news SPRING 2018
COMMUNITY OF HOPE
Recovery Happens AT NAVOS
By Debra Kelly, Navos Peer Bridger*
When I was a little girl I was physically and sexually abused by my stepfather; I was seven years old the first time he sexually abused me. I couldn’t tell my mom because he said he would kill her if I did. I was afraid, but I had to let the abuse continue. I wanted to protect my mom. *The Peer Bridger Program was established in 2013 to help patients in Navos’ inpatient psychiatric hospital make a successful transition to the community after being discharged, and to reduce re-hospitalizations. Peer Bridger’s have “lived experience” with mental health and substance use challenges and have been trained to help and inspire others.
I finally left home when I was 16 and went to live with my grandmother. I attended high school and earned my GED, and later started attending Washington State University, but I didn’t finish as my mom needed me to come home to help take care of my grandmother. I was not happy; I didn’t want to be home, I was very angry with my mom for letting my stepfather abuse me, and for not protecting me. I was depressed and the abuse I experienced really started to affect me, so I started self-medicating with alcohol and drugs. This became my life. I no longer had any morals; my priority was getting alcohol and drugs, and more of it. I was a nobody, I felt unworthy, and I was just surviving one day at a time, drinking, using drugs, going from one high to the next. I did whatever I needed to do to get it, or the money to buy it. I became so very tired of this life. I felt like a hamster in a cage, doing the same thing every day, and getting the same results. I needed to get my life back, I needed to live and f-e-e-l again! I wanted more, I wasn’t meant to be a nobody. So I got help and I got clean, and I have been clean and sober since April 9, 2009.
The life I lived… I don’t want anyone to walk in those shoes.
Today, I am a certified Peer Support Specialist in the Peer Bridger Program at Navos; I have been helping clients since 2013 when I joined Navos. Every day, I manage my PTSD and bipolar disorder. What I suffered as a child affected me emotionally, physically, and sexually. But this is now, this is not then. The “streets” could have destroyed me, but they didn’t. They made me who I am today, a stronger person so that I can help others. I have a heart, and I really care for the people that we are helping in the hospital. The life I lived, I don’t want anyone to walk in those shoes.
A MESSAGE FROM THE CEO
Hello Friends, We are grateful to be a leader in providing services in an era of wide-spread awareness that whole-person wellness is not possible, and certainly not affordable, unless we ensure that the causes and symptoms of mental illness and substance use disorders are not addressed well. When they are provided well, there is a substantial increase in the wellness of full community. It is a professional joy to rise to the demands of utilizing evidence-based practice and refining means to best report the value we provide in bettering the lives of our clients. Navos is one of the core organizations working locally through the Accountable Community of Health movement, in the state’s movement of partnership with managed care organizations, and nationally through the board of the National Council for Behavioral Health to give life to Fully Integrated Managed Care (FIMC), which coordinates services to address physical healthcare needs, mental health and substance use disorder needs, and the needs based on the social determinants of health such as housing, employment, education, and populationbased poverty. Behavioral Healthcare has earned the status of being a medical specialty with value on par with any other field of healthcare. This change has required community healthcare organizations like Navos to perform at the level of professional accountability on par with other specialties, which requires that we acknowledge the concurrent awareness of opportunity and costs of not providing best practices, and the responsibility to find ways to do so. Through several years of fine-tuning our electronic health records and other data-analysis endeavors, we have a new capacity to capture and report outcomes that then highlight further personalization of treatment plans and major changes to system offerings. This transparency of comparable outcomes establishes a new standard of accountability. As a result, we can simultaneously focus on improving the wellness of a single client as well as general wellness of a full population. This results in our capacity to maximize the opportunities of the emerging system of value-based payments as opposed to fee for service purchase of widgets of services that may or may not produce desired changes in wellness.
