Behavioral Health Pacesetter Awards
In 2010 – 2011, the Coalition partnered with the Hitachi Foundation to identify organizations in the behavioral healthcare field that exhibited best practices and innovation in caring for direct care workers. The Behavioral Health Pacesetter Award in Support of the Direct Care Workforce identified seven exemplary organizations in 2011 for workforce practices that:
- Strengthened business performance and bottom-line results.
- Improved work-life balance, skills and economic advancement among direct care employees.
- Improved client outcomes based on the organization’s delivery of high-quality services and supports.
The following are cross-cutting themes among the winning programs:
- Used evidence-based-practices and monitored and maintained adherence to practice fidelity.
- Actively supported the educational and career development aspirations of front-line workers.
- Provided competitive wages, benefits and other incentives to employees.
- Developed and maintained partnerships with academic and research institutions that actively promoted training and other involvement of direct care workers.
- Provided highly individualized and supportive supervision to staff on a frequent, regular basis.
The Hitachi Foundation is an independent, non-profit, philanthropic organization established by Hitachi, Ltd. in 1985. Its mission is to forge an authentic integration of business actions and societal well-being in North America. The Foundation’s strategic focus through 2013 is on discovering and expanding business practices that create tangible, enduring economic opportunities for low-wealth Americans, their families, and the communities in which they reside—while also enhancing business value. At its core, the Foundation is on a path toward discovery, committed to investments that enhance what society can learn about socially sustainable business practices and corporate citizenship.
Following are links to the Pacesetter National Award Winners and Programs of Merit, and a case study for each, describing the organization and its workforce development approach.
2011 National Award Winners
Thresholds in Chicago has advanced the careers of front-line mental health staff while implementing Integrated Dual Disorders Treatment (IDDT) through the use of embedded consultants and supportive supervision.
Stanley Street Treatment and Resources (SSTAR) in Fall River, Massachusetts, has used work-based learning to elevate the competencies and educational aspirations of its behavioral health staff, and through their example, they are renewing hope in a community hard hit by recession.
Family Services of Western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh has built university, county government and managed care partnerships that have transformed case management and promoted careers of community mental health staff, both in their own agency and throughout Allegheny County.
Borinquen Health Care Center in Miami has skillfully prepared its multicultural, front-line substance abuse and community outreach workers to battle the spread of HIV in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.
Hartford Dispensary in Connecticut has built a professional development program that meets the challenges of direct-care staff as they provide effective treatment for heroin addiction in a northeastern drug traffic corridor.
2011 Programs of Merit
Chesapeake Connections at Mosaic Community Services in Baltimore has carefully prepared a diverse staff group to provide assertive yet supportive services to people with severe mental illnesses in the city’s urban core.
People Acting to Help (PATH) in Philadelphia has made thoughtful and supportive supervision the heart of an effective psychosocial rehabilitation program that reduces the need for emergency services and inpatient care.