NASHVILLE, TN — Centerstone, a not-for-profit organization providing a wide range of mental health and addiction services, today announced the grand opening of a new outpatient facility located on the organization’s Dede Wallace Campus at 2400 White Avenue in Nashville. The new outpatient facility continues a long-standing commitment to mental healthcare in Middle Tennessee that began with the Nashville Junior League’s creation of the Home for Crippled Children nine decades ago.
Centerstone CEO Dr. Bob Vero joined Mayor Karl Dean, as well as Commissioner Doug Varney from the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, Centerstone of Tennessee Board Chair Janet Ayers, and many other friends and supporters at a grand opening celebration for the facility on February 4, 2014. The clinic will begin seeing clients later this month.
“We are very excited to open this innovative new healthcare facility and explore a clinical model that connects primary care and behavioral health providers under one roof,” said Dr. Vero. “Being able to continue our legacy on this important property that is deeply rooted in Nashville’s history is incredibly inspiring. We look forward to advancing the treatment and prevention of mental illness and addiction from this new location, and working to ensure the health and wellbeing of our clients’ minds and bodies.”
The grand opening of the new facility is an exciting next chapter in a legacy that began in 1923 when Nashville’s Junior League established a nine-bed facility at 9th and Monroe called the Home for Crippled Children to serve children with polio and mental illness. As demand for the Home’s services increased, the Junior League purchased land and moved to White Avenue, opening the doors to the new, expanded Home in 1930.
The White Avenue campus expanded in 1956 with the opening of Mental Health Guidance Center, which is located in a building Centerstone still occupies. In
1970, the campus’ evolution continued with the Home for Crippled Children transitioning into offices for the Regional Intervention Program and the Mental Health Guidance Center being re-named the Dede Wallace Center in honor of mental health advocate and devoted Junior League volunteer Louise “Dede” Bullard Wallace who died in 1969.
The new $6 million, 18,090 square-foot facility – designed by InForm Smallwood + Nickle, LLC of Nashville and built by Orion Building Corporation – will serve children, families, adults and older adults in Nashville and surrounding areas. Features of the new building include: Specialty services for children, families, adults and older adults, 37 clinician offices for counselors, psychiatrists and nurses, Convenient, accessible location, Space for specialty programs, Group therapy and play therapy areas, Bright, open waiting rooms with large windows, Garden areas with bricks from the original building serving as pavers to outline the old facility’s footprint.
The new facility will provide a full continuum of services across the lifespan, including primary care services offered through Unity Medical Clinic. Centerstone’s partnership with Unity will help care for medically underserved patients with physical and behavioral healthcare needs by establishing integrated care clinics in both Tennessee and Indiana.