While the concept of time has shifted for many of us as we’ve navigated the past several months, as we approach the end of July, we’re taking a moment to reflect on;
- What we’ve learned – about how to push our thinking - and our pace - to quickly develop new solutions to important challenges, but also the critical gaps in our system that have been brought more starkly into focus. There is much to do;
- The new partnerships and collaborations we’re seeing develop as organizations come together in different ways to problem-solve; and
- How we must adapt our organization to continue to advance our mission and support our staff and customers in this changing time.
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President
Coordinated Care Services, Inc.
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In this month’s newsletter, we’re sharing work in several areas including:
- Strategies for addressing structural and systemic racism and achieving greater equity. In addition to the content shared here, we’ve updated our website with additional resources;
- Resources to support more efficient and impactful remote work; and
- Fully leveraging current tools, such as Excel, to provide better visibility over agency performance.
We hope you find these helpful. Take care, and be well.
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Dismantling Racism and Promoting Equity
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Increasing Diversity Means Taking a Deeper Dive Into Systems in Place
Rochester Business Journal - June 19, 2020
CCSI's Chief Diversity Officer, Kesha Carter, was featured in a recent Rochester Business Journal article titled, "Increasing Diversity Means Taking a Deeper Dive Into Systems in Place." The article, which also features Kevin Beckford, Director of Staff Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at University of Rochester and Adrienne Collier, Diversity and Inclusion Program Manager at ESL Federal Credit Union, emphasizes the importance of a diverse workforce and how organizations can implement certain practices to increase not only diversity, but inclusion and equity as well.
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Kesha Carter, chief diversity officer at Coordinated Care Services Inc. (CCSI) in Rochester, said many organizations can point to statistics and present diversity, but that can be a misnomer if the diversity only exists in the low-level and front-line positions and disappears in leadership roles.
In order to realize the full benefits of a diverse workplace, Carter says organizations must dive deep into all levels of a workforce to determine what subgroups, or points of view, are missing from certain teams or ladders within an organization.
“It’s about looking at what voices might be missing in a particular team or group that is functioning within an organization, and determining how you’re going to use those voices once you have them at the table,” Carter said. “Just having diversity doesn’t matter if those folks aren’t involved in the decision-making processes.”
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Not Racist Isn't the Same Thing
as Antiracist
As the world is still reeling from the impacts of the coronavirus, the United States is in a state of civil unrest. Following the viral video showcasing the killing of a Black man named George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota in which a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, protests erupted across several cities in America. Just a few weeks before that, there was public outcry over the killing of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. Black people in America are frustrated, angry and tired. Several weeks of a global lockdown, the disproportionate amount of Black people impacted by COVID-19, and the structural and systemic racism experienced in nearly every facet of life is, a devastating combination.
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Chief Diversity Officer
Coordinated Care Services, Inc.
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The wounds of America’s past never quite healed and are revealed for the world to see. Many people are looking for answers and a better understanding of how to fight against racism, injustice and societal inequities. The idea of anti-racism has been getting a lot of attention recently as Americans around the country rise up against racism. But racism is far from new in this country, with roots over four hundred years old.
The act of being anti-racist is understanding how years of federal, state, and local policies have placed communities of color in the crises they face today and calling those policies out for what they are: racist. And then doing something about it. When committing to anti-racism work, it's important to acknowledge that people who identify as white benefit from white privilege, and the power that they have in a society that's built around their experience.
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Webinar
Social Determinants of Health: Morality in the Culture of Apathy and Privilege
In this webinar, Nancy deconstructs morality and explores it in the context of the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH). When society’s principles and policies work to improve these SDOH, this promotes justice and equity for everyone, and health improves across society. It is essential for us to not only have a clear understanding of what happens when SDOH supports are lacking, resulting in health inequities and disparities, but we also must focus on what needs to be done to prevent these injustices from occurring in the first place. Morally we have a duty to speak up and act when we encounter injustice and wrongdoing. To affect change, Nancy talks about the different hats we must wear, and that we must examine the impact of our thinking, attitudes, and behaviors. Morality impacts what we do and how we do it, so this must be considered if we want to address inequities, disparities, discrimination, bigotry, and racism.
