Community gets tour of soon-to-open UConnectCare site in Albion
New residence will serve women and children
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – UConnectCare welcomed the community on Wednesday for tours of a new residence on Butts Road that will serve women in treatment for substance use disorder. The site will also offer behavioral health care.
The top photo shows director of residential services Stephanie Nadolinski, left, and Allison Parry-Gurak, UConnectCare’s chief residential officer.
Nadolinski will be the on-site leader. She has worked 25 years for UConnectCare, which was previously known as GCASA. Nadolinski brings experience of running the Atwater House in Batavia, which provides residential treatment for men with substance use disorder.
The building will be home for 25 women including 5 bedrooms for women with children. The building contains a variety of spaces to support and continue the recovery process including counseling, group sessions and career and personal development spaces.
Kathy Hodgins, UConnectCare chief executive officer, said there are very few options in the region for residential treatment for women that also can accommodate their children. UConnectCare has five rooms where mothers can have up to two children who are 5 or younger.
Allison Parry-Gurak leads a tour of the new women’s residence for UConnectCare. The site isn’t officially open yet.
It needs a final approval It needs a final approval for an operating certificate from the state Office of Addiction Services and Supports.
UConnectCare needs to hire nurses and LPNs to be on site 24-7. Once they are hired, Parry-Gurak said she expects the final approval will be granted by OASAS.
UConnectCare expects the site to open next month.
The state Department of Health provided a $4.6 million grant for construction of the residence. That grant doesn’t include the operation of the site, which will be staffed 24-7, including two employees at night.
UConnectCare picked Albion for the project because many of the agency’s other residential and treatment programs are based in Batavia.
Hodgins said the site will give priority to women in Genesee and Orleans counties, but will be available to women outside those counties if there are rooms available.
Parry-Gurak, the chief residential officer for UConnectCare, leads a tour of the new residence, with this photo of the kitchen.
Most of the women at the site are expected to stay several months as they work on their rehab and re-entry. The maximum tends to be a six-month stay, but Parry-Gurak said people could stay longer as long as they are working on their treatment.
Here are some other photos from the open house on Wednesday:
