Executive Summary
Riverside Community Care operates two Community Service Agency Programs, one located in Somerville serving the Cambridge DCF catchment area, and the second located in Needham, serving the Arlington DCF catchment area. Both programs have worked on shared goals identified with the MCO team assigned to each site since opening in 2009. We have developed three projects for funding which will directly impact the completion of the identified goals for each program through increased training, certification in High Fidelity Wraparound, and technology advances to enhance and improve our communication and efficiency.
In Somerville, the two current goals are focused on increasing fidelity scores in the upcoming year. These specifically are with Team Membership, Outcome-Based, and Community-Based indicators, which were identified following the review of the most recent WFI and TOM analysis. The first goal for Team Membership has been ongoing, and new tasks have been added recently specifically around developing Natural Supports as part of the team. One of these goals was added in March of 2017, and the team is working hard on the identified tasks and making good progress so far. Staff have begun implementing new tools through ongoing training such as a natural support survey and adding discussions about transition readiness to each Care Plan Team agenda.
In Needham, our first goal is to be able to offer clients an appointment within 3 days from date of request. This program has consistently struggled to eliminate a wait list for services. However, as a result of participating in the APM Daily Rate Pilot, staff retention has improved resulting in improved staffing. We are currently serving the highest number of youth we have ever enrolled. The other goals center on improving the timeliness and thoroughness of documentation. The program has many quality measures in place, including increased oversight by the Program Director, additional staff trainings and additional supervisory checks and balances. The program is making good progress towards meeting these goals.
Riverside is an award winning community-based behavioral health and human services organization that strives to make a difference in the lives of individuals, families and communities who are challenged by mental health problems, addictions, developmental disabilities, brain injury, or early childhood problems or risks, or community tragedies. We deliver a comprehensive array of compassionate, locally-based integrated behavioral health and human services, serving about 40,000 people each year in more than 100 programs throughout eastern and central Massachusetts. We are deeply rooted in the communities we serve and have a long history of demonstrated success in bringing our mission to life in our work with youth with significant mental health challenges and their families. Our longstanding partnerships with the communities we serve and medical and local behavioral health providers ensure that our work is integrated. Our focus on local and compassionate care means that our families receive the highest quality service by experienced professionals, in their homes and in our centers.
Though we have a low job vacancy rate, we are not immune to the state-wide struggles with hiring and retaining skilled and experienced staff in our programs. This has impacted our ability to provide timely services to ICC referred youth, especially in our Needham program which covers a large geography of towns. We will continue to focus on providing a supportive and positive work environment, continuously working on improving benefits offered to employees. Our proposed projects include a strong investment in the training and skill development of each employee, which we know directly impacts positive retention.
It is important that staff are adequately trained in high fidelity Wraparound. One project proposed incentivizes CSA staff to become certified in Tier One and Tier Two Wraparound. Enhancing the skill set of staff has a direct impact on transition planning, safety planning and team coordination, all of which could result in sustainable change and timely discharge from services. Since each CSA, at times, has experienced a waitlist, this would potentially allow for a more timely enrollment to ICC service for youth and their families on the waitlist.
We are proposing two projects which will directly impact the quality of ICC services to enrolled members. We will utilize funding to directly impact our practice of High Fidelity Wraparound by utilizing one of our existing managers to provide training and certifications across both of our CSA sites. Our Assistant Program Director is qualified to certify coaches as well as staff in the Vroon VanDenburg curriculum, and we will expand our current training to ensure all staff are certified. Improving the specific skill sets of our ICCs and FPs will positively impact all aspects of care coordination services provided to youth and their families.
In addition, we will enhance our existing consultation and training in both of our sites by adding opportunities to build our knowledge in areas such as nutrition, pediatric disorders, wellness, mindfulness, Motivational Interviewing, and Trauma Informed Care. By investing in the skill development of our staff, we impact the quality of their work, as well as decrease turnover as staff are able to keep growing in their professional development.
Riverside is committed to ongoing quality improvement and the management team of each program is actively working to complete tasks and meet goals identified on their Development Plans. Both teams have increased their overall TOM Fidelity score from 83% in 2010 to 91% in 2016, which is at the State mean, and above the National mean. Again, creating a training plan for both sites that includes Tier One and Tier Two Wraparound certification will have a direct impact on further increasing these scores. Both goals on the Somerville CSA Development Plan are also in regards to increasing Fidelity Scores, so we believe our proposed project will support the completion of these goals.