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Senior Consultant
Cultural Competence & Health Equity
Coordinated Care Services, Inc.
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Racism: A Public Health Crisis
and Business Imperative
This month,
Conscious Capitalism ROC
facilitated the "Racism: Public Health Crisis and Business Imperative" conversation as a part of their 2020 Virtual Summit. The panel included CCSI's Chief Diversity Officer, Kesha Carter, and three other local experts.
The panel takes a deeper dive into the
Greater Rochester NY Black Agenda Group
's declaration that "Racism is a Public Health Crisis" and why it is such, they discuss how businesses can commit to tackling racism within their organizations AND in the community, ways in which we can educate ourselves moving forward and more.
You can check out the recording of the discussion
here
.
If you’ve not yet had the chance to do so, you can review and endorse the Greater Rochester Black Agenda Group’s declaration that Racism is a Public Health Crisis
here.
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Online Meeting Guidance Video Series
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Should We Have a Meeting?
Meetings can feel impulsive at times, so it's important to pause and think about the topic at hand to decide if a meeting is necessary.
Download the PDF
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Build-A-Meeting
When putting together a meeting agenda, there are six key components that are important to focus on.
Download the PDF
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Tips For More Fun and Efficient Virtual Meetings
Facilitation is an important part of any meeting but the tools it takes to do it well are a little different online.
Download the PDF
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Director of Practice Transformation
Coordinated Care Services, Inc.
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New COVID-19 Resources for Educators from NYS Trauma Informed Network
The
NYS Trauma Informed Network
has posted new COVID-19 Resources for Educators. It is a compilation of resources for both supporting the students and families schools serve and for school staff.
The need for social isolation during this health pandemic may be elevating feelings of worry, fear and depression. Being in a state of uncertainty may trigger increased stress as we find different or new ways to cope adaptively. Remember, when you are at your best, you are better able to support those you serve. Resources include tip sheets, web links to news articles, and strategies for coping and adjusting to the new “normal” of everyday life.
Access this new resource
here
.
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Sustaining Response, Promoting Resilience and Recovery Support for Local Organizations
Recognizing the unique challenges presented by the current events, the Wilson Foundation, ESL and the Rochester Area Community Foundation have partnered with CCSI to offer targeted support on enhancing trauma-responsive approaches as a core asset in recovery. Senior Consultant, Amy Scheel-Jones, facilitates these efforts and is privileged to support the cohort in their shared goal of delivering effective intervention and provision of support during unprecedented times. Organizational participants were identified from their previous participation in a three-year Trauma-Informed Care Learning Collaborative, and they represent a variety of education, human service organizations and county entities.
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Senior Consultant
Coordinated Care Services, Inc.
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Originally conceived as a response to emerging needs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, this project has been expanded to include key actions and information necessary to effectively respond to the important recognition of the pervasive negative impacts of racial disparities and violence. Learnings are also designed to translate across more typical forms of crises – enhancing participants’ ongoing trauma-responsive practice continuum of care. Emphasis will be placed on mitigating risk through effective crisis response strategies while promoting resilience and recovery through a Trauma-Responsive framework. Through this direct intervention, cohort participants can leverage their established relationships to sustain their trauma-responsive practice changes and apply these approaches to the current context.
Delivered virtually, all sessions are designed to build knowledge, collaboration, and self-reflection. Topics include:
· Trauma-Informed Care in Times of Crisis
· Assessment of Needs, Assets and Priorities
· Enhancing Organizational Resilience
· Response and Recovery
In addition to the four capacity-building collaborative sessions, each participant organization has access to consultation hours to support their ongoing response and recovery efforts in an individualized way. This multi-modal and flexible design offers a unique opportunity to invest in organizations that are serving our community’s most vulnerable populations with care.
