Healthfirst Network announces grand opening of mental health facility

Wausau Pilot & Review

A new mental health resource is opening in Wausau with a grand opening set for Thursday.

Healthfirst Network, Inc., a network of reproductive health and WIC clinics, is committed to continually looking for ways to reduce the burden of lack of access and health disparities that our communities face. In the spring of 2023, Healthfirst Network Leadership identified the lack of access to mental health care as a large burden and disparity within our communities. So, in September of 2023, Healthfirst Network took significant steps towards increasing access to mental health care, by breaking ground for facility expansion to add and accommodate mental health services at their Wausau location.

And now that expansion is complete.

The community is welcome to attend a ribbon cutting and grand opening from 4-6 p.m. Thursday, May 2. At that time, a mural dedication ceremony will be held in coordination with RISE Up Central Wisconsin, who designed and painted two murals within the entryway of the clinic.

Tours will be offered with snacks served to celebrate the opening at 216 South 3rd Ave., Wausau.

Healthfirst Network CEO, Dr. Jessica Scharfenberg said the expansion will accommodate the integration of mental health counseling services, empowering clients, and the wider community to access much-needed support.

“Furthermore, it opens the possibility to expand our mental health footprint beyond the greater Wausau area through telehealth and our 8 other brick and mortar facilities throughout Wisconsin,” she said. “Healthfirst takes pride in serving rural, underserved, and historically marginalized Wisconsinites, and our mental health clinic will align well with that as we focus our services on Medicaid recipients and those without a payor source.”

Healthfirst Network extends immense gratitude to the Healthfirst Board of Directors, The Community Foundation of Northcentral Wisconsin, The B.A. & Esther Greenheck Foundation, and an anonymous donor, for their generous fiscal contributions, pivotal in realizing this physical expansion. As well, to Scherrer Construction, building partner, and Revi Design, landscape partner.