After Nearly 90 Years Community Council of Nashua Changes Its Name

Nashua, NH  - Community Council of Nashua, the community’s mental health center, has changed its name to Greater Nashua Mental Health Center at Community Council to better reflect its mission to work with the community to meet the mental health needs of its residents by offering prompt, professional evaluation and treatment, resource development, education, and research.

Since its founding in 1920, the agency has had a fascinating history of service to the community – including fascinating activities such as monitoring streetcars for sanitation and proper language, and chaperoning dance halls during the 1920’s.
Over the next 40 years, the agency responded to community needs such as reducing the infant mortality rate, offering assistance to workers blinded in mill accidents, creating clinics for victims of polio, and providing early “mental hygiene” services for area residents living with mental retardation and/or mental illness.

In February of 1963, President John F. Kennedy delivered his Special Message to the Congress on Mental Illness and Mental Retardation, declaring “We need a new type of health facility, one which will return mental health care to the main stream of American medicine, and at the same time upgrade mental health services.”

In 1967, Community’s Council’s Board of Directors answered President Kennedy’s call to action, deciding to focus solely on providing community mental health services.  For the last 41 years, the agency has been the community’s mental health center, providing essential mental health care to area individuals and their families, regardless of their ability to pay.

As of October 2008, the agency will be known as the Greater Nashua Mental Health Center at Community Council – a name that clearly reflects what it does while honoring its rich history as a refuge for the most vulnerable members of our community – from the early mill workers and polio victims served long ago, to those who live today with mental illness, substance abuse, and the ravages these disorders inflict on the person, their family, and the community in which they live.

“We are proud of the work we do,” explains Dr. Hisham Hafez, Executive Director and Chief Medical Officer, “and with our new name reaffirm our commitment to those who seek our help – always putting our patients first.”
Greater Nashua Mental Health Center at Community Council provided 88,313 hours of service to 4,803 area children, adults and families living with mental and emotional disorders between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008.  The Center serves residents of the towns of Amherst, Brookline, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, Mason, Merrimack, Milford, Mont Vernon and Nashua.  All of its services are provided regardless of an individual’s or family’s ability to pay.