Tag: Blog

March is National Social Work Month. For 2012, the month of March is dedicated to the Social Work profession with the theme of, "Social Work Matters." 

As part of this celebration, MHM and Methodist Healthcare would like to present you with the second installment of our weekly series of Social Work, "Myths vs. Facts." 

March is National Social Work Month. For 2012, the month of March is dedicated to the Social Work   profession with the theme of, "Social Work Matters." 

As part of this celebration, MHM and Methodist Healthcare would like to present you with the first of our weekly series of Social Work, "Myths vs. Facts."

Myth:

Social work does not require a special degree or licensure. A social worker can be anyone who is compassionate and enjoys helping those who are experiencing difficulties or who are less fortunate.

Fact:

Although most social workers are compassionate and do enjoy helping those in need, a degree, a license, and supervised fieldwork is required to call one’s self a social worker. The minimum requirement for a social worker is a bachelor’s degree, but approximately 82% of practicing social workers have a master's or doctorate.

Fact:

LBSW stands for Licensed Bachelor’s Social Worker and LMSW stands for Licensed Master's Social Worker; every social worker at Methodist Healthcare Ministries holds at least a bachelor’s degree.

Fact:

According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 600,000 people have a degree in social work; this career path is growing twice as fast as any other occupation in the U.S.

Do you have any questions about the Social Work profession? Share them here (by posting a comment below)! We are happy to address any misconceptions, curiosities or thoughts you have about Social Work.

To learn more about National Social Work Month, visit www.socialworkers.org. 

submitted by Ann Scarth, RN
Wesley Nurse, Mason, Texas 

Grief is the emotional suffering that is felt after a loss of some kind and can be triggered for a variety of reasons: the death of a loved one, the onset of a serious medical condition or even an intense disappointment. People are so often unprepared for grief—even when an event is predicted. Like so many other small rural towns, Mason’s population has matured and in recent months, it seems we have suffered a rash of loss in our community. As a result, caregivers are left feeling overwhelmed and isolated.

On January 26, I formed a partnership with Patrick Loring, M.S., L.P.C., the bereavement coordinator for Odyssey Hospice located in Kerrville, Texas. Together, we developed a Lunch ‘n Learn program titled, “How You Debrief Grief.” The program was an instant success with over 20 people in attendance.

After the initial meeting, I asked participants to contact me if they were interested in forming a local grief support group in Mason. The response was immense. A flood a respondents contacted me with a resounding request, “we want our own grief support group.” In response, the first of the bimonthly group meeting was held on February 7, in a small, intimate room at the First United Methodist Church in Mason.

So far, a number of participants have joined the group – all dealing with some form of grief or trauma. Some have suffered a sudden, unexpected loss; others are caregivers looking for support. The group has even attracted survivors eager to offer guidance and affirmation to participants.

We have shared memories, tears, pictures of our loved ones and laughter—yes, laughter has crept in on occasion and it really lit up our room with much needed encouragement and release. Feelings have emerged and emotions have been explored. The sentiment is palpable when you hear one participant say to another, “Your spouse was such a dear person and a real pillar of our community.” Participants are beginning to learn that grief is actually a healing process that is normal and healthy.

The grief support group meets at noon on the first and third Tuesday of each month in the conference room at the First United Methodist Church of Mason (224 Broad Street Mason, Texas). Participants are encouraged to bring a sack lunch; beverages and dessert are provided.

For more information, please call Ann Scarth, RN at (325) 347-5983.

Congratulations to the Spirit of Excellence Award Winners of 2011. After receiving nominations by their peers because of their outstanding demonstration of MHM’s core values and the tenets of the 2011 Excellence theme, “I am Excellence. I Make a Difference, Everyday,” the Personnel Committee of the MHM Board of Directors selected these team members as recipients of the Spirit of Excellence of Award:  

Integrity

David Ybarra
Community Programs
Family Wellness Programs Specialist
Wesley Health & Wellness Center

Making a Difference

Joe Guzman
Behavioral Health Services/Nutrition & Health Education
Executive Chef
Wesley Health & Wellness Center

Teamwork

Jessica Muñoz-Sherfey
Administration
Public Relations Manager

Compassion

Charlotte Johnson
Wesley Nurse Health Ministries™
Wesley Nurse, Austin Team

Spirituality

Blanca Arguello
Clinic Operations
*Wesley Nurse Regional Manager
*At the time of nominations Blanca was the Clinic RN Supervisor at the Wesley Health & Wellness Center. She was promoted to her current position in July.

