February 3: Inspiring and Expanding the Psychiatric Workforce in Texas: Partnering with National Leaders in Community Psychiatry Training and Practice Pickens Medical Education and Conference Center UT Southwestern Medical Center, 6001 Forest Park Road, Dallas, TX
ZiaPartners¹helped organize this event to bring public psychiatry leaders and residency training leaders from across the state together, to participate in an interactive forum for how to inspire and expand the future generation of psychiatrists to work in public service settings in Texas.
Ken and Chris partnered with two faculty members from the University of Texas, Southwestern psychiatry department (Lia Thomas MD and Lindsey Pershern, MD to facilitate the event, which had approximately 70 participants.
The proceedings of the various workgroups and breakout sessions are being formulated into a White Paper with recommendations to department chairs and state policy makers.
¹in their roles within the Meadows MH Policy Institute of Texas (www.texasstateofmind.org), where ZiaPartners contracts for their help in local system development, integration, quality improvement, and psychiatric leadership (Ken is Director of Systems Integration; Chris is Director of Community Impact), AND in their roles within the American Association of Community Psychiatry (where Ken is a lifetime Board of Directors member, and Chris has provided strategic planning TA to the Board)
February 16, 27: Launch of Whole Person Care implementation in Capital Region, Uplift Family Services
ZiaPartners has been contracted for 2.5 years by Uplift (formerly EMQ Families First) to implement co-occurring/complexity capability (now termed Whole Person Care) for all the programs and staff of this large provider organizations with an emphasis on working with youth and families with complex MH problems, along with many social challenges.
This process was initially launched in the Bay Area Region of Uplift, followed by the Central Region (Fresno and Tulare counties), Inland Empire (San Bernardino, Riverside), Los Angeles, and now the Capital Region (Sacramento, Nevada, Solano, and Placer Counties).
Each region has performed (or will perform) COMPASS-EZ self-assessments for all programs, develop implementation plans, and work with a regional change agent team to improve the ability of all staff to provide welcoming, hopeful, integrated services to individuals and families with mental health, substance use, health, and cognitive challenges as well as complex social needs.
The launch on Feb 16 engaged staff in Solano, Nevada, and Placer Counites; Feb 27 will primarily focus on staff in Sacramento. The launch was very successful and led to the recruitment of an initial group of inspired change agents who will work in partnership with regional leaders to develop new protocols and procedures to support welcoming, hopeful, strength based and integrated practice.
