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M.C. NEWS
September 2022
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Reminder: We will be closed on Monday, September 5 for Labor Day | |
From Our Chief Executive Officer | |
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Dear Colleagues and Friends,
As commemorations for Hispanic Heritage Month begin soon (September 15 – October 15), I have been reflecting on this year’s theme of “Unidos: Inclusivity for a Stronger Nation.” In these polarizing times, it is more important than ever that we unite and celebrate the diversity that makes us stronger.
Look out for details on Hispanic Heritage Month activities coming soon from the IDEA Committee. To get involved in planning, contact Elizabeth Hamilton, co-chair of the Racial Equity Subcommittee, at [email protected].
Mary’s Center’s growth over the last three decades has brought us to an exciting new milestone – We officially surpassed 800 staff members as of Monday’s orientation! I want to give a shout-out to the People department for their diligence in recruiting 200 employees in the last couple years.
Let’s also congratulate Briya on a successful start to the school year for 900 students who returned to the classroom this week. Briya plays a pivotal role in our Social Change Model, offering education opportunities that propel our participants toward stability and economic independence, and I look forward to seeing these families thrive and benefit from all the services that Mary’s Center has to offer.
Lastly, as we move into the fall season, we are preparing for potential spikes in flu, COVID-19, and monkeypox. We will continue to share any new guidance as available, and in the meantime, please take care of yourself and encourage others to get all vaccines available to them.
Enjoy the long weekend ahead, and as always, I welcome your questions or feedback at [email protected].
Thank you,
Tollie B. Elliott, Sr., MD
Chief Executive Officer
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Please be reminded that Mary's Center stands firmly against hatred, intolerance, and societal injustices that subjugate members of our community to any form of trauma. | |
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Mary's Center is now 800 strong, but we certainly didn't start out that way in our first basement clinic. Look how much we've grown over the years!
1988: 10 employees
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2000: 45 employees
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2010: 214 employees
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2022: 800 employees
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Global Recognition of LGBTQ+ Services | |
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LGBTQ+ leaders and activists from Kazakhstan visited Mary’s Center on August 17 to learn about our services and find better ways to support and protect the Kazakh LGBTQ+ community. The visitors are pictured above with Ayla Westgate, Mental Health Therapist, LGBTQ+ Adult and Youth (left) and Amber Posadas Mejia, Community Health Worker, HIV/STI services (right).
Congrats on this worldwide renown to all staff who have worked so hard building up our LGBTQ+ services!
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Mary's Center's dental program, in partnership with Delta Dental, had a very successful kickoff of the Senior Oral Heath campaign in August with several events to promote much needed dental care for our older population, including an event at Clifton Park Baptist Church and UnitedHealthcare's Community Day at Unity Baptist Church.
Find out where the dental cruiser will show up next on our new Dental Cruiser Outreach webpage.
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Our COVID Response Team provided vaccinations at a Hyattsville Library back-to-school event on August 4, along with special guest Dr. Cameron Webb, a senior advisor on the White House’s COVID-19 team. | |
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Mary's Center's All of Us Research Program team shared information and distributed COVID-19 tests at the Ama Tu Vida Health Fair/Salvadoran American Festival on August 6.
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Meeting the Needs of Migrant Families | |
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Education Opportunities
Pictured above (left) are Noralis Zuniga, Juan Camilo Mendoza, and their daughter Evangeline, recent arrivals from Colombia who were featured in a Reuters story. Last week, Noralis signed up for the Child Development Associate Program at Briya. Above (right), Juan and Evangeline explored the area around our Fort Totten location while Noralis took the entrance exam.
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Vaccines for Children
DC Public Schools is allowing migrant children to enroll in the school system, and DC Health named Mary's Center as one of the Vaccines For Children providers for these families.
Thank you to our Nursing and Operations teams for working quickly to accommodate these families at our back-to-school clinics so their children can start school on time.
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Reminder: Mary's Center continues to offer mobile vaccine clinics at school across DC, as well as offering back-to-school visits at our clinics throughout the week and on Saturdays at our DC locations. Families should call 844-796-2797 to make an appointment. | |
Continuing Education Opportunities | |
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Have you registered? Don’t miss the opportunity to attend this amazing symposium hosted by our wonderful Perinatal Mental Health team on October 24. This is the third time Mary’s Center has hosted this event, which will bring together a multi-disciplinary group to learn with peers, share ideas, and increase our ability to better serve individuals during the perinatal period. CEUs are available.
Learn more and register.
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Great news! The Alzheimer’s Association and George Washington Medical Faculty Associates invited Mary’s Center to join a new Alzheimer's and Dementia Care Project ECHO® starting September 21. If you are interested in joining bi-weekly case-based, interactive learning sessions, click below. CME credits are available.
