History
About Easterseals of Oak Hill
Easterseals of Oak Hill offers a wide continuum of care through our expansive portfolio of disability services. We provide a range of mental health and behavioral healthcare services throughout Connecticut. Easterseals of Oak Hill emphasizes the ability for each program participant to recover and grow within the context of their individualized goals and objectives.
Easterseals of Oak Hill, through our established mental health program (Gilead Community Services), is a trusted community provider with 50 years of experience in the mental health field. Our values include Excellence, Compassion, Innovation and Integrity. Our outpatient clinic is a “Veteran’s Choice” provider that seeks to create enhanced access to a variety of services including individual therapy, group therapy, psychiatric treatment and medication management. Our clinicians each have credentialing and training in trauma informed models of care and a range of clinical treatment strategies that allow them to effectively serve a diverse population of individuals in need of mental healthcare and substance abuse treatment. (or should the link go here: https://oakhillct.org/services/mental-health-services/)
Easterseals is a national organization that provides a variety of services to children and adults with special needs and disabilities. In Connecticut, Easterseals began affiliate operations in 1935 as the Connecticut Society for Crippled Children and Adults, working primariliy with field workers and occupational therapists that treated individuals with disabilities. In 1950, Easterseals took over the operation of a summer camp in Trumbull, which became Camp Hemlocks a fully accessible, barrier-free summer camp for children and adults with disabilities and other special needs. The camp relocated to Hebron, CT. in 1974 and has celebrated over 35 years of operation at its current site with expanded programs and services.
In August 2014, Oak Hill, Connecticut’s largest private provider of services to people with disabilities, became the sole controlling member of Easterseals Camp Hemlocks. The camp underwent a significant renovation in the Spring of 2015 and was reopened to campers for the Summer season. The facility will now be called The Hemlocks Center and will be used year round for programs and as a conference center and special event venue.
