Looking forward to year of growth
by Jim Myers, CEO
January, 2019
It has been just over a year since I first arrived at ACMHS/FCMHS, and here we are at the start of another calendar year. It seems a fitting time to reflect on the work we’ve done and what we hope to do next.
In this next year, we’ll embark on a strategic planning process, to develop a more complete picture of how we’d like to grow, what new services we will offer, and how best to meet community needs. But we already know that community need is out there, and that we want to grow to meet it, and we’re getting to work on that right away.
Last year we focused on staff retention and staff morale. Changing the culture of an organization takes time.
The first step was to revamp our salary and compensation schedule to be competitive with other local providers. We have planned for annual increases to ensure pay keeps up with cost of living. With an individualized employee incentive pay program, each employee has personal goals to work toward and understands how those goals fit in with the goals of the organization as a whole.
Another priority was opening up access to our services. We know there are more Alaskans in need of mental health services, and we heard a lot of frustration from community members about the length of time it took to get scheduled. So we looked at ways to streamline our intake processes, removing barriers wherever possible.
Over the last six months of 2018 we saw twice as many new clients as in the same six months of 2017!
In this next year, our challenge is to grow to meet our communities’ needs. To do that, we need to retain and recruit staff. We offer generous benefits, excellent mentoring and supervision (including supervision for licensing), and now competitive salaries. So, if you know any great clinicians, please send them our way!