Cenpatico

Making a Splash: Cenpatico Arizona Awards $75k Grant to Town of Parker

Cenpatico — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:04:22 +0000

: Pictured, Cenpatico of Arizona CEO Terry Stevens, at right, presents a $75k grant to the Parker Mayor Steve Madoneczky, center, and Community Development Director Guy Gorman at the Parker Town Council meeting on March 2.

Families and children in the Town of Parker, Arizona, will have a new place to cool off this summer. Thanks in large part to a $75,000 grant made by Cenpatico Behavioral Health of Arizona, Parker is in the midst of a project that will see the creation of a splash park at the southeast end of Pop Harvey Park.

The grant was made official at the Parker Town Council Meeting on March 2, when local representatives of Parker and Cenpatico of Arizona CEO Terry Stevens were on hand for a check presentation. The splash park project was initiated on Jan. 5 when the Town Council voted unanimously to approve the measure.

The park will feature a wide variety of low-flow fixtures and is expected to be completed by May of this year.

SAMHSA to host Shared Decision Making in Mental Health Webinar on April 8

Cenpatico — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:18:02 +0000

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will host a Webinar on April 8 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) as part of its Shared Decision-Making in Mental Health Webinars series.

The event, Shared Decision Making in Mental Health: Panel on Service Provider Perspectives and Experiences, is free of charge, and it is open to consumers, providers, family members, policy makers and any other interested individuals.

Patricia Deegan, PhD, of Pat Deegan PhD and Associations, LLC, Michael Leeson, MD, PhD, of Kansas Health Solutions, LLC, and Robert Johnson, MS, LPC, of the Region Ten Community Services Board, are included in the lineup of webinar speakers. Emily Woltmann, PhD, representing the Veterans Affairs National Serious Mental Illness Treatment and Research Center and the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry Mental Health Services Outcomes and Translation, is also scheduled to speak in the event.

This webinar is sponsored by The Office of the Associate Director for Consumer Affairs and the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Registration information for the webinar can be found by clicking here.

For more information regarding mental health, logon to SAMHSA’s website .

Centene Foundation for Quality Healthcare Awards Grant to Fragile Kids Foundation

Cenpatico — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:41:18 +0000

Cenpatico, in association with the Peach State Health Plan, is pleased to announce the awarding of a $35,000 grant by the Centene Foundation for Quality Healthcare to Fragile Kids Foundation, Inc. (FKF), a nonprofit organization based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Cenpatico’s parent company, Centene Corporation, established The Centene Foundation for Quality Healthcare in 2004. This 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation is dedicated to improving the quality of healthcare in the United States.

The grant award will launch the Fragile Kids Partner Program, an effort to better reach underserved, rural Georgia families caring for medically fragile children with a range of diagnoses, including cerebral palsy, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, mitochondrial disorder and other genetic/trauma disorders. The goal of the program is to provide medical equipment and therapy tools to those children in Georgia who are not covered by insurance or any other healthcare option by collaborating with partners in the state that are established social, educational and therapy “homes.”

“For many medically fragile children, durable medical products represent the sort of crucial equipment needed for them to grow and thrive,” said Kathy Bradley-Wells, President, Centene Foundation for Quality Healthcare. “The Fragile Kids Partners Program strengthens FKF’s capacity to serve children and families who experience healthcare disparities throughout Georgia.”

“In a grassroots effort to reach out to rural caregivers of special-needs and chronically ill children, we learned that we share so many of the same families in our equipment grants program with other smaller organizations,” said Carolyn Polakowski, Executive Director, Fragile Kids Foundation. “We discovered that these small, struggling community resource initiatives rarely have the appropriate medical equipment for children in attendance to share. Joining forces with these smaller partners is a natural progression of our mission to fill the gaps for all children with a medically fragile diagnosis. This grant from the Centene Foundation will empower us to launch the program statewide and deepen our network of community advocates and therapists.”

