BHN 2023 Annual Report: Stronger Together
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A Message from Leadership
Letter from the CEO
Well-being is at the heart of what we do.
Broadly defined, well-being is the experience of good health, happiness and life satisfaction. Overall well-being depends on things going relatively well in different areas of your life: emotional health, physical health, social connections, employment and finances, to name a few. At BHN, supporting the well-being of our staff and the people we serve is at the heart of what we do.
In this year’s Annual Report, we share how BHN has worked to support the well-being of the organization, our employees, and the diverse individuals who receive services in our mental health, substance use, and intellectual and developmental disabilities programs.
This year, BHN committed to support our employees in many ways. We created the Center for Educational and Professional Excellence to ensure that our employees have the training needed to feel competent and capable in their roles. We continued to develop the Staff Excellence Fund and distribute financial support to staff for their own professional development. And we created a pilot Career Pathways program to support our employees in identifying career goals and a professional development plan through which to grow and develop in the company and beyond.
While training and professional development are critical elements to employee satisfaction and well-being, an even more basic factor is compensation. We were pleased in fiscal year 2023 to be able to raise the minimum wage at BHN to $18/hour and adjust other wages accordingly. (A subsequent increase in FY 2024 has already brought this BHN minimum to $20 per hour!) We also moved to a self-insured healthcare model which allows staff more flexibility in provider choice and should enable us to better control healthcare costs in the future.
Despite the improved compensation benefits, we know that many employees still struggle with basic necessities. And we understand that strong work performance is impacted when we struggle with food, housing, childcare, etc. This year we gave over $800,000 in no interest loans or emergency grants to staff in need of support for basic necessities.
As you will see in the report which follows, BHN served over 40,000 individuals from communities across Massachusetts. In addition to maintaining service operations in over 200 existing programs, in FY 2023, BHN opened a number of new and innovative programs and service lines across the region. From the BHN Centers for WellBeing comprehensive 7 day/week access clinics, to the 22-bed state of the art crisis stabilization program for youth, to the full-service Family Resource Center in the underserviced Quaboag Hills region, to our PACT expansion program in Holyoke, to our expanded care management programs... BHN continues to expand and innovate to respond to the needs of our communities and the people we serve.
These things all contribute to overall organizational well-being; and efforts at the organizational level further reinforce the well-being of our employees and persons served. In FY 2023, BHN successfully received maximum levels of accreditation in all relevant service lines (CARF and OQE). Our commitment to social jusice is unwavering and efforts continue to ensure integration of the five pillars of SJ in all areas of operations and service delivery (Access, Diversity, Equity, Human Rights, Participation). Our financial position is strong and stable.
As FY 2023 ends, we acknowledge that our success is possible because of the time, skills and passion of our dedicated employees, visionary board members, and generous donors and the trust our participants have in our care. Thank you to all who contribute to the fulfillment of our mission, and to the well-being of our organization, our staff, and those we serve.
Steve
Letter from the CEO
A Letter from Our Board Chair
Having joined the Board of Directors of Pioneer Developmental Services, a precursor to BHN’s in 2003, I am no stranger to BHN. However, the size, scope and complexity of BHN in 2022 when I became Board Chair is significantly different than the organization I have served all these years, even compared to only five years ago. BHN has almost doubled in size in those five years. And with the mental health epidemic in our region and across the country, I see no indication that this growth will slow down.
As is evident in the following annual report, BHN’s staff and leadership have delivered critically needed services to a significant number of people in all four counties of Western Massachusetts and in the Boston area.
"Innovation and strategic positioning are a hallmark of BHN’s leadership approach - understanding where the needs are and evolving programs and services to meet those ever-changing needs."
I am honored to serve as Board Chair, alongside a diverse and talented group of Directors; and am proud of the work we and the staff of BHN do every day to give back to our communities. Thank you to my fellow Board members, to our staff and to the donors who so generously support the work we do at BHN.
James Gelinas, Board Chair
A Letter from Our Board Chair
Employee Highlights
Supporting the Well-Being of Staff
Revisioning Employee Development
This past year, BHN’s Department of Professional Development was relaunched as the BHN Center for Education & Professional Excellence (The Center). The Center is comprised of four learning institutes - Administration & Compliance Institute, Clinical Learning Institute, Leadership & Supervisory Institute and the Social Justice Institute - and is committed to providing education and training to meet the needs of BHN staff and programs. The Center provides a range of learning opportunities within a socially and racially just framework, in collaboration with integrated health programs, to ensure that our community receives exceptional services from highly skilled staff.
