New Program Provides Educational Advocacy for Foster Care Youth at A&C
ADULT & CHILD HEALTH ANNOUNCES NEW GRANT FUNDING Indianapolis, IN – Adult & Child Health has received a grant totaling $120,000 from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust to improve educational outcomes for students in foster care. This grant affords provision of The Educational Success for Foster Children Program, which provides mentoring, educational advocacy, and academic support for foster care youth at risk of falling behind in grade level or dropping out. The award comes at a pivotal time for Adult & Child Health, a Licensed Child Placement Agency, Community Mental Health Center, and Primary Care Provider, as the number of children in foster care rapidly continues to climb; a direct correlation with Indiana’s opioid and parental substance use epidemic. Educational outcomes for youth in foster care are tragically poor. Recent data reflect many barriers these children face in the pursuit of an education. Foster care youth have significantly higher rates of absenteeism and disciplinary referrals than their peers. They are twice as likely to repeat a school year; over 80% percent are held back as early as third grade, the year they begin state standardized testing. “We are all impacted when we hear stories of the trauma, abuse and neglect that the youth in foster care have experienced in their young lives. Our efforts to keep them safe and protected are important, but our ability to improve their long term outcomes rests in our successes in securing their education,” said Stephanie Yoder, Chief Operating Officer. “Adult & Child is seeking to change the outcomes for youth in our care. Our education advocacy services, led by Tracie Mansfield, support out-of-home youth by breaking down barriers to success in education.” Mansfield, a licensed teacher and agency’s Educational Advocate, identifies unmet education needs and provides workable strategies to allow foster youth in Adult & Child’s care attain their educational goals. Through training and support, she and her team equip foster parents to advocate on behalf of the children in their care. They coordinate tutoring and assistance to ensure educational credit recovery, remediation, and ongoing access to academic programs outside of the school day. The educationally vulnerable youth in foster care are better positioned for long term self-sustainability and success with the support and resources provided by this award and unique program design. The grant to Adult & Child Health represents one of 28 awarded to nonprofit organizations in Indiana by the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust in 2016. “During her career, Nina Mason Pulliam shared her financial success and business leadership skills with many charities. She had a keen awareness of challenges that face our community and would take great pride in the outstanding work being done by organizations like Adult & Child Health,” said Carol Schilling, Trustee chair. “Through her Trust, we continue to build on her legacy, which clearly reflects her heart for philanthropy.” For more information about Adult and Child Health, please contact Britney Veach, Director of Mission Advancement, at 317-982-0047 or bveach@adultandchild.org or visit www.adultandchild.org.
A&C Announces Health Services Team and Expansion
Adult and Child Health Announces Medical Team to Lead Primary Care and Addictions Services Expansion Indianapolis-area Adult and Child has announced several staff additions for 2017. Known as a provider of mental health and child welfare services, Adult and Child has expanded to include primary care and addictions treatment within its array of community programs. These new service lines address gaps in the Adult and Child service continuum and support the organizational goals of moving from specialty care to comprehensive, whole-health medical services. In late 2016, Adult and Child opened two primary care clinics at 222 E. Ohio Street in downtown Indianapolis and at 1860 Northwood Plaza in Franklin. Being new to family practice and addictions services, Adult and Child has seared out staff with the requite skills and experience needed to implement medical clinic startups. “As an organization we’re experience at behavioral health service delivery but family practice and addictions services is new space for Adult and Child,” said Dan Arens, Chief Strategy Office and Director of Community Health. “We’re fortunate to have brought a strong team together to hit the floor running.” More than opening free-standing clinics, Mr. Arens and Dr. Arthur Flores, Chief Medical Officer are working to embed the new primary care and addictions services within Adult and Child’s existing psychiatry and mental health counseling programs. As CMO, Dr. Flores brings exceptional qualifications not only as a primary care provider, but he has also served in senior national medical leadership roles with Anthem and WebMD. Upon joining Adult and Child, Dr. Flores expressed, “I’m proud of the expanded services and how well they complement and strengthen Adult and Child’s existing programs. The patients we serve now have physicians, nurses, case managers, and counselors collaboratively managing medical and behavioral health needs in one medical home.” In addition to Dr. Flores, Adult and Child has announced Dr. Steve Smith as Associate Director of Primary Care. With an extensive background in both research and family practice settings, Dr. Smith specializes in serving disadvantaged populations, chronic disease management, and patient-focused practice models. Dr. Smith is responsible for leading clinical practice, monitoring clinical quality, and providing direct care. Daily operations of the Indianapolis and Franklin clinics are overseen by Shannon Potter, Director of Practice Management. Shannon joins Adult and Child with experience managing multi-physician offices in large healthcare networks. Adult and Child’s practice model includes the use of Family Nurse Practitioners to provide director patient care. Mercy Moto, APRN, is stationed in the Indianapolis clinic and Darlene Newell, APRN, practices in the Franklin clinic. Both nurses come to Adult and Child with experience having served diverse patients in a variety of healthcare settings. For the first time in Adult and Child’s history, medical services will be available to those struggling with addiction, including opioid use. Services and program development are led by Dr. Jennifer Beckwith, Associate Director of Addictions Medicine. Joining Adult and Child in November 2016, Dr. Beckwith oversees the provision of Medication-Assisted Treatment which combines the use of medication with counseling and behavioral therapies to treat substance use disorders. Dr. Beckwith’s medical experience in child psychiatry, addictionology, and the mind-body connection are supporting the integration of whole-health services in ways that weren’t possible before her arrival at Adult and Child. Accredited by the Joint Commission, Adult & Child Health is dedicated to increasing access to high quality healthcare and social services, regardless of ability to pay. We accept most major insurance plans, including Medicaid and HIP 2.0. For more information about Adult and Child, please contact Britney Veach, Director of Mission Advancement, at 317-982-0047 or bveach@adultandchild.org