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Conferences, Events and Webinars
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HBA Fellowship Program Cracking the Code on Healthcare: Key Takeaways
As a Fellow with the 2020 Healthcare Business Academy (HBA) Fellowship Program, CCSI’s Pam Ayers had the honor of participating in the June 11
th
, 2020
Cracking the Code on Healthcare
event, which focused on the topic off "Innovative Patient Care." The webinar-based event featured two nationally renowned keynote speakers, whose work has been decidedly influential across healthcare. Both presenters highlighted the vital innovations taking place in the physical health realm that are not so unfamiliar to those of us working in behavioral health:
Human Centered Design
approaches,
Person-Centered Care
, and
Data-Informed interventions
.
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Senior Director, Strategic Initiatives & Project Development
Coordinated Care Services, Inc.
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The trend toward a collaborative approach, to include the client/patient, which focuses on the whole person and their communities is promising and leaves much space for partnerships between traditional medical practices and behavioral health services.
Janet Woodcock, MD
, is the Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She has also held the roles of Acting Director of CDER’s newly formed Office of Pharmaceutical Quality, (OPQ), and the FDA’s Commissioner, among other titles.
Dr. Woodcock’s presentation,
Pharma Impact on Care Delivery
, explored drug development, costs, and innovations. Dr. Woodcock described that, historically, the process of determining what drugs to develop has been driven by several factors, none of which is patient-focused. These factors include: (i) the urgency of a health issue among an influential population; (ii) the impact of a disease among a large segment of society; and (iii) the availability of illness-specific research funding. Once the drugs are developed and ready for testing, the traditional design of a clinical trial has been to study one drug, with one population, against a placebo – a burdensome process for both patients and professionals, particularly when there are multiple treatments to be tested. Between the relatively arbitrary, illness-led decision process and the complex clinical trial method, drug development has been a disease-guided process that does not attend to urgency, nor the patient perspective. Dr. Woodcock challenged the industry to consider ways in which innovation can create a more inclusive, efficient process. What she outlined is strikingly similar to changes that have been taking shape for some time in behavioral health.
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Open Minds Strategy and Innovation Institute: Key Takeaways
CCSI’s Tricia Williams, Senior Consultant, had the opportunity to attend this year’s
Open Minds Strategy and Innovation Institute held completely virtual from June 1
st to June 4
th. The virtual program offered live sessions with question and answer opportunities and a virtual exhibit hall for news and presentations from partners and exhibitors. All sessions were recorded, and slide decks were available to Institute participants to either watch for the first time or re-watch to gain additional insights.
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Senior Consultant
Coordinated Care Services, Inc.
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The COVID Pandemic was at the forefront of the programming with a focus on post pandemic activities. Some of the highlights included identifying new ways to embrace innovation and technology; the importance of data to drive decision making, strategic planning and performance; and how the pandemic has accelerated the implementation of Managed Care and Value Based Reimbursements.
Here are a few of her key takeaways from the institute:
Innovation After COVID
As Monica Oss shared during her opening remarks, “Innovation in health care has always been slow (with a 17-year lag from scientific validation of a promising practice to widespread adoption by consumers), the current pandemic has changed the expectations for innovation.”
Last year at this time, Telehealth practices were seen as innovative, and yet they are now considered an essential component of service delivery. The pandemic is changing our thinking from “how you stay relevant” to “how you survive”.
Each year Open Minds conducts a National Innovation Survey to understand how organizations are implementing new ideas with the purpose of creating value. What were some of the biggest innovative adoptions seen in the industry - telehealth, as expected; peer support specialists; medication assisted treatment (MAT) and primary care provider organizations and FQHCs making significant program investments for serving the behavioral health population.
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Spotlight on the Monroe County Systems Integration Project
We are proud of our staff and partners taking part in the
Monroe County Systems Integration Project, which aims to establish connections between 300 local health, education and human services organizations by building technology and creating new relationships across sectors.
Under the leadership of the SIP, work is taking place across a diverse network of committed providers to build an interconnected, person-centered system of health, human services, and education supported by a unified information platform. The goal is to improve the health and economic well-being of individuals and families, especially those who are vulnerable and/or impacted by poverty and to shift the way our community works together to better help individuals and families seeking support.
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CCSI staff and partners presented their projects to the community at Monroe Community College earlier this year in March.
