Vol. 2, No. 10
November 2011
MFS CHRONICLE
The Future of MFS
Paul Gorman, Acting CEO
An organization like MFS is a necessary part of the community’s response to the health needs of its citizens. We serve a variety of groups: people with severe and persistent mental illness, children and adolescents with emotional disturbances, and the families of people struggling with mental illness. Their needs are continuous and, in the current economic climate, intensifying. The need for MFS services will persist and amplify.
The current challenge MFS is facing is that federal and state financial support has decreased significantly. All indications suggest that these sources of funding will continue to decrease. The question for our agency, then, becomes the following: How do we respond to citizen needs in a different way that will allow us to meet this challenge, while maintaining the competence and quality of our past service?
There are two ways that agencies like MFS are answering this question. The first is by incorporating the use of physician extenders into our agency. As a result of the decreasing availability of psychiatrists, the health care industry has supplemented with other staff and resources – nurses, for example – that can meet those patient needs traditionally seen to by psychiatrists. These supplementary people and resources are called physician extenders. By effectively using the expertise of ARNPs and the benefits of technology, MFS can restructure the way we deliver services to our clients to become more efficient. The incorporation of physician extenders would bring MFS closer to a medical model.
The second way to respond to the pressures currently affecting MFS is to begin the integration of mental health and physical health care. This approach is called “medical home” or “behavioral health medical home,” and it is already happening locally, regionally, and nationally. In this structure, each client has a health care team that includes a primary care physician, mental health provider, and nurse, who collectively develop the treatment plan with client participation. The goal is to treat each client holistically in order to provide more effective treatment. Individuals with heart conditions, for example, often experience depression and would benefit from comprehensive mental and physical health care. In order to achieve this, MFS will need to collaborate with nearby schools like the University of New Hampshire, Keene State, and Antioch University of New England to ensure that our clinicians are adequately trained to use the home health structure effectively.
In addressing our financial challenges, MFS will guide its policy-making and evolution in terms of three questions: How will we continue to provide quality service with fewer resources? How will we integrate constructively with other health providers? And how will we engage our clients so they become partners in their care and healing? Incorporating the use of physician extenders and the behavioral health medical home model will allow MFS to continue fulfilling its mission of fostering mental and emotional health, promoting recovery from mental illness, and inspiring hope for personal success.
Featured Program of the Month: All R Kids (ARK) Visitation Center
All R Kids (ARK) Visitation Center is the only service in the Monadnock region that provides a safe, neutral, child-friendly environment for supervised visits and exchanges between non-residential parents and their children. ARK has two visit rooms that are child friendly, offering toys and games to foster healthy parent-child interaction during visits. ARK helps children maintain family contact when their parents are in conflict.
ARK Visitation Center offers a variety of services. Fully supervised visits are closely monitored by an ARK visitation monitor, who facilitates the visit and remains in the visitation room. Visits typically last one to two hours and occur once a week. Semi-supervised visits support families who do not need a monitor to be present in the room the entire time. Monitored exchanges, which are not supervised, support parents who cannot or are unwilling to have contact with the other parent. To safely transition a child from one parent’s care to the other’s, the residential parent drops off the child at the visitation center. The non-residential parent then picks up the child from the center and leaves. Off site fully supervised visits are closely monitored by ARK staff but at a location outside of ARK. ARK staff have the ability to perform functional support services (FSS) during off site visits by helping the children make progress on treatment plan goals.
ARK is currently working on providing more services such as off-site fully supervised visits and providing FSS services to children and their parents. This will help give families more support and services then they were previously being provided.
ARK recently welcomed its new Program Coordinator, Nick Duffy. Many MFS employees already know Nick because of the previous roles he has filled within the agency. Nick worked as a Community and Family Service Associate (CFSA) and then as a case manager from 2006 to 2011. Outside of work, Nick is passionate about coaching and helping children through sports. He has volunteered as a coach for the Peterborough Recreation lacrosse team and for the Monadnock Mountaineers youth football team for the past five seasons. His dedication to the wellness of children and their families will surely contribute to his success as the ARK Program Coordinator.
ARK typically works with 20 to 30 families at a time. Families usually come to ARK through court orders, referrals from DCYF, social services, lawyers, GAL’s, or individual self-referrals. ARK is open for visits on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights as well as all day Sundays. For more information or to refer a family please call (603) 357-4661.
MFS Welcomes Katherine Cook as Director of Child and Family Services
Katherine moved with her husband and daughter to the Keene area from a ten-year assignment in Downeast Maine where she had been the Director of Behavioral Health Services at Eastport Health Care Inc., a rural Federally Qualified Health Center.
She will be applying her extensive experience and training to facilitate the MFS transition to managed care, health care reform and other challenges that lay ahead.
