New Book Recalls the Drive to Make Healthcare a Right - Right Here in Middletown

Community Community Health Center (CHC) in Middletown is described in a new book telling the story of its founding as “a remarkable example of one man’s relentless drive to offer care to all who need it and the constellation of people who helped make that vision a reality.”

The book, Peace & Health, illuminates what we might learn from an organization that has prioritized community involvement and innovation from its start and continues to lead the way for what healthcare can and should be, the book’s publisher explains. 

“Peace & Health captures the spirit of Mark Masselli as he journeyed from Wesleyan to the North End of Middletown, engaging everyone one in the neighborhood, all while promoting justice, health access, and equity,” said Chyrell Bellamy, MSW, PhD. Director of the Yale Program on Recovery and Community Health.  “For those committed to community engagement, this book provides a deep wellspring of hope.”

The book’s author, Connecticut resident Charles Barber, is a Writer in Residence at Wesleyan University, a Lecturer in Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, and the author of the critically acclaimed books Songs from the Black Chair, Comfortably Numb, Citizen Outlaw, and the forthcoming In the Blood. He has written extensively on mental health and criminal justice issues in leading national publications and has appeared on major television networks.

Incorporated in 1972, Community Health Center has been a fixture in Middletown since it founding, and in the years since has expanded its range of services exponentially with geographic location across the state.  The CHC model of care “has been consistent from our founding: to transform the way healthcare is delivered.”

The CHC website notes that “When we began providing care in 1972, our focus was simply to make sure everyone who needed healthcare had access to it, regardless of ability to pay. But as CHC grew, we began to ask ourselves a more important question: “What do people need access to?”  The CHC mission is not just to provide healthcare, but to make sure that the care we provide is the best it can be, and is what best meets the needs of our communities and patients.”

The new book captures the early years, and the drive and determination to start a facility to bring healthcare to people who might not otherwise receive healthcare.  Mark Masselli remains the President & CEO in 2022, have led the growth and expansion of CHC to over 200 locations today.

In early reviews, the telling of the story, its subject and the author, have received praise.

“It’s a wonderful book about a wonderful health center, and great reading for anyone interested in health, communities, or who wants to hear a real-life uplifting story,” said Tom Frieden, President and CEO, Resolve to Save Lives, and former Director, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Charles Barber combines the artistry of a novelist and the skills of a reporter to introduce the founders, providers and patients that epitomize the spirit of a great experiment that serves 30 million low-income Americans,” added Michael Rowe, PhD, author of Citizenship and Mental Health.

The Barnes & Noble website summarizes the story line this way:

Peace & Health is the story behind this improbable effort: the 20-year-old who plants the flag in his small hometown of Middletown, Connecticut; the daughter of a sharecropper, who made her way north during the great migration and becomes the North Star of the drive to transform health in the community; the son of a Jewish émigré and pharmacist who breaks from his peers to support the cause; the musician who played in the big bands of the South in the 1930's, who loses his teeth and is now determined to make sure others do not lose theirs; and the college student and future US Senator who helps buy the building so the free clinic would not be shut down permanently. A young nurse-practitioner joins the organization as it expands beyond one Connecticut town, and today, CHC and its Weitzman Institute operate programs across the US, transforming the delivery of health care for populations who have been ignored.

Peace & Health is available on amazon.com, bookshop.org, and barnesandnoble.com and is available for order by local independent booksellers.