We Are The Borg

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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 years. Oh, and CPI oversaw the ACT team, and operated a level 1 extended care facility). All of this is alongside a bunch of programs and clinics operated around Arizona, outside of the Tucson metro area. I'm not sure if I should think of this as their downfall, or going out with a whimper, or what.

I'm sure that Intermountain has the capability to take over all of that, although if you had asked me a month ago I wouldn't have believed it. I think that there will be some corporate culture clash in the months to come, hurt feelings, promises of good things to come followed by layoffs or terminations, perhaps some indigestion as Intermountain deals with this large organization they have just eaten. I could be wrong, and maybe it will all go quite well.

Consolidations and larger organizations seems to be the rule lately. COPE took over Pima Prevention Partnership and has gradually grown in size, CPI swallowed Assurance and in turn has been swallowed by Intermountain. Community Bridges took over remnants of Pasadera's operations, and added them to its own statewide system. CODAC took over the Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault and has expanded into detox operations. It's a contrast from a few years ago when a smaller organization was able to enter that particular playing field. The demands currently being placed on public behavioral health agencies makes "small" mean "unviable." This doesn't get into the treatment providers who do not operate integrated health services.




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