Katherine spent many years as a mental health therapist, drug and alcohol counselor, and was Director of Social Services for the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland. She has also worked in several front-line inner city social work activities, including a mobile outreach team for Cleveland’s Health Care for the Homeless.
A native of Cleveland, she earned a Master’s of Social Science Administration at Case Western Reserve University at the Mandell School of Applied Social Science and participated in field work in Bucharest, Romania. Most recently she received certification from the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Behavioral Health in Primary Care.
As Director she is committed to building the Agency through transparency, teamwork, and strengthening support for holistic development of staff as well as clients. MFS welcomes the expertise and leadership Katherine brings to our team.
MFS Employees Pitch In to Support the Monadnock United Way
MFS employees put their money where their values lie and generously contributed a total of $11,447 to the Monadnock United Way “Power of U” campaign this year, surpassing last year’s donation total of $9,123.32 and surpassing this year’s goal of $9,500 by 20 percent. Sixty-two percent of MFS employees contributed financially to the campaign, compared with sixty-seven percent last year. Their charitable contributions will help to support the forty-seven service programs in thirty-seven towns in the Monadnock region – including MFS – which the Monadnock United Way helps to fund.
The MFS campaign drive of the “Power of U” fundraiser was made possible by MFS employees who volunteered to organize the campaign. Campaign coordinators served different branches of MFS: Kathy Baird worked with ERO, Ann Monette worked in Walpole, Chris Selmer worked with the Monadnock Adult Care Center in Jaffrey and the Emerald House, Joe Forscher and Susan Lynde worked with 93rd Street, and Judy Hoffman and Ann Foerster worked with 64 Main Street. Patricia Mackey and Geraldine Liebert served as MFS “Power of U” campaign co-chairs. The energy, dedication, and leadership these individuals demonstrated as co-chairs and campaign coordinators resulted in a fun-filled, successful campaign.
MFS employees attending the “Power of U” lunchtime parties hosted by the campaign coordinators enjoyed the opportunity to get to know each other better through a game and to win fun prizes, donated by other employees, in addition to learning more about the Monadnock United Way as they considered making a donation. Employees who chose to donate at least two dollars per pay period payroll were entered in a raffle. Four people won an extra vacation day, three people won $25 Visa gift cards, and two people won $50 gift cards. Congratulations to everyone who received a prize, either at one of the “Power of U” parties or in the raffle!
Many thanks to everyone who contributed their time, energy, money, or prizes to the “Power of U” fundraiser. This year’s campaign was a tremendous success because of you!
Another Chance to Give
A message from the Monadnock United Way
An anonymous donor has stepped forward and pledged $10,000 as a 2-for-1 match of any new or additional contributions totaling $5,000 or more. Any donation, regardless of how large or small, received between now and December 25th and designated for the 2-for-1 Challenge is eligible.
John Hoffman, a longtime supporter of MFS and General Campaign Manager for the Monadnock United Way, said, “In recognizing what a difficult time this is for so many in our community as they struggle to deal with their personal challenges, we are fortunate to have this generous opportunity come at a time of thanksgiving. I hope you will join me in supporting our human service agencies and their clients through contributing in response to this unusual and challenging appeal.”
To contribute, call the Monadnock United Way office at 603-352-4209, drop off or mail your donation to the office at 23 Center Street, Keene NH 03431, or donate online using a credit card at www.muw.org. Remember to designate your contribution toward the 2-for-1 Challenge!
We can make this challenge a reality, with the Power of U!
Generous Community Members Donate Toys for Children
Currently, generous community businesses and leaders have contributed holiday gifts for 80 children receiving services through MFS. Over the past six weeks Jennifer Bowler from Development and Annelies Spykman from the FamilyTime program have taken responsibility for reaching out to local businesses and MFS supporters to meet this need. As a result, MFS has received donations of toys, books, and games to cover as many children as possible. MFS also received wrapping paper for these gifts and 140 holiday cards that the agency sends every year to our community partners. The Keene Sentinel has generously donated advertisement space to MFS so that we may publicly thank the supporters of this holiday drive. The supporters are listed below. Thank you and happy holidays to everyone who contributed to this effort!
The supporting businesses are:
Walmart of Keene
Job Lot in Walpole
Evolution Chiropractic Center
Liberty Mutual Insurance
Dr. Jeb Thurmond of Evolution Chiropractic
Professor Kirsti Sandy of KSC
Stephanie Richie Logan
Professor Margaret Walsh of KSC
Eliza and Jeff Murphy of Brewbakers
KMS National Junior Honor Society
KHS Usher’s Club
Dr. Tom Hastings of Hasting’s Dental
Flanagan Family Foundation
Mary Jo Vaine, DC of the Cheshire Chiropractic Center
Christopher Bowler and family
C & S, who generously donated gifts for 20 children this year
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