Annual Report FY10


Annual Report FY2010
Home Up	*EXECUTIVE SUMMARY* *JULY 2009 - JUNE 2010* *by Susan D. Buchwalter, Ph.D.* *President/CEO* The Counseling Center is a private, not-for-profit corporation that provides a comprehensive range of behavioral health services to a wide variety of community residents. Governed by a 12-member Board of Directors, the organization has been in operation for over 50 years. The main office is located on Benden Drive in Wooster; but the agency operates out of nine locations across the Wayne and Holmes county area. These locations include five residential sites. Many of the services provided by the Center are specifically purchased by the Mental Health and Recovery Board (MHRB), and provided to those individuals with either limited resources or with more severe or persistent problems. Over half of the clients served in FY10 reported household incomes of below $12,000 – clearly indicating that they would not be able to afford mental health services if it were not for the Center and the MHRB-subsidized sliding fee scale. Other parts of the Center’s service array are targeted toward those with more acute conditions and are funded with a combination of public dollars and private revenue from insurance, Medicare and the clients themselves. The FY10 operating budget was adjusted mid-year when the organization received a cut in funding from the Mental Health and Recovery Board (MHRB) and also absorbed two residential sites, a payee program, a housing assistance program and a limited amount of community psychiatric support service, previously provided by another community agency. This revised FY10 budget was just over $6 million. The Center is certified by both the Ohio Department of Mental Health and the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, and all mental health services are nationally accredited by CARF. In addition, the Center serves as a qualified local provider for a number of regional and national health insurance companies. The Center’s mission states that the organization is “dedicated to enhancing the mental health of individuals, families, and groups through a comprehensive range of prevention, treatment and rehabilitation services, designed to meet individual needs.” In the recently completed fiscal year, the Center made significant strides toward that mission. Some of the Center’s efforts in each area are summarized below. *PREVENTION SERVICES* Prevention services at the Center include such activities as suicide prevention, early childhood mental health consultation, specialized programs for parents who are divorcing, support groups for families with a mentally ill relative, school-based services, family support services, and specialized training or education on a variety mental health issues. In FY10, the Center’s prevention programs: ? reached over 5,000 individuals with some type of mental health consultation, education or prevention service ? touched over 1,000 adolescents in local high schools and one middle school with depression awareness and suicide prevention programs and specifically screened 386 students for depression, identifying 58 who were referred for additional services. ? provided information or educational presentations on mental health to over 600 persons ? assisted other community professionals in dealing with the mental health needs of their own clients by providing 733 hours of consultation ? reached 400 parents with a divorce education program designed to reduce the impact of divorce on their children. Ninety-one percent of the participants subsequently described the course as providing them with helpful strategies for dealing with their children ? provided early childhood mental health consultation to local childcare centers in which no students were subsequently removed due to unresolved behavioral difficulties. ? presented an intensive evidence-based parenting program to parents with an out of control adolescent after which the parents reported a statistically significant improvement in their child’s ability to get along in the family, control their emotions and stay out of trouble ? assisted a number of mental health support groups, including a support group specifically for Amish families with a mentally ill family member, a children’s group for Amish children with a mentally ill parent and a group for survivors of suicide ? located school-based therapists in four local school systems, resulting in a reported decrease in problem severity, an increase in level of functioning, and with the vast majority of the students passing their classes and being promoted ? provided paraprofessional family support aides to clients referred by the Family and Children First Councils in both Holmes County and in Wayne County to assist in maintaining school attendance and family stability. At the end of the year, 100% of the students in the Holmes County program and 90% in the Wayne County program avoided out-of-home placement *TREATMENT SERVICES* Treatment services provided by the Center include: individual and family counseling, medication assessment and monitoring, crisis intervention, and diagnostic assessment. Counseling is provided at offices located in Wooster, Rittman, Orrville, and Millersburg and is available for adults, children, adolescents, families, and couples. Typical problems include depression, anxiety, child behavioral difficulties, marital distress, interpersonal problems, and sexual or physical abuse. Crisis intervention services are available 24-hours a day and focus on short-term intervention, suicide prevention, screening for possible hospitalization and referral to other appropriate services. Assessment services are provided to every person who seeks ongoing assistance from the Center; and, at times, to other organizations or individuals who have