Community Consortium Meeting
January 14, 2013
In attendance: Jesus Arce, Office of Housing, City of Springfield, Leah Bradley, Community Health Link, Steve Como, Soldier On, Jay Levy, Eliot CHS – Homeless Services, David Modzelewski, Network, Jennifer Moore, BHN, Jerry Ray, Mental Health Association, Pamela Schwartz, Network, Julianne Siegfried, UMass, David Smelson, UMass, Jennifer Wuest, BHN, Chris Zabik, DMH, Heather Zaykowski, UMassBoston
Evaluation Update (Heather Zaykowski, UMass Boston)
New addition to monthly evaluation data: % enrolled to the goal as part of the monthly update. 70% to where we should be at the end of January. 20% enrolled relative to annual goal. Of all people enrolled in Year 2, all are housed. In terms of 6 month follow-ups, we’re at 87% (above expected 80%).
Other expanded data analysis: Doing well in terms of improving substance abuse and mental health: down on all indicators, including number of days consuming alcohol, illegal drug use, depression, anxiety, hallucinations, etc. Down on indicators of family conflict and conflict with others. One indicator – trouble controlling violence – is up but the number between baseline and now is very small so could be misleading.
Another indicator: in response to question re: to whom do you turn to when having trouble: baseline 1/5 – 20% – said “no one.” Now “no one” is down to 14% – good validation of linkages.
Heather will be presenting at the APA conference in August – intersection between victimization and substance abuse/mental health, looking at the correlation between two.
Will be sure to continue to share updates on data usage and welcome feedback.
Program Updates
Community Health Link (Leah Bradley):
Leah’s last Consortium meeting (leaving position to Wing Palmer at Memorial). Nicole will take over as contact person for this group. Thank you, Leah. We’ll miss you!
Behavioral Health Network (Jennifer Wuest): more staffing changes. Clinical case manager is leaving, her last day is this Friday. In hiring process now. Hoping job search will be brief. Other clinical case manager is stepping up and taking on a big caseload and is doing well. Peer support specialist is continuing. Behind in enrollments but have a strong pool right now that anticipate enrolling. Anticipating shelter plus care beds or Bowdoin Street SRO.
Soldier On (Steve Como): 3 people housed in this round. Still trying to deal with VA on HUD/VASH; making progress, hopefully case manager hired in the next couple of weeks.
Network (Pamela Schwartz and Dave Modzelewski):
Working with Andrea on HOT – Housing Options Tool – Dave and Pamela assisting with data collection in preparation for demonstration in early Feb.
Network Leadership Council meeting on 1/24 hosting DHCD Policy Director and Liz Rogers, executive director of ICHH.
UMass (Julianne Siegfried):
SAMHSA mandated adding additional questions to baseline. Thanks to all for integrating.
Manual update: sent out a month ago. Setting up meetings with CHL and BHN to collect feedback on these new additions. Eager for users’ feedback ASAP. Aiming to publish in March.
Discharge period: Entering time period where starting to discharge people. Want to keep lines of communication open around appropriate timeline for discharge. Discussed possibility of making timeline longer if needed but must get feedback to know. Welcoming our experiences, thoughts, feedback around what works best.
12 month period ‘til discharge (CTI timeline is 9 months). But if 12 months needs to be a little longer, we should be thinking about changing the model and work to better understand the challenges. We want to do what clinically makes the most sense and not be locked into any one model.
Discussion:
David Smelson, UMass: It’s been an honor to work with everybody. Grateful for the partnership. Thrilled with how things are going. Hoping to continue it. Waiting for next round of SAMHSA grants to come out and hoping to engage us in dialogue around future possibilities.
Also getting excellent client feedback. Will share in future meetings.
Additional discussion re: significance of relationships between clients and case managers/peer specialists. So important in transitioning out of program. Be sure to integrate that into feedback on manual.
Next meeting: 2/25, 11 am. Same place, same call-in number.
