Credo, Transitional Living Services plan merger

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - Credo Community Center for the Treatment of Addiction and Transitional Living Services of Northern New York plan to merge.

Officials for the Watertown-based agencies plan to consolidate by January 1.

Employees have been told they’re keeping their jobs. Officials say the new entity will continue to increase its staff.

John Wilson, Credo’s executive director, will serve as chief executive officer of the new entity. Maureen Cean, TLS’s executive director, will become the organization’s chief operating officer.

TLS provides outpatient and residential treatment services for people with serious mental illnesses, serving youths and adults in a variety of residential and community-based settings. TLS’s primary goal is to assist people to live in the least restrictive setting possible.

Credo provides addiction treatment and counseling services to individuals, groups, families, adults, adolescents and children whose lives have been adversely affected by substance use disorder.

Both groups serve clients in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties.

“This opportunity is very exciting. Working with clients with co-occurring disorders can be very challenging,” Cean said in a news release. “The TLS staff is eager to move forward with comprehensive care for mental health and substance use disorders housed together under one roof.”

“We are pleased to announce the marriage of Credo and TLS into what we want to call the premier provider of behavioral health and housing services in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties,” Wilson said in a news release. “The coming together of our two organizations is not one due to financial despair but about the people we serve and the people we employ. It is imperative to have no wrong door to care, and we aim to provide that!”

Credo and TLS have been collaborating more closely for the past few years and started working under an affiliation agreement in April 2022.