About Fragile Kids Foundation, Inc.
The Fragile Kids Foundation, a twenty-year-old charitable organization serving the entire state of Georgia, provides medical equipment and durable medical goods to medically fragile children that are not covered by government (Medicaid) or private insurance programs. 76% of the children benefitting from the programs of FKF have incomes hovering at the poverty line; 50% of the children are cared for by single mothers and grandmothers. The Foundation provides wheelchair lifts, specialized car seats, communication aids, toileting and bathing systems and other prescribed equipment for children that cannot be secured through other means. Children from birth to 21 who reside in Georgia and have a medically fragile diagnosis – Cerebral Palsy, Spina Bifida, Muscular Dystrophy, Mitochondrial disorder and other genetic and traumatic disorders are eligible for support. The Foundation provides equipment through the “Healthcare Grants” and “Loaned Equipment programs.” The new Partners Program sponsored by Centene Foundation will launch in 2010. For additional information, please visit www.fragilekids.org.

About The Centene Foundation for Quality Healthcare
The Centene Foundation for Quality Healthcare is a non-profit private foundation dedicated to improving the quality of healthcare in the United States. The Foundation serves as a resource to identify and support innovative approaches to improving and increasing the quality of and access to healthcare for low-income individuals and families. This is accomplished through an inspired philanthropic giving plan that seeks to promote efforts and activities that identify and address core causes of unequal access and treatment in healthcare. For additional information, please visit www.centenefoundation.org.

Eating Disorders: An American Health Crisis

Cenpatico — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:19:08 +0000

I have a gripe: as a psychiatrist, I just don’t care for the term “Eating Disorders.” It is just so general and does not do justice to the psychological and physical problems that often lie beneath these different and serious disorders. It really just describes the end result; a person who eats too much or too little to the extreme. Often a person may have just started out by eating smaller or larger amounts of food. But after a while, it gets beyond their control and they eat so little, or so much, that they not only pose a danger to their health but to their very life. Here are some of the most common examples:

Anorexia Nervosa – These are usually (but not always) teenage or young adult females who eat so little that they are at risk of starvation and even death. They can have low blood pressure, brittle hair, thinning bones and heart failure, among a whole host of other physical symptoms.

The real problem here is a distorted body image. Even when they have dieted, vomited, used laxatives and exercised to the point of being only skin and bones, they still see themselves as “fat.” That makes this a body image disorder, and nothing that one says or does can change their minds. Treatment is often long and very difficult, and the object is to help these people gain enough weight to keep them alive and healthy. Fortunately most actually outgrow this illness, but some can have it off and on for a lifetime. And sadly, for a few, Anorexia can actually be fatal since they never learn to accept their body as being “normal” at a weight necessary to sustain life.

Bulimia Nervosa – This is usually quite different from Anorexia. Here an individual has the sense of a loss of control. A person eats an unusually large amount of food, and then often feels guilty about it. That leads to them secretly compensating for such a huge intake by vomiting, using laxatives, fasting and/or exercising to excess. This can also lead to serious problems such as severe tooth decay, dangerous electrolyte imbalances and stomach abnormalities.

The treatment here is frequently psychotherapy and helping a person regain a sense of control, not only of eating, but of their life in general. Other psychological disorders, such as depression, can also be present and need to be addressed in order for treatment to be successful. Medications can often be very useful here.

There are other eating disorders such as Binge Eating, which is similar to Bulimia, but the person does not try to compensate for the over-eating and is often quite obese. This is also a type of loss of control where finding the underlying psychological reasons for the eating behaviors can be very useful.

Lastly, one should not forget overeating, a national health disaster. According to the National Health and Nutrition Survey of 2001-2004, two-thirds of adult Americans are overweight and one-third are obese — figures that have only gotten worse in the previous six years. Overeating can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, osteoarthritis, some forms of cancer and many, many other physical problems that can ultimately lead to a premature death. Here, dieting is not the answer, and it generally does not work as the weight, and often more weight than before, is almost always regained.

Leading a better lifestyle, such as eating more quality foods — including whole grains, fresh vegetables, and fruit, etc. — eating in moderation, exercise and adequate sleep can go a long way in solving this American health crisis.

National Eating Disorder Awareness Week continues through Saturday. If you would like to find out more information on Eating Disorders, I highly recommend the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) website at: www.nimh.nih.gov. You can also call them toll-free at 1-866-615-6464 or email them at nimhinfo@nih.gov.

Bernard Engelberg, M.D.
Cenpatico Medical Director

These are the views of Bernard Engleberg, M.D. and not those of Cenpatico.

My Week at the Child Welfare League of America Annual Meeting

Cenpatico — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:14:02 +0000

I had the privilege to attend the 90th Annual Meeting of the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) from Jan. 24-28 in Washington, D.C. The CWLA is the oldest and largest membership-based child welfare organization in the United States and a prominent leader in advocacy, policy, research and service for this population.

Also attending this conference were approximately 800 private and public agencies and their administrators and various providers, advocates, researchers and students, among others. The five-day event allowed for non-stop opportunities for me to network with others from across the country and to learn about programs in other states. This was my second trip to this conference, so I was familiar with the schedule and knew to wear my comfortable shoes and to take lots of business cards with me for sharing.

As most of my colleagues know, I love talking about our experiences with the Texas Foster Care program, and I am always full of questions for representatives from other states to gauge where we are and what we can learn to improve our program.

This year, the conference consisted of four “mini summits,” each with a series of five workshop sessions on a focused area of practice, including Leadership, Residential Treatment, Juvenile Justice Systems Integration and Early Childhood Mental Health.

The Residential summit was of particular interest in that we have approximately 1,500 members in residential treatment in Texas and transitions between residential and community care can be very challenging. We also have concerns about identifying behavioral or mental health disorders in young children to refer them to appropriate treatment. Likewise, many of our children have involvement with Juvenile Justice, and the network of services is the same for both populations. Each of these areas a critical for program designs for foster care.

I began the week by attending a “Professional Institute” on Sunday. This Institute was an introduction to the Building Bridges Initiative sponsored by SAMHSA that was started several years ago through a grant to “strengthen partnerships between community and residentially based service providers, policymakers, advocates, families and youth.” The initiative “seeks to improve integration, collaboration and innovation and promote best practices that will lead to positive outcomes for children and families.” The work done through this initiative has a great deal of applicability to our Texas program as we have participated in a Texas Public Private Partnership group focused on the top-20 youth in the Texas system that have had difficulty maintaining stability in residential treatment and the community.

Probably the most impactful presenter was a young man who was sent from his home in a large Midwest city to a residential program in Arkansas for most of his teen years. He has since graduated from college, earned his master’s degree and is now an administrator of a mental health program. This young man made a moving presentation on how it feels as a youth to be in a residential program far from family and supports with rules and programs that seem to not have an individual correlation to what the youth needs to improve to return home or to become independent. I look forward to sharing these presentations with my colleagues at the Public Private Partnership in Texas and within the STAR Health program.

I came away from the conference reaffirmed that we all share the responsibility of promoting positive outcomes in an integrated, comprehensive child- and family-focused manner. Foster Care happens within a system that has many stakeholders. Behavioral Health is a key stakeholder, but in order for us to be successful in promoting resiliency and recovery we must integrate our services with the rest of the system. This requires relationships with all of the other stakeholders and understanding of their role within the member’s life.

For anyone who would like more in-depth information on the conference, please contact me at mmcmann@centene.com or at 512-406-7253.

Marsha McMann
Director, Foster Care

Cenpatico Honored as a ‘Best Company in Texas’

Cenpatico — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:29:11 +0000

Photo — Chereeia Brown, left, and Ashley Gallardo were among the Cenpatico contingent that was honored during the 2010 Texas Association of Business Annual Conference, where Cenpatico was named one of the “Best Companies to Work for in Texas” on Jan. 28 at the AT&T Conference Center.

AUSTIN, Texas – Alongside Chief Executive Officer and President Sam Donaldson, PhD, and the Cenpatico Senior Management Team, IPR Coordinator Chereeia Brown and Consumer Advocate Ashley Gallardo were selected to represent Cenpatico during the Best Companies to Work for in Texas Award Ceremony at the 2010 Texas Association of Business Annual Conference on Jan. 28 at the AT&T Conference Center.

Brown and Gallardo were selected to join the Senior Management Team at the ceremony by virtue of their essays in the “What Makes Cenpatico a Best Company to Work for in Texas?” competition held throughout Cenpatico’s Texas offices in January.

“These two entries were insightful and moving, and really drive home our mission that, ‘Together We Inspire Hope for a Better Life,’” Donaldson said.

See below for Brown’s and Gallardo’s takes on what makes Cenpatico one of the best medium-sized companies to work for in Texas:
“Some consider one of society’s hidden shames is that of living with/admitting to having a loved one with a mental illness. Unless you have personally experienced it, you can never imagine the pain, fear, worry, or the sense of hopelessness that becomes a daily part of the lives of all who love that individual. I feel that the services Cenpatico provides to the community aids in giving our members a better quality of life and a vital mainstay to the human spirit …hope! I feel our mission also helps to dissolve the stigma behind any and all behavioral issues, thus making Cenpatico one of the best companies in to work for in Texas.

“I like that we make a real difference in the lives of so many and that we promote our mission through our involvement in activities such as the NAMI walk. I was so proud call my friends out-of-state and tell them I was a part of that. Working here couples my passion and love of helping people with a sense of contributing in a positive way towards life-changing personal and community concerns/issues, making Cenpatico deserving of being honored as one of the best places to work in Texas!”

– Chereeia Brown, IPR Coordinator

“I am a foster care alumnus in college. I never thought I would get a job at such a young age that would be geared at helping the foster care population. I joined a company that has a passion for making a difference in the lives of my brothers and sisters of the foster care system here in Texas. A company that looks at both sides and how we can help youth and help our company, we both share a passion and determination on this subject.

“I have seen other companies be very reluctant to hire foster youth who have aged out of the system, hoping to make a change. This company and my team all want me to use my experience and voice what we can all do to make this system better for our youth in care. Having a supportive team back you up, when you’re not sure if you should voice your opinion, is amazing. I have never had that, but I see it happen here all the time.

“I enjoy being part of this team, and, as we move on into the New Year, we continue to strive towards our goal of helping youth in the Texas Foster Care System. This is why I believe Cenpatico is the best company to work for.”

– Ashley Gallardo, Consumer Advocate

Cenpatico, one of the 85 best companies to work for in Texas as announced by Texas Monthly, ranked as the No. 24 medium-sized company to work for in Texas. The Medium-sized category includes companies that have between 75 and 249 employees. For-profit and nonprofit companies with at least 15 employees in Texas that chose to participate in a two-part survey, which included an organizational overview of the company’s policies and procedures and an in-depth employee questionnaire, were eligible for consideration by Best Companies Group, an independent organization managing the “Best Places to Work” program throughout many states and Canada.

The 85 Best Companies to Work for in Texas is a project of the Texas Association of Business, the Texas State Council of the Society for Human Resource Management, and Best Companies Group.

New Year’s Resolutions

Cenpatico — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:41:14 +0000

As we begin a New Year, it is important for us to take the time to look back on the events of a year that has gone by quickly. Some of these reflections will no doubt bring to mind some wonderful and incredible memories such as the time we were able to spend with family and friends, or celebrating the birth of a child or remembering how you got that job or promotion you’ve been working so hard toward. Or maybe you said “I do” to the one you love or went on the vacation for which you had been saving for months and months. Maybe you finally reached that weight-loss goal you had been shooting for since the last time New Year’s came around.

Unfortunately, for many of us, this past year may have also included some difficult and challenging times.

But as we look forward to this New Year, it is even more important to reflect on the changes we want and need to make, and to make sure that we follow through on those changes.

To that end, it is now time to begin creating your New Year’s Resolutions. What are your goals personally and/or professionally? Have you created a plan to achieve your resolutions/goals? What can you do to keep the momentum going with sticking to your resolutions?

For many of us, one of the top New Year’s resolutions is to exercise more. Of course, for the first few weeks in January, we are in the gym several times a week along with everyone else that made the same resolution. Then, February and March roll around and the number of people in the gym fades – no more waiting around for a treadmill machine to be available, no more crowded exercise classes. So, what happened to everyone’s resolutions?

Here are a few tips to help keep you on track with your goals for the upcoming year:

Write Down your Resolution(s)

Make sure your resolutions are meaningful & important to you

Create a Plan (be sure to write it down)

Make sure your resolutions/goals are reasonable & attainable – losing 30 pounds in two weeks is probably not a reasonable one.
Establish timeframes and deadlines
Monitor and track your progress

Think “Year ‘Round”

Rome wasn’t built in one day. Accomplishing your resolutions won’t happen in one day, either. Yes, it may take only a day or two to determine your resolutions but there are many steps that happen throughout the year to successfully achieve them.

Be Flexible

Life has a funny way of throwing curve balls at us unexpectedly. You must be prepared to revise your plan, and sometimes it may even require changing the goal. For example, if your plan is to lose weight but you find out you’re pregnant, you’re going to have change that goal around. The new goal might be to eat healthier, exercise more, etc.