All winners will recieve a Jade Crystal desktop clock, a VISA gift card and a certificate for one-full days leave (8 hours) to be used at their choosing (and approved by their supervisor or manager).

MHM thanks these team members for their exemplary service!

Last Friday, the MHM Community Programs department shared in a lunch fellowship to celebrate the accomplishments of the year and the joy of the Christmas season. As part of the celebration, various team members shared their individual talents. One team member, Anna Garces, shared an original poem as a closing to their fellowship.

Planting the Seed
by Anna Garces

Have you ever asked yourself, "What difference have I made?"

Another year has passed in which we have done our job and been paid,
but what difference have we made?

Daily we strive for excellence in all that we do,
working hard at modeling our core values.

We have children with parents in prison or decreased,
children hurting or sick with some awful disease.
Our home visits are not always what we plan them to be,
when you get to a home and find no food or electricity.

We have all experienced the emotional roller coaster ride,
when we see a need for which we cannot provide.

Success stories are many, but there are always a few that
matter how hard we try, we just can't seem to get through.

We work so hard to meet the need and fail to celebrate for
just planting the seed.

Remember that successes are many more than we see,
when we treat others as what God sees they can be.
So let's celebrate all the things we take for granted,
and remember that God takes over once the seed has been planted.

Like the buses filled with laughter during our field trips,
seniors dancing, sewing and sharing tip or the tears in a parents eyes after receiving
a gift care, knowing that financially things for this family have been really
hard. And the smiles on children's faces as they arrive for summer camp with
their t-shirts and backpacks so proudly displaying the MHM stamp.

So have I made a difference at the end of the day if all I
can do for someone is to pray?

Remember that Jesus was God's Christmas gift, and God never
gives anything but the best for his kids! So let's continue to celebrate this
gift all year long and forget that is Christ we are strong.

Thank you, Anna, for sharing your story and planting the seed!

by Anne Connor
aconnor@mhm.org

The Research, Policy & Planning Department was selected to host the Corporate Offices’ Halloween party this year. We chose “The Decade of the 1960s” as our theme. This offered a wide range of costume possibilities, a great musical selection, and something a little more upbeat than the typical “scary” Halloween focus. How do you put together an authentic theme and atmosphere when most of your team members are too young to remember the 1960s? Research! 

Katrin Ludwig chaired the highly creative party committee, from brainstorming through shopping and implementation. A thousand details, such as decorations, how the contests would operate, communications and awards all received consideration. 

One of the biggest challenges was how to come up with a strong visual theme for the 1960s without a decoration budget. The team solved the problem with a lot of research and a little ingenuity. We researched images from the 1960s, and used them to create table tents and placemats. Our favorite set of decorations consisted of giant letters spelling out “GROOVY,” along with flowers and peace signs. We cut these out and colored them ourselves, and attached them to the vertical beams next to the board room windows.  In true “Green Team” fashion, we cut the letters out of old foam board from discarded signs and displays, saving them from the landfill.

The next step in creating a ‘sixties atmosphere was music. Covita Moroney, our newest team member, went all-out producing an audiovisual extravaganza. She spent hours putting together an eclectic selection of 1960s music, merged with a huge array of digital images from the decade. Three sets of images played from different projectors throughout the board room, really “setting the scene.”

Vanessa Sweet, in an amazing “Mary Poppins” costume, emceed the event. The first feature was a Jeopardy game developed and operated by Sandra Martinez. The questions were challenging but not too obscure, no matter what decade you were born.

The costume contest featured a “People’s Choice” award (by applause meter), won handily by Ed Codina for his highly convincing “hippie” costume. The “Critics’ Choice” costume award went to April Holman, also dressed as a hippie. There were two group  costumes as well: The gang from “Scooby-Doo” (Accounting & Finance), and a group of “worker bees” demonstrating their flower power (Wesley Nurse Health Ministries™).

The food was incredible; Variak Khus and Sandra Martinez organized the food for the potluck and the food competition. There were so many items that we had plenty of time in the food line to admire everybody’s costumes. The “People’s Choice” award went to Fabiola Gil de Rubio for her Puerto Rican Saffron Rice & Beans, and the “Critics’ Choice” award went to Marilyn Stanton for her Meatballs. 

A special thanks to all the judges, and especially to Linda Lopez for mentoring us throughout this process!

The August Wesley Nurse Health Ministries™ quarterly meeting gave Reverend Mickey McCandless, Director of Church Connections and Spiritual Care, and Wesley Nurses in attendance the opportunity to gather for the spiritual formation, "Come Be My Light."