a specific need. Medication is provided to clients who need this additional support to deal with their current symptoms. In FY10, the Center’s treatment programs: ? provided a diagnostic assessment to 1,419 different individuals who sought on-going mental health services ? provided individual counseling services to 1,961 different persons, with a customer satisfaction rating of 99% ? intervened with 1,286 different persons who contacted the Center for crisis intervention and assisted with 518 public or private psychiatric hospital admissions ? provided psychiatric assessment and access to psychotropic medication to a total of 1,435 different clients ? accessed over $540,000 in actual medication or indigent medication program assistance to help clients who could not otherwise afford their medications *REHABILITATION SERVICES* The Center’s rehabilitation services are designed to assist those adults and children in the community who are affected with more severe and persistent mental health problems. Specific services offered in FY10 included: community support services (which focus on helping clients to live successfully in the community), home-based family intervention and residential care. In FY10 the Center’s rehabilitation programs: ? provided 61,805 units of community psychiatric support to adults with severe mental illness, and an additional 15,543 units to children or youth ? reduced the use of public inpatient hospitalization by 25% from the prior year ? added two additional residential treatment sites, a payee program and a housing assistance program to the available rehabilitation service options ? achieved excellent customer satisfaction in programs targeted to severely emotionally disturbed children with 97% of those who received home-based services or children’s community psychiatric support rating their services as good, very good, or excellent. ? documented that 95% of the children and youth who completed the home-based intervention program were still in their homes nine months after the conclusion of services and 94% were still consistently attending school *OTHER SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS* In addition to the specific program accomplishments noted above, the Center also ? provided 166,055 units of mental health care – an increase of 8% over the prior year ? managed 3,899 different cases and maintained an active caseload of 3,336 per month ? processed 1,928 admissions – an average of 161 per month ? ended the year with a small amount of operating revenue over expense ? completed a referral source satisfaction survey in which 88% rated their satisfaction with the Center as good, very good, or excellent ? documented statistically significant change in system distress and quality of life for adults who used Center services; and statistically significant change in problem severity and level of functioning for children and youth, as measured by the Ohio Department of Mental Health Outcomes system ? facilitated the opening on an on-site pharmacy providing more convenient access, dose-related packaging and refill tracking for clients who are prescribed medication as part of their mental health treatment ? implemented a number of quality improvement initiatives including improving communication with primary care physicians, enhancing clerical coverage in the outpost offices, standardizing educational programs, improving self-pay collections and re-organization closed filing in medical records. ? completed a client satisfaction survey in which 94% rated their overall service satisfaction as good, very good or excellent; 95% reported that services were helping them deal with their problems; and 99% indicated that they would refer others to the Center ? administered a staff satisfaction survey in which 87% rated the Counseling Center as a good place to work and 96% reported feeling a sense of accomplishment in their job ? successfully renewed the organization’s residential licensure from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and the Ohio Department of Health ? finalized a site plan for future residential development located on land previously purchased by the Center for that purpose *SPECIAL CHALLENGES* While the Center experienced significant clinical success during the year, the agency also faced a number of difficult challenges as noted below: ? mid-year funding reductions from the Center’s primary payer – the MHRB – led to significant reductions in community education service, including the discontinuation of the Child Assault Prevention program ? ten of the 17specific services offered by the Center failed to meet their expected annual productivity targets due to budget adjustments and difficulty in recruiting appropriately trained replacement staff. This loss was especially troublesome in the psychiatric services area where a full-time prescribing professional position was vacant for almost the entire year ? key services continued to have a waiting list which ranged from 210 to 338 and averaged 244 persons – more than triple what the waiting list was just four years ago *SUMMARY* Despite the challenges of significant service demand, increased administrative requirements, funding reductions and the constantly changing health care environment, the Center continues as a positive and dynamic organization, committed to providing quality mental health care and excellent customer service to the residents of Wayne and Holmes counties. Outcome measures and customer satisfaction surveys reflect that the individuals who use the Center are positively impacted in their lives – whether their problems are short-term and acute, requiring only limited intervention, or long-term and chronic with ongoing needs for rehabilitation and support. (SDB- 8.10)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY