New Canaan Urgent Assessment Success Story

“On December 1, we had an out-of-the-blue crisis mental health situation with our younger son. This triggered a health leave from school, and we began an odyssey of trying to line up appropriate care for him. Needless to say, it was incredibly sad and stressful— and since our family had no prior experience with psychiatrists or therapists, we felt incredibly confused and alone. After several “sorry we aren’t taking new patients”, “we don’t handle that sort of trauma”, or “we don’t work with adolescents” calls to providers those first 24 hours he was home, New Canaan Pediatrics referred us to Silver Hill. I truly cannot say enough positive things about Brent Penque, and the way we have continued to be cared for by him on the psychiatry side. Silver Hill did not have the right specialized care for what our child required, so it did take us 11 intake calls with providers to line up the right person to provide the therapy, but knowing Brent was there as a resource and support while we muddled through the rest of the process made a world of difference.

I’m happy to share more about our experience in person. Brent had asked us to share our story with a news outlet that was doing a story on it and the possible expansion, but I was not comfortable publicizing what my child is going through, which he totally understood. But then the other night, I was at dinner with someone (who was on the board of NC Community Foundation), and he encouraged me to reiterate how incredibly helpful this program was to our family.

We feel so fortunate that this was available to our town when our family was in a true period of crisis. If there is a way of my anonymously sharing our story with the powers-that-be as we talk about funding it again, I am happy to do so.

Warmly,
(Wishes to remain anonymous)”