"Come Be My Light," a presentation created by Rev. Mickey McCandless, was designed with the objective of answering the question, "How do I live my faith through my position as a Wesley Nurse?"

Wesley Nurses were asked to reflect on the lifestyle of faith that radically impacts people through Jesus, John Wesley, and Mother Teresa in an effort to learn how to stay healthy in spirit while living this lifestyle of faith.

Questions posed for reflection included:

• What is a lifestyle of faith?
• Who in history has demonstrated that lifestyle?
• How might each of us reflect that lifestyle as we work as Wesley Nurses?
• How do we stay healthy in spirit that we might live this lifestyle for our entire life?
• The difference we can make as we live this lifestyle.

Overall, the presentation prompted positive feedback from those in attendance. Further, one participant suggested the clinical staff of MHM might benefit from the same presentation.

When asked for his personal insight, Rev. Mickey McCandless exclaimed, "I have a passion for spiritual formation and this presentation gave me the opportunity to begin to shape a large group of leaders in growing themselves and offering a new set of perspectives to those with whom they serve. It reminded me that I am fed by public sharing of spiritual and vision themes and must utilize my giftedness of authentic expression regularly."

Interested in learning more about the, "Come Be My Light," presentation? Please contact Rev. Mickey McCandless at (210) 692-7841 or mccandless@mhm.org. Were you able to attend the presentation? Please leave us your feedback!

Last Thursday, the MHM Public Relations department continued the social media and social networking learning series with, "LinkedIn: Building Your Professional Network Online."

This workshop was designed to explore the online medium of LinkedIn by providing attendees with the basic landscape of the professional networking site. As MHM expands its reach through the establishment of a company page on LinkedIn, Facebook page, YouTube channel and organizational Blog, the Public Relations department found ensuring team members feel familiar with such online spaces to be of high importance.

Last week’s workshop examined LinkedIn as a means of establishing professional connections and staying up-to-date with the latest industry related news. More specifically, participants learned how to:

• Build their own professional profile;
• Add network connections;
• Join and create groups;
• Follow and research companies;
• Discover news on LinkedIn Today; and
• Configure account settings.

Participants were first introduced to the various sections that constitute a LinkedIn profile. Further exploration allowed attendees to take a more in-depth look at the editing and customization capabilities provided by LinkedIn, such as the ability to rearrange sections, adjust profile visibility, and tips for optimizing profiles for search engine optimization purposes.

Next, participants examined how LinkedIn Groups and Company Pages work, along with how to receive headline news using the LinkedIn Today feature. Finally, attendees were presented with an outline of the Account Settings area of a basic LinkedIn account.

After an analysis of feedback obtained in a post-presentation survey, it was clear many users were unaware of the expansive features the LinkedIn network has to offer. Attendees reported leaving the workshop with a new-found level of comfort and a revitalized outlook on the LinkedIn platform.

Were you able to attend this session? If so, please share your insights. Still have questions? Please share them here (by adding a comment) or contact Dominica Garza at dgarza@mhm.org or 210-253-3220. You can connect with Dominica Garza on LinkedIn at: linkedin.com/in/dominicagarza.

by Anne Connor
aconnor@mhm.org

San Antonio, like many cities in the United States, faces key gaps in mental health care: A fragmented “system,” with little coordination or collaboration among providers; few resources where the uninsured can receive mental health care in a timely manner; and a serious shortage of mental health providers. The $9.4 million funding initiative announced by Methodist Healthcare Ministries on October 12 was a coordinated response to those needs. The grants made by MHM will change the landscape of care in San Antonio, addressing system issues in a way that will benefit thousands of underserved mental health consumers. 

Here’s why it matters:

