The lobby of the Chautauqua County Department of Mental Hygiene’s new clinic on Franklin Street in Dunkirk. Photo by M.J. Stafford

DUNKIRK — There’s a new behavioral health clinic located at 60 Franklin St. in Dunkirk.

The Chautauqua County Department of Mental Hygiene held an open house last week for the clinic. It replaces one that was in office building space Chautauqua County used to rent at Third Street and Central Avenue.

The clinic relocated on June 3, according to Deb Maggio, communications and development manager for the department. There was no interruption in services, she said.

“Our team designed the new facility with the community and staff in mind,” said Tamie Coleman, the clinic’s director. “We are so excited for our community to see the result of the whole team coming together to bring our vision to life to provide the best care we can. Our main goal is to uphold the CCDMH mission to provide timely, quality and accessible care, and now we get to do so in a state-of-the-art facility.”

The clinic is designated a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic. That’s a status conferred by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. It’s supposed to ensure the monitoring of nationally standardized best practices, data collection and specific performance markers, with a goal of good outcomes for patients.

The clinic provides mental health and addiction services such as counseling, relapse prevention, referrals, group therapy, peer support services, mobile crisis response and care coordination.

“It’s allowed us to expand services offered and we can accommodate more clinicians, and we can therefore accommodate more of the community,” Maggio said.