One local health organization has changed its branding to better reflect its accomplishments in the lives of 7,000 Upstate New Yorkers recover from drug addiction and mental health issues in the last year. Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare is now Helio Health and the new name is to better reflect the variety of services beyond behavioral health, and its services available outside the City of Syracuse. President Jeremy Klemanski says this change is to show patients a new sense of warmth where they can find light from the darkness.
“You know Helios is the Greek root for sun. Helio is obviously a variation of that. When people think of the sun they think of a bright, warm place. A place that helps people grow. We think that’s a really good way for people to associate our organization and what we do in terms of behavioral health and other health.”
The Helio Health building is expanding to utilize all four floors, which Klemanski says will increase mental health and substance abuse services. The center has just made it easier for patients to receive help around the clock with overnight treatment.
“The other thing that’s happened recently is the open access center for addictions that is housed out of the medical unit in this building is now open 24 hours a day. So they can now come here overnight. There’s a team here that can do their assessment and start to connect them to care right away.”
That’s one of the few ways the facility is tackling the local opioid epidemic. The organization also goes out into the community and proactively looks for new patients to help.
“We’ve got a center of treatment innovation that’s housed here, and we have a fleet of vehicles and a team of people that go out into the community every day in a six county region. So instead of waiting for people with substance abuse or mental health conditions to find us, we’re now trying to go find them and get them into care, and try to shorten the amount of time they might suffer in silence, or suffer quietly, or fall through the cracks.”
Helio Health will continue to operate in Syracuse, Rochester and Binghamton. Klemanski hopes the new name reflects a sense of care, empathy and love the organization is trying to offer.
