HOPE is Alive on Galveston Island New Executive Director Paula Tobon-Stevens Onboard An Update from St. Vincent’s House With great pride and confidence, St. Vincent’s House (SVH) welcomed Executive Director Paula Tobon-Stevens in February 2020. In March, COVID-19 reached Galveston County bringing devastating health and economic effects. With more than 25 years of leadership and experience in executive health care management, Tobon-Stevens applied her expertise and reputation as a results-oriented strategic, collaborative leader to build a team equal to the COVID-19 challenge. SVH streamlined its programs, processes and procedures while strengthening its interagency alliances, enabling a vigorous response. The mission of St. Vincent’s House is to provide essential services and resources to empower families and individuals to become selfsustaining and contributing members of our community. COVID-19 vastly increased community need for SVH services. Individuals who never required help in the past suddenly found themselves unemployed, dealing with food insecurity and with reduced access to essential medical and social services. Surviving the pandemic related issues of financial shortfall, staffing deficiencies and challenges of safely delivering services has left many non-profits in jeopardy. Incorporating two trademarks of TobonStevens’ management style (inter-agency collaboration and fiscal awareness), changes were already made which would help ensure SVH was prepared not only to survive, but to thrive in the face of COVID-19. St. Vincent’s House partners with the University of Texas Medical Branch, Family Service Center, Lions Club, local dentists, the Galveston County Food Bank, local churches, Lighthouse Charity Team, United Way, and many other organizations to offer medical, dental, and social services. Rather than offering those services individually, Paula and her team developed a comprehensive and integrated care service model. The model uses a collaborative team addressing medical needs, mental health, and social service needs. After each case is evaluated in its entirety, appropriate services are offered in a coordinated approach to meeting individual or family needs, while improving quality of care. SVH’s Comprehensive Care includes a medical component including 11 multi-specialty clinics, a chronic disease clinic, physical, speech and occupational therapy, and dental extractions. SVH partners with Family Service Center to provide on-site, full-time mental health services. In addition to comprehensive service delivery, these other program changes increased efficiency to provide better care: • Food Pantry moved to a larger location, allowing drive thru, contactless pick-up. • Pantry availability extended from once/month to once/week.
112 | Texas Episcopalian 2021
