In 2017 Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran commissioned a report on the County’s mental health system from the Human Services Research Institute. . That report, released in June 2018, detailed a county agency proud of its work and accomplishments and their clients utter dissatisfaction.
READ – Multnomah County Mental Health System Analysis Draft Final Report, June 2018
READ – A Review of Multnomah County’s Mental Health System Finds Widespread Dissatisfaction
Over a year later, Commissioner Meieran formed a steering committee to create “Analyze, Align, and Act: A Blueprint for Better Behavioral Health.” We’re just finding out about it now and we’ll try to keep this post updated with documents and news of its progress.
From: District 1
Date: Thu, Sep 19, 2019 at 5:31 PM
Subject: Updates + October Steering Committee materials
Greetings, Steering Committee members!
We hope this email finds you well. Our next Steering Committee meeting is just under one month away, on Wednesday October 16 from 9:00 – 11:00am. We know it’s been a while since we last met in June, and hopefully you all had a wonderful summer. As we move into fall, we want to provide you with updates on our work and share materials that will guide our next steps.
First, we have a final draft of our Charter for your review. This Charter reflects our discussion about mission, goals, values, and process, and will serve as a road map to guide the work we hope to accomplish. We would appreciate your review and any comments prior to our meeting in October so that we can finalize the Charter at the meeting.
We have also attached a draft Communications and Public Accountability Plan. After initial discussion with you all, and consultation with Multnomah County’s Communications Team, we have a proposed name/branding for our initiative: Analyze, Align, and Act: A Blueprint for Better Behavioral Health. We believe that this language captures both the visionary and the pragmatic elements of our work as we move toward a better system of care. We welcome your feedback. In furtherance of our efforts around communication, transparency and accountability, Multnomah County Communications will host a page on the County website with our foundational documents and products from meetings, and they will attend a portion of our meeting on 10/16.
Finally, Bevin has produced a draft Goal Matrix which we have attached for your review. The Goal Matrix is based on the recommendations offered in the 2018 Mental Health Systems Analysis, and has been augmented by select recommendations made by other recent assessments and analyses contained in the report’s Appendix. Please do not be alarmed by the length of this document! It is meant to reflect a broad universe of possible goals we could pursue in a coordinated systems change effort. We plan to dedicate a significant portion of time to reviewing and considering this document during our 10/16 meeting. We do not expect you to review this document in close detail prior to our meeting (unless you are inclined to do so!) but if you can scan the Goal Matrix to get a feel for the contents and format, that would help make the process more efficient when we meet and discuss.
It was so great meeting with you and launching this process, and we look forward to an engaging and productive meeting in October! Please don’t hesitate to contact any of us with any questions, concerns or ideas you may have.
In good health,
Sharon, Ebony and Bevin
READ – Blueprint Steering Committee Charter– September 2019
READ – Blueprint Public Accountability Plan– September 2019
READ – Blueprint Goal Matrix draft– September 2019