A ghost in the machine

Community Partners is merging with Intermountain Centers for Human Development. According to the press release, Intermountain will be the sole partner in the new venture. Community Partners Inc. used to be known as Community Partnership of Southern Arizona (CPSA). It was the previous regional behavioral health authority (RBHA) for Pima County. It managed to transition to being another agency like COPE , CODAC , La Frontera , and the like, and managed to go on for almost 3 years before this merger. In that time, it managed to take over Assurance Health and Wellness, and was able to outlast Pasadera . They owned a large facility on Dodge Blvd just north of Grant Rd, which provides space for a residential treatment center (not run by CPI), a brief intervention placement program (run by CPI), as well as providing conference space for other organizations with catering. Those of us who have been around for a while may remember the coffee and scones provided at trainings during the CPSA ye...

The state of Arizona has a site where you can look up some records on places like residential programs, clinics, hospitals--basically, settings licensed by the Arizona Department of Health Services. This is a resource available for the public. This does not include places that are no longer in operation. It also does not include child foster care homes (for very good reasons). But if you are curious, or would definitely like to see information about a current program listed there, here's a link: https://azdhs.gov/licensing/index.php To be honest, some of the information contained can be pretty boring. Some places seem to operate without a lot of problems showing when inspected. Some may have citations over what seem to be really small things that are otherwise legally required. However, some of it can be pretty alarming, such as finding a citation that a group home staff member punched a minor client, or that a group home had poor or filthy conditions. Some companies seem to h...

The regional behavioral health authority (RBHA) in southern Arizona is Cenpatico Integrated Care, since October 1, 2015. This is going to become Arizona Complete Health as of October 1, 2018. (RBHA is pronounced like "ree-bah".) The situation with the current RBHA can be tricky to discuss, and sometimes is discussed in terms of euphemisms such as "instability in the behavioral health field" or something else. It makes honest discussion difficult within the system, or by system providers. There is also a fear of retaliation if anything critical of the RBHA is discussed, at least if it could get back to the current RBHA. It's like there's an elephant in the room that people are not supposed to talk about, unless the RBHA is not present and will not hear about it. At this time, the RBHA gives money to agencies and treatment providers, for giving services. For example, an agency with a contract with the RBHA may get paid for a psychiatrist appointment, or an...

After the morning meeting There are the notes you took during the morning meeting. Things to follow up on. However, you look at your appointment schedule first. There is an appointment scheduled with one of the clients on your caseload, but this person is not yet checked in. What you don't know is whether the front desk forgot to check the person in, or if the person has not shown. You will wait a few minutes. Normally it is recommended you wait only five minutes before making the client reschedule. You like to give a few more because maybe there was an issue with the bus the client was riding, or maybe the person is stuck in traffic. You take this opportunity to briefly check your emails. At the moment, there is nothing you need to reply to or even act on. It's pretty much just people replying to each other over some thing, cc'd to the entire case management, front desk, and medical assistant teams. You delete them because otherwise they will jam up your email inbox. T...

One of the more recent developments in behavioral health is the use of Person First Language. This practice refers to (as the name implies) treating the person as a person first, rather than a disease. For example, we are to say "a person with schizophrenia" rather than "a schizophrenic." This is awesome because it recognizes that there is so much more to a person than his or her psychiatric condition. It can take some adjustment. The way we referred to our clients in the past was as "bipolar" or "a borderline" or "a schizophrenic" or something like that. It's like the clients were walking bags of pathology. Clients have picked this up like a bad habit, referring to themselves as their condition. With Person First Language, we can help push the idea that you are not your illness. So remember, you are not your illness. You are so much more than that. Maybe you like to cook, maybe you like certain kinds of movies, like to hike,...