A patient managing diabetes and depression may need primary care, therapy and medication management, all while balancing work, transportation and family responsibilities. Someone seeking help for anxiety may also have fallen behind on routine medical care. In both cases, the needs are connected, even when the care is not.
Healthcare professionals see these overlaps every day. Yet patients are often expected to coordinate separate appointments, arrange transportation, repeat their story to different providers, and juggle different systems of care. Each provider may address an important need, but the patient is left to hold the pieces together.
For patients already facing concerns about cost, language, work schedules, or stigma, those extra steps can make it harder to begin treatment or remain connected to care.
These concerns are familiar in Broward County. In a 2024 community health needs assessment, more than 70 percent of key informants identified access as a primary healthcare concern. Their responses included access to behavioral health services and the need for better integration of behavioral and medical care.
Florida Health CHARTS recorded 20,307 Broward emergency department visits in 2024 involving a principal diagnosis of a mental disorder. The number should not be read to mean that every visit could have been avoided. It does show how often behavioral health needs reach healthcare settings throughout the county.
Integrated care helps providers respond to the whole picture. When primary care and behavioral health services are connected, providers can coordinate treatment and identify concerns that might otherwise be missed. Psychiatry, substance use treatment, and peer support can also be part of that care, depending on what each patient needs. Services such as supported employment recognize that health is also affected by whether someone has stability and support outside the clinical setting.
Care Resource has served Broward residents for years through its Fort Lauderdale health center. As a nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center, it provides medical and behavioral healthcare to patients with and without insurance, with discounted services available based on household size and income.
The $3.2 million Cinelli Health Center project in Lauderdale Lakes represents a significant investment in expanding access to integrated behavioral healthcare in Broward. Expected to open in early 2027, the Cinelli Health Center will bring primary care, behavioral healthcare, outpatient substance use treatment, psychiatry, peer support, supported employment and pharmacy services together under one roof.
Once fully operational, the Cinelli Health Center is expected to add capacity for approximately 500 behavioral health patients and 5,000 behavioral health encounters annually. For Care Resource’s current partners, it will provide another location where patients can continue receiving care. For residents in and around Lauderdale Lakes, it will offer several connected services closer to home.
Healthcare works best when providers can address the whole person, not only a single diagnosis. The Cinelli Health Center is the next step in expanding that approach in Broward and making connected care available to more people.
Sources: 2024 Broward County Community Health Needs Assessment; Florida Health CHARTS.
