from Warwick, Rhode Island.
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The Kent Center Awarded Grant to Provide Mental Health Discharge Planning Services at ACI
March 1, 2015 This month, The Kent Center will begin providing trauma-informed discharge planning services to institutionalized offenders at the Department of Corrections who suffer from mental illness. The Rhode Island Department of Administration/Division of Purchases, on behalf of the Rhode Island Departments of Corrections and Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities, and Hospitals, solicited proposals last October from qualified organizations to provide these services. The Kent Center was one of four vendors who submitted proposals for this opportunity. It was awarded $363,757 to provide these services over a three year timeframe.
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Horizon Healthcare Partners Emphasizes Need for New State Mental Health Plan
November 6, 2014 For Rhode Islanders coping with mental illness, oftentimes health services alone are not a long-term solution . But when those services are placed in a small, community-focused setting, and are supported by coordinated access to housing, employment services and peer support, many individuals are able to live healthier and more fulfilling lives. This coordination of community based care, provided by Rhode Island’s community mental health organizations, are a popular topic of discussion in Rhode Island as a result of a recent public mental health discussion.
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TKC’s CEO David Lauterbach Panelist on Publick Occurrences Forum in Providence
November 6, 2014 Providence Journal Article: At Publick Occurrences forum, a plea to fix R.I.’s mental health system/ Polls (by G. Wayne Miller)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. Rhode Island’s system of community mental health care is flawed, fragmented and underfunded hardly the national model it was some three decades ago. Rhode Island’s system of community mental health care is flawed, fragmented and underfunded hardly the national model it was some three decades ago. Many people who need help, particularly many who are poor and disenfranchised, go without help. Some are homeless. Still others are in prison, where they don’t belong.
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TKC CEO David Lauterbach Speaks to the State of Community Mental Health in ProJo
October 26, 2014 R.I.’s community mental health system became a victim of its own success (by The Providence Journal’s G. Wayne Miller)
The state’s community mental health system originated in an era when people with mental illness, here and nationally, were warehoused under inhumane circumstances in public psychiatric hospitals. Once admitted, few were ever released.
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The Kent Center Hosts Reeve Lindbergh
October 24, 2014 The Kent Center had the distinct honor of presenting Reeve Lindbergh, daughter of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, at the Warwick Public Library on October 24. During her hour-long presentation, Reeve shared her favorite quotes from her books “Under a Wing” and “Forward from Here: Leaving Middle Ageand Other Unexpected Adventures”.
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Warwick Beacon Announces TKC in new Behavioral Health Care Network
May 1, 2014 The Kent Center, 3 other providers, in new behavioral health care network. A new statewide network to provide behavioral health care and related services has been created by the affiliation of four existing agencies. The network, Horizon Healthcare Partners (HHP), is a joint undertaking by NRI Community Services, The Kent Center, Riverwood Mental Health Services, and Newport County Community Mental Health Center.
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