November 2017




November Edition at a Glance:

This month's newsletter focuses on efforts underway to strengthen services and systems for youth and families, including:

  • Prevention, Access, Self-empowerment and Support (PASS) Program – A qualitative study indicates the program's mentors have been successful in supporting multi-cultural youth empowerment and wellness over time.
  • Spreading Wellness Around Town (SWAT) Youth Council – This youth-guided, youth-run council is providing a platform for youth to share their stories, fight stigma, and become advocates for health and wellness.
  • Me, My Tech, and I – This new training, available in January, has been designed to help parents, teachers and teens understand the impact that social media and technology have on teens and their health and wellness.
  • OnCare’s Juvenile Justice Project Youth Leadership Academy – Developing leadership and advocacy skills among youth in the Syracuse area while reducing recidivism.
  • Community School Initiatives – Supporting two Rochester-area schools as they work to integrate academics with the housing, health, and other social supports needed to improve learning, support families and strengthen communities.

You’ll also find links to recent presentations, project and program news and links to resources that you may find helpful.
Prevention, Access, Self-Empowerment and Support (PASS) - The Impact of Mentoring on Wellness
CCSI’s PASS Program is an innovative, curriculum-based, statewide prevention program that works with teens who experience challenges in their daily lives, or whose parents are seriously and persistently mentally ill. PASS utilizes a strength-based approach to helping individuals, families and communities to develop the resources needed to maintain healthy lifestyles. It focuses on the development of a culturally competent, inclusive system of support that fosters wellness, self-help, empowerment, advocacy, support, and education. A key aspect of PASS is mentoring. Junior and adult mentors help the adolescents apply the strategies taught in the program to their unique life situations. Junior mentors are young adults who have graduated from the PASS program and have chosen to become peer supports for program participants. 
All Youth Have a Story and That Story is a Powerful Resource
The SWAT Youth Council is a youth-guided and youth-run council in Monroe County focused on providing a platform for youth to share their stories, fight stigma, and become advocates. SWAT is comprised of youth, ages 14-24, representing a variety of youth-serving systems and willing to share their first-hand experiences in interfacing with the systems that have impacted their lives. The council identifies priority items in the community to address, works to develop solutions, and uses their voice to influence stakeholders in the decision-making process.
Enhancing Access to Services and Improving Outcomes for Children on Medicaid in Their First 1000 Days of Life
Medicaid Redesign in New York recently set in motion an initiative focused specifically on a child’s first three years of life as these crucial years of development can set the stage for a person’s health and life outcomes. Medicaid Director Jason Helgerson announced that the First 1000 Days on Medicaid initiative would involve a work group of stakeholders charged with developing a ten-point agenda describing how the Medicaid system can support better access to services and improved outcomes for children on Medicaid in their first 1000 days of life. Click here to read more 
Gwen Olton, MA, BSN, RN
Senior Consultant
Training & Practice Transformation
Outsmarting Smartphones with Kids' Mental Health
Mental health issues among teens have been steadily increasing and now a connection is being made with their increased smartphone use. A survey by the Centers for Disease Control found teens who spend five or more hours a day on electronic devices are 66% more likely to have at least one suicide risk factor than teens who spend one hour a day. Teens are spending more time on their phones, dating less, interacting less with friends, and waiting longer to get their driver’s licenses. Click here to read more
Restorative Practices with Youth: Building Connections to Change Behaviors, Repair Relationships and Improve Results
On November 15 th , Gwen Olton, Senior Consultant with CCSI’s Training and Practice Transformation team, gave a talk and participated on a panel at the recent 2017 Starbridge Education Conference: Restorative Practices: Building Connections to Change Behaviors, Repair Relationships and Improve Results.  Gwen’s talk focused on trauma-informed care and its relationship to restorative practices. She outlined three important strategies that can be employed to align with these two perspectives:
1)      Relationship-building – Building Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships (SSNRs).
2)      Power-Sharing – Sharing power in relationships.
3)      Needs-Based Consciousness – Changing our interpretations of others’ behaviors from judgement to understanding that behaviors are attempts to get needs met.
Youth Leadership Academy Develops Leadership and Advocacy Skills While Also Reducing Recidivism
The OnCare Juvenile Justice Project, part of Onondaga County’s Department of Children and Family Services, provides community-based services and supports to young people with serious mental health needs that are involved in the justice system. In the summer of 2017, OnCare Juvenile Justice Project staff developed a Youth Leadership Academy that prepares youth to advocate for their own mental health needs, and take an active role in OnCare’s governance structure.  