To continue to thrive in this new era in healthcare, these are the things Navos is doing:
• H aving collaborative relationships with other medical specialties, including primary care, so we can share in providing whole health services. • P roviding equally strong mental health and substance use disorder services. • Continually training our staff in the latest evidence-based best practices. • P erforming at the level of professional accountability on par with other specialties. • S etting wise priorities and adhering to them, being articulate about why we have set our course as we have. • Constructing and managing the best health information technology in order to best document, assess, and report the changes we make in our clients’ lives. • B eing courageous, honest, and focused on quality improvements in order to genuinely provide the best standards of care. • T hinking and acting with a focus on Population Health as well as on making intimate differences in our clients’/patients’ individual lives. • S ignificantly improving the health and wellness of our clients and patients, even the areas of the social determinants of their wellness, and factually demonstrating evidence of those improvements. • Being courageous and smart, not only promising to better the health and wellness of our clients/patients, but also being willing to benefit or lose financially based on our performance. As Navos evolves to meet the new demands on healthcare delivery, we acknowledge that we could not accomplish all of this without the support of a generous community. Thank you for your support for our programs and services. I hope that you will join me for our fifth annual Community of Hope luncheon on May 17th. Our special guest, former football player, Ryan Leaf will share his story of recovery from mental illness and substance use disorder. It is heartening to see our “community of hope” come together in support of recovery and services that treat people who are most in need.
My best wishes,
David M. Johnson, Ed.D, LMHC Chief Executive Officer
Navos has been awarded its first King County Best Starts for Kids grant to support our Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Program which treats young children ages 0-5, and their parents/caregivers to help repair their critical relationship. Secure, nurturing relationships are essential for a young child’s healthy social, emotional, and cognitive development, and school readiness. We help young children whose most intimate relationships are disrupted by abuse and trauma that shatter the child’s sense of trust and security. By helping children and caregivers to form responsive, nurturing attachments, our program helps to prevent a lifetime of significant and costly health problems, and end patterns of abuse and neglect that could be passed on to the next generation.
Navos is proud to share the success of our Integrated Healthcare partnership with Seattle King County Public Health. By having a primary care medical clinic inside of our Mental Health and Wellness Center, we are providing clients with a health care home, integrating behavioral health, primary care, health education, and substance use dependency services. With this approach, we are equipped to care for the whole person and manage multiple, interrelated and chronic health problems. Since opening the primary care clinic in October of 2012, we have served 2,364 clients, successfully diverting ER visits, preventing hospitalizations, and helping our most vulnerable clients manage their diabetes, blood pressure, and weight. Thank you to Premera for the recent generous grant in support of the Integrated Healthcare Program at Navos.
YOU’RE INVITED
THURSDAY, MAY 17, 2018 Sheraton Hotel, 1400 Sixth Ave RECEPTION: 11:00-11:45 | PROGRAM: 11:45-1:00
PRESENTING GUEST SPEAKER RYAN LEAF JUST ADDED SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER DAN SATTERBERG, KING COUNTY PROSECUTING ATTORNEY
RYAN LEAF a former Washington State University and NFL Star Quarterback, will share his personal story of mental health and substance use recovery. Today, Ryan, recently seen on the Ellen Show, is an outspoken advocate for those struggling with mental and behavioral health issues, working to eliminate the stigma associated with mental health issues.
SEATS ARE LIMITED, REGISTER TODAY events@navos.org or 206-933-7196
Join us to support recovery & wellness for low income children, youth, and adults. Proceeds will help to sustain critical programs and services for vulnerable people with mental and emotional illness, and substance use disorders.
Can’t Attend? Please make your gift of support securely online at navos.org/donate
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Don Gillmore PRESIDENT
Brian Abeel FIRST VICE PRESIDENT
Patti Neuberger
MISSION Navos is committed to transforming the quality of life of people vulnerable to mental illness and substance use disorders by providing a broad continuum of care. We believe that diversity, inclusion, and equity are vital to living our values and achieving our mission.
SECOND VICE PRESIDENT
Michael Sweeney TREASURER/SECRETARY
Bobbe J. Bridge BOARD MEMBER EMERITUS
Rebeca Dawn Jean Ellsworth BOARD MEMBER EMERITUS
Charles F. Hoffman Carrie Holmes Eric Svaren David M. Johnson, CEO
VISION A healthy community in which people thrive while managing symptoms of mental illness and substance use disorders VALUES • We choose HOPE • We embrace DIVERSITY • We EMPOWER the individual • We provide COMPASSIONATE CARE • We do WHAT IS RIGHT • We deliver COORDINATED SERVICES • WE ALL HAVE THE RIGHT TO A QUALITY OF LIFE • We are Navos
navos.org |
LIKE US ON FACEBOOK