Learn more here. To sign up, contact Dr. Laura Blinkhorn.
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Department Feature: My DC Health Home | |
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Did you know that Mary's Center has two Health Home initiatives that work to improve experience of care, quality of life, and patient satisfaction? This month we are featuring My DC Health Home, with more to come on My Health GPS later this year.
Led by Tara Pavao, Director, Health Homes, the My DC Health Home team includes:
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Nurse Care Manager: Cristine Molina
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Primary Care Liaison: Diana Rapalo
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Community Support Workers: Tanesha Sanders, Umaru Koroma, and Derrick Bease
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Q&A with the My DC Health Home Team | |
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What is the My DC Health Home program?
The DC Department of Health Care Finance launched this program in 2016 to support Medicaid beneficiaries with mental health diagnoses in navigating their systems of care. The program is designed to enhance person-centered care and empower participants to manage and prevent chronic conditions in order to improve health outcomes while reducing avoidable ER registrations and hospital admissions.
How do you work with participants?
We support participants with their ongoing chronic conditions, reduce gaps in care, increase coordination among all providers assigned to the participant, and assist participants in meeting their health goals. We also track and address key integrated health related outcomes for our patient population.
For example:
- We identify participants with diabetes and, compounded with their mental health diagnosis, we ensure the participants are getting the right services at the right time for their conditions.
- We identify the percentage of our patient population with schizophrenia who have been prescribed antipsychotic medication and have had their blood lipids checked in the last year.
What are the main challenges you face?
The populations we serve are diagnosed with serious and persistent mental health illness and sometimes their mental health symptoms impede the participant’s ability to be compliant with treatment recommendations.
What are you most proud of about your work?
We have developed trusting relationships with the population we serve. We are usually the first points of contact when a participant is in need and we support them in navigating internal and external systems of care.
What do you wish staff knew about the program?
Our program is a great resource to help both medical and behavioral health providers support their participants in between scheduled visits, specifically those with comorbidities. Referrals can be made into the Health Home referral bucket in eCW.
Also, because of our special relationship with Medicaid MCOs, we often learn of additional insurance benefits that participants may not be aware they are entitled to. We are able to efficiently navigate MCO systems with our points of contact, which promotes patient satisfaction.
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Dental Technology Training with Henry Schein
Recently, our Dental team has been participating in ongoing training with the Henry Schein technology team. These sessions have provided our doctors and dental assistants with the equipment and knowledge to treat our participants using the high-tech gear to match our high-quality care.
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Medical Assistants Lead Clinical Skills Trainings | |
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The Nursing department held their first in-person clinical skills day on August 6. Nurses, medical assistants, CRT staff, and CHETR staff signed up for hands-on trainings on skills such as vital signs, injection techniques, and health screenings.
10 medical assistants identified as "skills champions" led the trainings: Roxanna Molina, Melissa Salinas, Fitsum Tesfaye, Nila Castro, Eulalia Gonzalez, Ruth Lopez, Elly Guerra, Angie Alvarenga, Estefany Quintanilla, and Jocelynn Bolanos.
Well done to our expert trainers, and thank you to everyone who participated! Nursing is already planning their next training day for November.
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Apply Now: Red Carpet Mentoring Program | |
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The reviews are IN and the Red Carpet Mentoring Program is a hit! Applications for the second season are open until September 9, so don’t miss your chance to apply for this upcoming cohort.
Apply here to be a mentor or mentee.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Carter King or email the People department. We look forward to having you!
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A BIG Mary's Center round of applause to...
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Sandra Alsakir, Senior Family Support Worker, for having her participant Zulma named as Parent Grad of the Year by the national Healthy Families America program.
Zulma shared, "The support worker is more than a help to me, she is another member of my family who is interested in a common good that is my daughter and her development. For me, this entire program is an emotional, cognitive, and material resource support."
In the photo, Sandra (right) takes a walk with Zulma (left) and her family around their neighborhood.
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Yuly Rios, Senior Clinical Manager of Integrated Behavioral Health, who recently departed Mary’s Center to attend Yale School of Nursing. She has enrolled in the Master of Science in Nursing program with the goal of becoming a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner.
For those of us and the participants she has served over the years who will miss her very much, she reassures us that her plan is to return to Mary’s Center when she has completed her education!
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Tamrat Workineh, In Person Assister Supervisor, for graduating in May with a Master's degree in Data Science from the University of Maryland.
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Fernanda Ruiz, Home Visiting Director, and Carlos Merchan, Home Visiting Program Manager, for completing the Fort Richie Triathlon in Maryland last month.