Supporting Community School Implementation
A community school is a public school – the hub of its neighborhood. A community school brings together the strengths of students, families, teachers and the community for the common goal of improving the academic success of young people. Community partners possessing the resources to improve student and adult learning, strengthen families, and create healthy, engaged communities are integrated with school-based academic, social and health services. On-site mental health counseling, medical and dental services, restorative practices, and wrap-around supports are aligned to address barriers to learning and provide the highest quality instruction. 
 
In Rochester, Coordinated Care Services, Inc. (CCSI) has been vital to Community Schools, serving both as lead agency for the Enrico Fermi School 17 community schools initiative and as the Site Coordinator for the Kodak Park School 41 community schools work. In these roles, CCSI works in partnership with students, families, teachers and the community to coordinate strategies for organizing the resources of the community around student success.
Kodak Park School #41 - Coat Drive
CCSI’s Sara Rosenfeld, Community School Site Coordinator at Kodak Park School #41 helped organize a coat drive which will keep a lot of children warm this winter. As a result of a generous donation from the Monroe County Youth Bureau, County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo and Director, Mike Barry distributed new winter coats to all of the Pre-K students at Kodak Park School #41. The students were so excited! Check out pictures from last week’s event on our Facebook page !  
Performance Measurement Practices for Adolescent SUD Providers
OASAS and CASA (Center for Alcohol and Substance Abuse) asked CCSI to provide an orientation to Performance Measurement Practices for Adolescent SUD Providers in conjunction with a series of meetings across the State hosted by OASAS and developed to prepare the providers for the Medicaid Managed Care Children’s System Transformation scheduled to commence in 2018. These meetings took place during late Summer and Fall of 2017. CCSI, along with CASA and OASAS provided the content for these presentations that took place in Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, NYC, Long Island and Lake Placid. 


Coordinated Entry for Persons Experiencing Homelessness
As the cold weather is upon us in our upstate communities, attention has increasingly focused on quickly and effectively providing shelter for persons experiencing homelessness. In Monroe County, the Coordinated Entry process, a collaborative initiative facilitated by CCSI, has been implemented to streamline access to essential shelter and housing services. This system seeks to ensure those with the greatest needs are connected to appropriate housing options that will rapidly end their homeless episode, using a Housing First approach. As the facilitator for Coordinated Entry, CCSI has been working in partnership with the Rochester/Monroe County Homeless Continuum of Care, providing the support to bring together community stakeholders to develop, endorse, and implement operating practices and procedures that are based upon a vision to eliminate homelessness in the community. Click to read more

Webinars - Past and Future
David Wawrzynek, MS, MBA
Senior Consultant
CCSI | Center for Collaboration in Community Health
Date: Friday, December 8, 2017
Time: 12:00 -1:00 PM
December Center Webinar - Using Microsoft Tools to Create Useful Information from Available Data
As the need for data to inform our decisions grows, many agencies are struggling to find the tools that will help them to collect data and transform it to actionable information. Many people are unaware of the new Business Intelligence (BI) tools that already live inside of Microsoft Excel that allow you to capture, transform and visualize your data. This webinar will provide a general overview of the tools, show some examples of how they may be used and provide some tips on how to start transforming data into action.

Presenter: David Wawrzynek, MS, MBA
Senior Consultant
CCSI | Center for Collaboration in Community Health
John Lee, MBA
Director
CCSI | Center for Collaboration in Community Health
David Eckert, LMHC,NCC,CRC
Senior Consultant
CCSI | Center for Collaboration in Community Health
November Center Webinar - Imagining a System of Care Performance Dashboard
The Center’s November Webinar , “Imagining a System of Care Dashboard” focused on the development of a dashboard to track and report key performance indicators that are relevant in our evolving health care system. As networks form, they will be challenged to ensure the delivery of effective services that produce positive outcomes while also staying on budget, so it will be important to capture the data points that correlate with success. This webinar highlighted a System of Care Dashboard that can be used to monitor performance in the delivery of integrated services (medical, mental health, substance use, Care Management, and community-based supports) across the continuum of care that can be helpful to staff from the leadership level to the direct service level.   

Presenters:
John Lee, MBA
Director, CCSI | Center for Collaboration in Community Health

David Eckert, LMHC,NCC,CRC
Senior Consultant,  CCSI | Center for Collaboration in Community Health


Financial Services and Fiscal Business Practices
James Monfort, Manager of Financial Services, Senior Consultant
CCSI | Center for Collaboration in Community Health
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.