iHOST Collaboration Targets Homelessness
Indianapolis Community Mental Health Centers Announce New Program Targeting Homelessness Eskenazi Health Midtown Community Mental Health (Midtown) and Adult & Child Health, two leading central Indiana community mental health centers, are partnering with key human services agencies in a new collaboration to combat homelessness. Their proposal to streamline and coordinate services among area homeless intervention provider agencies has been awarded $2.4 million, three-year SAMHSA grant for the Indianapolis Homelessness Outreach and Services Team (iHOST). Comprised of staff from Midtown, Adult & Child Health, The PourHouse, Inc., Outreach Inc., and Horizon House, iHOST team members are combining their efforts to build a unified service approach for homeless persons also experiencing mental health and substance use disorders. By sharing information and coordinating services among the participant organizations, iHOST is able to achieve much greater efficiency than when working independently without coordination. Nationally and locally, the relationship between homelessness and mental illness is well known. The Office of National Drug Control Policy reveals approximately 30 percent of the chronically homeless population has a serious mental illness and around two-thirds have a primary substance use disorder or other chronic health condition. A 2015 Point-in-Time count identified 1,666 Marion County citizens as experiencing homelessness, one-fifth of the homeless population of the Hoosier state. Above and beyond barriers the homeless already face, the added challenge of addressing behavioral health needs can be overwhelming. “We have effective services for homeless persons in Indianapolis, but they’re not always in the same place or with a single agency,” said Margie Payne, Midtown CEO and Vice President of Mental Health Services. “iHOST is needed for the most complicated cases that involve multiple agencies.” Supported by the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention (CHIP), iHOST is developing efficient assessment, intervention planning, and service delivery workflows among the member agencies. Persons enrolled in the program are supported by an individualized, strengths-based intervention plan. Medical care, mental health, and addictions services are linked to community housing and employment resources. The core of the project and organization of services, including data collection of evaluation measures, will rely on service providers communicating daily via real-time shared cloud-based client tracking software system, email, telephone and face-to-face meetings. “No one agency can do it all,” said Allen Brown, CEO of Adult & Child Health, “but when you refer to another provider, communication and duplication of efforts can be a problem. We appreciate now being at the table with other homeless providers, working smarter through technology so that persons get he absolute most out of available resources.” iHOST population of focus will be individuals who have (1) a substance use disorder (SUD), serious mental illness (SMI), serious emotional disturbance (SED), or co-occurring mental and substance use disorders (CODs); and (2) are either youth under 18 years of age, young adults between 18 and 24 years of age, or the chronically homeless, including those residing in jail or in the process of re-entry. Both Adult & Child Health and Midtown are accredited by the Joint Commission and leaders in the provision of behavioral hand primary health services in Central Indiana. For more information about this program contact: Dan Arens, MBA, FACHE, at 317-893-0336 or darens@adultandchild.org.
Adult & Child Health Partners with Jane Pauley Community Health Center for Integrated Care
Indianapolis Healthcare Providers Combine to Create Unique Integrated Care Program for Persons in South Marion County Research has demonstrated people with mental illness die 25 years younger than those without mental illness, primarily due to unmanaged chronic disease and reduced access to primary care. The National Healthcare Disparities Report states that, for persons with mental illness, “health care quality and access are suboptimal, especially for minority and low-income groups and while overall quality is improving, access is getting worse and disparities are not changing.” Adult and Child Health Services and The Jane Pauley Community Health Center, two Indianapolis area nonprofit healthcare organizations, have recently partnered to address this alarming trend. As a certified mental health center, in 2015 Adult and Child Health began looking for new ways to facilitate primary care for persons in its South Marion County service area. Allen Brown, CEO of Adult and Child Health, explains that “our Southside clinic is one of the busiest mental health centers in Indianapolis. Persons served at this location have a very difficult time accessing primary care, so rather than continuing to refer clients elsewhere, we decided it would be better to bring primary care providers into the mental health center.” In The Jane Pauley Community Health Center, Adult and Child found a partner with equally strong interest in behavioral health and primary care service integration. As a Federally Qualified Health Center dedicated to helping the medically underserved, Jane Pauley CHC provides comprehensive family practice services to patients in 15 clinics throughout the Indianapolis area. The two organizations share similar mission of providing affordable, high quality healthcare to individuals and families regardless of ability to pay. In 2016, following months of planning between agencies, The Jane Pauley Community Health Center won federal approval to open a primary care clinic within Adult and Child’s Mental Health Center at 8320 Madison Avenue. In this unique program, psychiatrists, family practice physicians, and nurses work side by side in close coordination, supporting persons with mental health and physical health needs. Marc Hackett, CEO of the Jane Pauley Community Health center explained, We’re a big believer in integrated approaches to patient care.” “Through our own behavioral health services within Jane Pauley clinics, and now in partnership with Adult and Child at the 8320 Madison Ave. location, this unified approach to patient care means better outcomes and less cost for the patients we serve.” On September 21, 2016, Indianapolis native and well known NCB new anchor Jane Pauley, after whom the Jane Pauley Community Health Centers are named, visited the site of this unique healthcare partnership to share words of inspiration and recognition for the efforts being taken to help persons with mental illness. Adult and Child Health, accredited by the Joint Commission, is a leading provider of behavioral health services in Central Indiana. The Jane Pauley Community Health Center is a Federally Qualified Health Center that provides high quality medical services to the Indianapolis area. For more information about this program contact: Dan Arens, MBA FACHE, at 317-893-0336 or darens@adultandchild.org