A few of my New Year’s Resolutions are to improve my balance between work/life – I want to spend more time at home with my family; help more people by donating to various charitable organizations and/or volunteer more of my time at community events; obtain the Strategic Professional Human Resource (SPHR) certification; and last, but not least, I simply want to Enjoy Life More!

Life is a precious gift. Take the time to take care of and pamper yourself. If you don’t, it will have a negative impact on your happiness and health. As a result, this will affect your family, friendships and productivity at work.

What are your New Year’s Resolutions? I encourage you to follow these steps to help you successfully achieve your own resolutions for 2010. Good Luck!

Larissa Sutton

Human Resources Manager

Recovery. Resiliency. Results.

Cenpatico — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:37:27 +0000

We at Cenpatico can look forward to 2010 with the benefit of another year’s worth of experiences and lessons learned that continue to allow us to provide our stakeholders, providers and members with the best possible managed behavioral healthcare.

From new acquisitions to new innovations, Cenpatico’s various experiences ran the gamut in 2009. In association with Centene, our parent company, and our affiliated health plans, 2009 has seen us begin to offer services in three new markets, and we now serve members in all of our markets with an improved, more wide ranging array of services than ever before.

“We were very busy this past year. We did a platform migration in Ohio, fully implemented Florida and implemented in South Carolina and Massachusetts,” said Cenpatico Chief Operating Officer Len Whyte. “A lot of effort went into this because of the simultaneous nature of it.

“We had a lot of parallel processes going on at the same time, and I’m really proud of the fact that all of them were done with a high quality and functioned appropriately when we went live,” Whyte added.

A New Addition
Not only did Cenpatico open business in several new markets, we expanded our services to include speech therapy services via an acquisition by Cenpatico in the school-based division, Cenpatico School Products.

As of July 1, Cenpatico acquired InSpeech, Inc., an Arizona-based practice of Speech/Language Therapists who contract with school systems to provide services to eligible student populations under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

“We bought InSpeech really to compliment what we are doing in the schools with our Cenpatico School Products line,” Whyte said. “And yet, it has opened some doors for other opportunities for us.”

InSpeech is a dynamic practice of speech-language professionals who work, learn and grow together while serving the needs of a broad range of clients in a multitude of settings.

“It’s very exciting to have an opportunity with a new product line that expands the range of services we are able to offer,” added Whyte.

Committed to Quality
In every market, Cenpatico worked to maintain and improve the quality of care offered by our provider networks while also expanding access to recovery supporting services for all of our members. In 2009, our Quality Improvement department conducted five quality improvement studies. Three of the initiatives were clinical and the other two initiatives examined administrative processes.

“In each of the five studies, we are happy to report we have achieved a statistically significant improvement in the care and services delivered to our members and providers,” said Suzanne Feay RN CPHQ, Director of Quality Improvement.

Cenpatico is also continuing toward accreditation by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), a year-long process that is expected to conclude in March 2010. Along with the rest of the Cenpatico staff, Feay, who is spearheading the project, knows how vital NCQA accreditation will be for the company’s future.

“It’s a measure of commitment from the organization that we are committed to having quality business,” Feay said. “Accreditation in NCQA will push us to a new level of excellence and commitment to quality in the managed care market.”

While we will continue to look back at these and many other experiences from a successful year gone, we at Cenpatico maintain a sense of excitement at what is to come in 2010, when we will work harder than ever before to provide our members, providers and stake holders with the best possible managed behavioral healthcare.

“I’m so proud that our company is excelling in all operational areas,” said Cenpatico Chief Executive Officer Sam Donaldson, PhD. “We are delivering the most appropriate care and support for recovery to consumers, with high satisfaction rates from consumers, state and health plan customers, providers and our employees. Every day we demonstrate the value of a managed behavioral healthcare company in achieving, supporting and maintaining behavioral health Recovery, Resiliency and Results.”

From all of us here at Cenpatico, best wishes for the New Year.

Jimmy Donovan

Web Administrator

This is the final of three reports in a series detailing Cenpatico’s 2009 Year-in-Review. Please see below for links to the other releases.