1. Hospital discharge is no longer abandonment. Previously, the fragmented mental health system of care in Bexar County did not have a way to care for mental health patients discharged from hospitals. This had gotten so bad that in 2009, bills were drafted trying to address “patient dumping.” In one high-profile case a woman, left at a bus station after being discharged from a mental hospital, died as a result. MHM’s grant to the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) includes funding for a Transitional Care Clinic. This clinic will link patients with care when referred from local ERs and inpatient programs. It will provide next day mental health appointments (almost unheard of in San Antonio) and 60-90 days of transitional care until the patient can be enrolled in existing community programs. The clinic will open in 2012 with a projected capacity of 550 psychiatric patient visits a month. An innovative feature is that care management and therapy will be delivered in the home or community, with patients coming to the clinic for medication management only. By providing 60-90 days of intensive coordinated care, the clinic will (a) decrease emergency visits and re-hospitalizations and (b) provide an inter-professional training venue.
2. San Antonio will have more mental health providers. San Antonio has a lower mental health provider-to-population ratio than the national average, exacerbating other conditions to create a serious care shortage. Through MHM’s grant, UTHSCA will establish a multidisciplinary training and clinical care program, addressing the shortage of mental health professionals, with four new behavioral health training and practice programs. MHM’s total grant to UTHSCSA (for both the Transitional Care Clinic and the behavioral health training and practice programs) is $5.3 million.
3. The mentally ill homeless will receive centrally located care. Prospects Courtyard, the “encampment” at Haven for Hope, is a temporary home for those homeless persons who are not ready to enter the Transformational Program at Haven, largely because of mental health issues. Haven for Hope is not currently equipped to deal with this situation. MHM’s million dollar grant to The Center for Health Care Services will fund a new Mental Health Clinic. This walk-in psychiatric outpatient clinic will serve homeless individuals: (a) living at the Courtyard, (b) living in a new dormitory residence (not funded by MHM), and/or (c) referred by community agencies. Services will include psychiatric assessments and follow-up, medication stabilization and monitoring, case management and rehabilitation, benefit procurement, and nursing assessments.
4. Providers will work together to serve the whole client. Life is not simple, and mental illnesses do not occur in isolation. More often than not, they are accompanied by physical ailments and substance abuse issues. MHM’s $2.8 million grant to The Center for Health Care Services will fund the creation of two new integrated care clinics, in partnership with CentroMed. The program will launch at an existing location, the University Family Health Center Northwest, providing 24/7 access to care and wraparound services. The focus will be on those patients most in need of integrated care (especially high utilizers of emergency and hospitalization services). The second phase of the program will be a brand new clinic in the downtown corridor in Year two of the grant. 
5. Mental health rehabilitation will be more available. Not all mentally ill persons need hospitalization or crisis services. Many are stabilized through medication, and need a place where they can move from the feeling of being disabled (as a patient) to being able. Our House San Antonio is an important part of the mental health continuum of care in Bexar County. At a very low cost per client, it provides outpatient rehabilitation and prevention services for those with severe and persistent mental illness.  The central model is prevention- rather than treatment-oriented, emphasizing healing and stabilization through a work-centered day and a return to a productive role in society. Services include “active reach out” to identify and address possible crisis situations when members do not show up to the Clubhouse. This program has been demonstrated to significantly reduce mental health hospitalizations.  MHM is providing a $300K grant to Our House for capital renovations to a new building that will triple their ultimate capacity to serve clients.

The mental health strategic initiative, mandated by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries Board, was implemented through a year-long effort by a mental health work group convened by MHM.  The work group identified key gaps in the system of mental health care and produced a report on the system of care in July 2011. The grants responded directly to that report.

The San Antonio Express-News also provided coverage on this announcement, to view the article click here.

About the Author:

Anne Connor has 14 years of experience in development and nonprofit management. She is a champion for collaborative work in philanthropy and among nonprofits, and for the use of outcome measurement to demonstrate how programs make a difference. She has been with Methodist Healthcare Ministries for nine years. Her team administers the grants made by MHM, and provides technical assistance to other organizations in seeking grants from foundations and government agencies. She coordinates the Texas Health Funders’ Consortium, organizing educational presentations on health topics (including mental health) and facilitating the co-funding of health grant projects.  

Our 2011 United Way Campaign came to a close last Friday and it has been an AWESOME week!

MHM has exceeded its goal by over $4,700 and we are still counting! Thank you to each team member for your generousity and support.

A campaign meeting was hosted again on Friday, October 14 at the Wesley Health & Wellness Center. Thank you to everyone that was able to attend.

These meetings provided us with an opportunity to hear from several United Way agencies, including: Child Advocates of San Antonio (CASA), Crosspoint, Inc., United Way 2-1-1 and Children’s Association for Maximum Potential (CAMP). They are all doing great things in our community with the support of the United Way.

Remember that everyone who attended a meeting will be entered into a door prize drawing for United Way goodies, gift cards and lunch with our President & CEO! We’ll announce our winners next week.

We will also raffle prizes for donors in each MHM Leadership Giving Level – Steward ($26-249), Mission Partner ($250-499), Caring Servant ($500-999) and John Wesley Society ($1000 and above).

For more information, contact your Pledge Coordinator or Maggie Vasquez at mvasquez@mhm.org.