Two years ago at a moving and inspirational event at the Walnut Hill Community Church in Bethel, a "Day of Shared Experience" brought together victims of mass violence to share their experiences of loss, post-traumatic growth, and their remarkable stories of healing. People came from communities across the country grievously wounded by school shootings: Littleton, Colo.; Blacksburg, Va.; Chardon, Ohio; and Nickel Mines, Penn. The keynote speaker, Dr Kevin Becker, a clinical psychologist specializing in trauma and crisis, offered a key insight to the gathering. "Time does not heal," he said. "Time gives you the opportunity to heal."

In nearly three and a half years since 12/14, Newtown has fostered so many healing opportunities for a community struggling with stress, hypervigilance, and anxiety that manifest in daily life as irritability and sleep disorders, or even despair and depression. Initially, many of those opportunities were ad hoc, coming through the agency of compassionate volunteers ready and willing to do what they could to help a town that suffered such a grievous loss. Eventually, however, with the help of federal funding, the town established the Newtown Recovery and Resiliency Team (RRT), which in less than two years served more than 900 residents, coordinating assistance and collaborating with the many recovery programs and projects.

Now that those initial federal grants have been spent, the RRT has ceased operations, presenting Newtown with the necessity and opportunity to initiate the next phase of healing. The town's new Center for Support and Wellness (CSW) hopes to provide residents with "personalized" service, according to First Selectman Pat Llodra, who has taken a particular interest in the evolution of these critical services. To that end, the CSW will have "navigators" to match people with available options for care and service and to track outcomes. It is a model for community wellness that emphasizes community awareness.

One size does not fit all when it comes to trauma recovery. Dr Becker has noted that roughly half the people directly affected by tragedy do not develop post-traumatic stress disorder and yet PTSD can profoundly affect the lives of those with several degrees of separation from tragedy if they believe "it could have been me." That shows how great the range and risk is for emotional and mental health problems in Newtown. And the risk persists. As the Recovery and Resilience Team was nearing the end of its service, it reported that it had 40 first-time visitors in February with someone new showing up for help nearly every day through the middle of March.

As a direct result of 12/14, Newtown has put in place "an extensive and comprehensive range of services" similar to what is found in larger cities, according to researchers from NYU's Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The community has seized many opportunities to heal, and the creation of the Center for Support and Wellness is another one of those opportunities to establish community wellness as a priority for our future. In the near term, additional grants are expected to help the CSW meet its objectives, but Newtown has to own this mission. Even though outside money may run short, the community commitment to this priority cannot.