Title Release Date
Part I – Taking the Clinical Initiative — Monday, December 28, 2009
Part II – Improving Provider Relations — Monday, January 4, 2010
Part III – Recovery. Resiliency. Results. — Friday, January 8, 2010

Improving Provider Relations

Cenpatico — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:29:47 +0000

Throughout the past few years, and specifically in 2009, Cenpatico has worked unceasingly to offer its providers with the best possible service, specifically in terms of claims processing. Heading that charge has been Cenpatico’s Director of Operations Implementation, Amy Onest, with the support of various other departments.

“Because of the interventions my team has done over the past two-and-a-half years, we are now in a position where claims are going out the door faster and more accurately,” Onest said. “All problems haven’t been eliminated, but they have been significantly reduced.”

And the proof is in the pudding. In a year-end survey of provider satisfaction, overall satisfaction with being a network practitioner for Cenpatico increased from 76.4% to 86.8%.

“This increase reveals how hard Amy’s team has worked this past year, in getting the systems improved so we pay claims better,” said Cenpatico Chief Operating Officer Len Whyte.

“The best provider relations in the world can’t make a provider happy if we don’t pay their claims,” added Onest.

In 2009, Cenpatico paid its claims with more accuracy than ever. For example, two years ago, claims received needed to be manually reworked at a ratio of 95 per 1,000. By the end of 2009, that ratio was expected to be only 37 per 1,000.

“Len [Whyte] gave us the objective of making the system work lights out, to where if we turned off the lights and walked out the door, the system would work perfectly,” Onest said. “And for two years, we’ve been working towards that.”

Onest expected that, by Dec. 31, 2009, Cenpatico will exceed industry standards in all areas of its claims processing. It’s an achievement that looks even more impressive when considering that, from 2007 through the end of 2009, Cenpatico will have seen its claims received more than double from fewer than 500,000 to more than 1 million.

Jimmy Donovan

Web Administrator

This is the second of three reports in a series detailing Cenpatico’s 2009 Year-in-Review. Please see below for links to the other releases and a complete release schedule:

Taking the Clinical Initiative

Cenpatico — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:58:07 +0000

In the clinical arena, 2009 was a year of innovation for Cenpatico.

“We manage many different markets and lots of different products,” said Vice President of Clinical Operations Cindy Peterson LCSW. “We recognize there is no one-size-fits-all from a clinical perspective.”

Among the many initiatives that were put in place and/or piloted this year, the Caring Voices cell phone program in Ohio was undoubtedly one of the most successful.

“In every one of our other markets where we’ve identified the need, we have gotten a few phones out. But it really seemed in Ohio that there was more of a need” for Caring Voices, Peterson said. “The reception from our consumers to this program has already been incredibly positive in this short period.”

More than 100 qualified consumers were served through Caring Voices in Ohio. Each of them received a preprogrammed cell phone that included predetermined phone numbers from both their clinical support system, including their primary care and behavioral health providers and other professional contacts, and their community support system.

“We give a cell phone to consumers that we think are struggling to stabilize,” said Peterson, who also noted that the idea was originally conceived in one of Cenpatico’s sister health plans under the Centene umbrella for selected perinatal consumers. “We conscripted their idea and said, ‘Let’s try that with behavioral health.’ And we’ve had as much or more success with it.”

Another of our clinical innovations in 2009 was the Discharge Tool Kit.

“One of the things we noted is that when you leave a medical facility, you get these huge packets of information,” Peterson said. “But when people leave the psychiatric hospital, they really weren’t receiving anything besides a piece of paper for a follow-up appointment.”

With the Discharge Tool Kit, Cenpatico’s members can count on leaving their respective stays in psychiatric hospitals with the educational information that can help them stay resilient and informed about their respective illnesses. The kit will let the consumer know they are not alone in their individual battles while also decreasing the likelihood of a return trip to the hospital. For children, Cenpatico provides a Build-a-Bear and a Wal-Mart gift card when the child attends their follow-up appointment. In addition, there is an educational book for children written by Cenpatico’s own staff in both English and Spanish.

“The book is about how to express yourself, and the feelings you have and create,” Peterson said. “We’ve received a lot of letters from families telling us what an impact [the Discharge Tool Kit] has made.”

The Kit has passed through various state approval processes, and in the past month, members began receiving these materials following hospital stays.

Jimmy Donovan

Web Administrator

*This is the first of three reports in a series detailing Cenpatico’s 2009 Year-in-Review. Please see below for a complete release schedule: