By Jodi Hausen,Staff Writer

WILTON – A mental health agency with six locations in Maine is adding its seventh office in Wilton.

Care & Comfort, a home health and mental health provider headquartered in Waterville, will open offices in the former Bass building on Main Street in mid-December, according to Susan Giguere, the administrator and founder of the organization.

Giguere said Wednesday her experience as a caregiver to two disabled parents was the inspiration for her business, which she founded in 1991.

Though she’s not a clinician, Giguere said she has always felt a strong drive to provide home health care. She and her family worked with professionals in their Massachusetts home to care for her father, who suffered from debilitating strokes, and her mother, afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease.

Her husband, Leo Giguere, is “a cheerleader,” Giguere said. Before the two were married more than 20 years ago, Giguere told her fiancee, “You’re marrying my parents,” to which he replied, “You’re marrying my kids.” Leo Giguere’s daughter suffers with chronic mental illness. The family moved to Maine 19 years ago after Susan Giguere’s parents died.

It feels good to enable families to stay together as a unit, Giguere said. Caring for her own parents gave her children “such compassion and strength because we were a team,” she said.

Barring any issues with the Planning Board today, the Care & Comfort office will be located on the opposite end of the building from the Boiler Room in about 1,000 square feet on the first floor with views of the lake and stream, Giguere said. She expects to move her Farmington offices to Wilton as well.

Care & Comfort also operates offices in Waterville, Bangor, Machias, Presque Isle and Rockland.

She has hired Corey Walmer, a licensed clinical social worker, to provide services from the Wilton offices. Dottie Carini and Eric Rutberg, also licensed social workers, will also see clients there. They will provide clinical outpatient services for a variety of conditions, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, grief counseling, marital conflict, stress and anger management, beginning in mid-December.

For more information on services, people may call 1-800-366-5302.