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Earlier this year, CCSI staff and partners had the opportunity to use human-centered design principles to develop and test solutions to systems challenges. Solutions were shared at a community forum held by SIP at Monroe Community College back in March. We asked each of the groups to share a little about their design projects, what they learned through the process, and next steps:
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New Consulting Services Webinar
Business Intelligence – Concepts & Excel Tools:
Get, Transform, Analyze and Visualize Your Data to Drive Performance
As all our agencies strive to become more data informed, we continue to run into the concept of Business Intelligence (BI) and references to Business Intelligence tools. Unfortunately, many organizations don’t really understand what BI means, nor are they aware of some of the tools that they have on their desktop that can be used to gather, analyze and visualize the data they own. In this presentation, CCSI's David Wawrzynek, MS, MBA, explores the basic concepts related to BI and demonstrates functionality in Excel that can be used to get, transform, analyze and visualize your data to drive performance.
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Senior Director
Fiscal Practice Improvement
Coordinated Care Services, Inc.
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New Consulting Services Webinar
The Golden Thread:
How Clinically & Culturally Informed Practices Support High Quality, Equitable Services
A successful organization ensures that the organization’s culture is in alignment with and values the culture of those it serves and those who deliver the services. This presentation will supply context to the changing expectations of providers. It will include an overview of how clinically and culturally informed practices support high quality, equitable services.
Date and Time:
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
12:00 – 1:00pm
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Senior Consultant, Cultural Competence & Health Equity
Coordinated Care Services, Inc.
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Senior Consultant
Coordinated Care Services, Inc.
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CCSI Chosen as 2020 Wealth of Health Awards Winner: Employer of the Year – Category 100-300 Employees
We are honored to have been selected as Employer of the Year – Category 100-300 employees (Rochester) for Wealth of Health 2020! Our Human Resources team, Wellness Committee, Benefits Workgroup, Diversity and Inclusion Workgroup, and Racial Equity and Justice Initiative Change Team collectively prioritize a healthy, inclusive, and engaging organizational culture and employee community.
We are so proud of all the efforts our employees put into making CCSI a great place to work! Congratulations to all of the other finalists and winners!
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Financial Services Update
Consolidated Fiscal Reports (CFRs) New York State Due Date August 1
st
As a reminder, calendar year Consolidated Fiscal Reports (CFRs) submissions are due 8/1/20. That includes CFR reports prepared, reviewed and signed by auditors (if required), uploaded to NYS website and submitted to the county for their review before the due date. We understand that auditors are a little overwhelmed at this time and may be late in completing audits before the due date. We recommend providing updates to your County LGU and NYS Field Offices.
If you need support in completing this NYS submission, CCSI can prepare your agency’s CFR. Collectively, our team members have over 60 years of experience preparing CFRs, so you can rely on our team’s long history of partnering with agencies to provide the specialized fiscal management support needed to manage state funding requirements. Please reach out to our team, as we are ready to help.
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Director of Financial Services
Coordinated Care Services, Inc.
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NYS Q3 Payment Withholds
As all of us have been affected by the recent NYS Quarter 3 Payment Withholds, NYS has requested Federal relief to address the budget gaps and restore these funds and process full payment for quarter 3. It is important that you stay in contact with your County LGU. Once NYS has more information on the federal funding (we anticipate it will be in August), OMH will issue more guidance. If the State does not receive federal funding and has to make permanent cuts, NYS will issue guidance around the parameters for funding cuts, including what program types will be impacted and by how much.
Remember that providers can apply for the Payroll Protection Program for those that meet loan and forgiveness requirements. The new deadline to apply for a Paycheck Protection Program loan is August 8, 2020. Click
here for more information.
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CCSI has a need for talented professionals looking to contribute their expertise, expand their influence, and manage their careers to meet personal aspirations. We offer opportunities across different service lines, geographies, and functions.
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Rochester, NY
Rochester, NY
Rochester, NY
Rochester, NY
Rochester, NY
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Want to hear more? If you haven’t yet had the chance, we hope you’ll check out our Facebook page for more CCSI news and resources.
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