It was the first triathlon for Carlos. His wife Nury (who works for Briya) and his son were also there to cheer him on and celebrate this accomplishment.
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Shenell Williams, Sexual Health Coordinator, married Charles Davis on July 10. | |
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Jessica Vargas, Patient Care Navigator, welcomed Uziyah Antonio Benitez Vargas on August 7.
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Silver Spring Birthday Fun
Our Silver Spring clinic was in full bloom last month for the birthdays of Operations Director Zulma Aparicio and Patient Care Navigators Keyla Mejia and Fatima Flores.
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Dental Has So Many Reasons to Celebrate!
The Dental team welcomed Dental Assistants Wendy Escalante and Deana Alvarez, and they recognized 5-year anniversaries for Dental Patient Navigators Ana Galeas Martinez and Tania Torres and Licensed Dental Assistants Rosendo Ferrera and Jenee Stewart, and 10-year anniversaries for Dental Operations Managers Vicente Torres and Victoria Carbajal.
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How to recognize a coworker for outstanding work:
- Log in to Paycom Employee Self Service (ESS)
- In the Documents section, select My Documents
- Select Add Document
- Search for Employee Recognition
- Select Next and then Add
- Complete document entirely and select Complete
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We always say Mary's Center is like one big family, and for some of our staff, that is especially true!
This month we are highlighting sisters whose calling to join the medical field led them both to Mary's Center:
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Samantha Feliz, Medical Assistant II
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Stephanie Feliz Moya, Medical Assistant I Interpreter
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Where did you grow up?
Stephanie: We grew up in the Takoma Park/Silver Spring area.
Do you have other siblings?
Stephanie: Yes, we have one brother between us in age.
How did you get along as kids?
Stephanie: Being that we are 5 years apart, I wouldn’t say that we didn’t get along, but we did fight/argue more back then than we do now. I feel like we didn’t have a close relationship up until we were 17 and 22 years old.
What made you both want to become medical assistants?
Samantha: I wanted to become a medical assistant to help people on a daily basis and to also provide patients with compassion and understanding. My cousin also worked as an MA at Mary’s Center before I started working here and she would always mentioned how it’s such a great job.
Stephanie: I wanted to become a medical assistant to gain experience in the medical field to have some knowledge and experience when going back to school to further my career. Also, most of my cousins work in the medical field or went to school for medical assisting so it seemed fitting for me.
How did you both end up working at Mary’s Center?
Samantha: I was working at Chipotle as a manager but was looking for an MA job, and my cousin mentioned to me how Adelphi location was hiring, so I applied and ended up getting the job.
Stephanie: My sister told me that Mary’s Center was hiring for an MA position but when I went online, I didn’t see any position open for MA. Instead, I applied for the PCN position. When I received a call about setting up a date for an interview, it ended up being for the MA position.
Any favorite Mary’s Center memories you have together?
Stephanie: We work at different clinics, so my favorite Mary’s Center memories that we have together are actually before I got hired, like going to the Nationals games and getting to know some of the people that my sister worked with.
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Check out our newsroom for the latest media coverage. | |
Is Your Bio Updated on the MC Website? | |
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We have a new option for clinicians and providers to include pronouns on their bio posted on the Mary's Center website. Find your bio on the website here.
Complete this form to edit or update your bio >>
To add pronouns to your bio or to make any other changes, only enter the information you want changed/added. For example, if you want to add pronouns and update your education, you only need to fill out those fields on the form.
To add your bio if it is not currently listed, please fill in all relevant fields and upload your photo.
Email [email protected] with any questions.
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Thank You to University Volunteers! | |
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In August, Mary’s Center hosted volunteers from three local universities for their annual days of service:
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American University Washington College of Law students helped sort clothing and toy donations for Mary’s Center and Briya families.
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Georgetown University students visited to learn about our Social Change Model, tour the Adams Morgan clinic, and sort over 1,000 books that will be distributed to our participants and available to read in clinic waiting rooms.
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Howard University students supported our dental program by assembling dental kits for participants, while also assisting with book sorting and labeling.
We are grateful to these dedicated students and university partners for their time and commitment to our mission!
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Briya families were excited to return to school this week! Adult and early childhood classes both got off to a successful start. | |
Congrats to Medical Assistant Graduates | |
Briya's Medical Assistant class of 2022 celebrated their graduation in August! The Medical Assistant Program is an excellent example of the collaboration between Briya and Mary's Center. Mary's Center nursing staff help develop the curriculum and work as program skills instructors. And many of the MAs currently working at Mary's Center are Briya graduates! | |
Join our Mary's Center social media community! | | | | | |