Learn more about the Center’s recent accomplishments over the past year and upcoming initiatives for the coming year.
Critical to employee development, particularly through an equity lens, is intentional effort towards career advancement guidance and support particularly for our diverse staff. To that end, we created the Career Pathways Program, which aims to increase diversity and inclusivity within the agency by providing clear and transparent career advancement opportunities.
By offering structured career development plans, this program helps break down barriers to advancement and fosters a culture of inclusivity and equal opportunity. The goal is to attract and retain more diverse staff, creating a more representative workforce that better reflects the communities we serve and meets the needs and expectations of our stakeholders. Participants work one on one with our Career Cultivator to explore their strengths, areas of growth, interests, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivations; identify ideal career paths, and create objectives with realistic timeframes, potential barriers, and corresponding solutions.
Staff Excellence Fund
The Katherine B. Wilson Staff Excellence Fund was established to support the educational and professional development of staff beyond what is offered via our own Center for Education. Through the generous contributions of our donors, the Staff Excellence Fund provides grant funding to staff for expenses such as academic tuition and books, licensing preparation materials and exam fees, and critical ancillary expenses related to these endeavors, such as childcare and transportation.
Since the Launch of the Katherine B. Wilson Staff Excellence Fund in 2022
Staff requests funded
$166,859 distributed to staff
$4.5 million raised ($5 million goal)
My career goal is to become a Psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. The financial support from the staff excellence fund has assisted me in paying for courses, books, and other supplies needed throughout my educational journey. Continuing my education has helped tremendously with understanding some of the different disparities people face in regards to mental health support services.
BHN partners with Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts to manage the Staff Excellence Fund
The BHN Staff Excellence Fund is structured as an endowment so that it can continue to benefit BHN staff for the foreseeable future. The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts shared a Community Story on its website explaining the staff challenges the fund works to address and why investing in our staff's education and career goals at BHN is a top priority.
Celebrating Staff Success
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Leadership Transitions
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BHN Named One of Boston Globe’s “2022 Top Places to Work in MA"
The annual award of The Boston Globe’s Best Places to Work is based on anonymous employee surveys about leadership, employee appreciation and benefits and is administered by the Pennsylvania-based employee research firm Energage. On the list of 150 companies making the list BHN placed #24 and was one of only two companies in Western Massachusetts to make the list. Overall, more than 94,000 employees at 381 companies completed surveys. This award recognizes the organization for its commitment to creating a workplace where individuals can thrive, highlighting our commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace as well as education and professional development
Spotlight on Services
Supporting the Well-Being of Those We Serve
BHN WellBeing - Centers for Community Behavioral Health
Springfield’s BHN WellBeing Ribbon Cutting at 417 Liberty Street
Westfield’s BHN WellBeing Ribbon Cutting at 77 Mill Street.
As a response to the growing need in Massachusetts for accessible and timely behavioral health services, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts established a number of Community Behavioral Health Centers (CBHC) on January 1, 2023 throughout the state. BHN was awarded the Springfield/Westfield catchment area and the BHN WellBeing outpatient clinics were born with ribbon cutting ceremonies on January 27, 2023.
The CBHC model was established by the former Baker-Polito administration to expand access to high quality outpatient treatment, making appropriate care available where and when people need it. BHN WellBeing is now serving as a critical entry point for timely, high-quality mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) care that includes outpatient and adult and youth crisis intervention.
The welcoming staff at BHN WellBeing in Springfield.
BHN’s Community Behavioral Health Center catchment area includes Agawam, Blandford, Chester, East Longmeadow, Granville, Hampden, Huntington, Indian Orchard, Longmeadow, Montgomery, Russell, Southwick, Springfield, Tolland, Westfield, West Springfield, and Wilbraham.
BHN WellBeing in the News
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BHN WellBeing’s Community Behavioral Health Center is making a positive impact.
Through CBHC, clients are able to come in when they need to without sitting on a waitlist. For some, this initial session has been enough to stabilize with no additional referral needed for routine services. This is allowing us to both serve people at the time of request and also support those who do need routine care without a long gap in engagement."
The Village for Youth, Youth Community Crisis Stabilization Program Opens
BHN's new Youth Community Crisis Stabilization (YCCS) program, The Village for Youth, was in development for the second half of fiscal year 2023 and became open to clients on October 17th.
The newly-developed facility, located at 830 Silver Street in Agawam, is operated in partnership with The Gandara Center and provides on-site short-term crisis stabilization, therapeutic intervention, and specialized programming in a secure site for up to 22 children and adolescents experiencing mental health crises.
The program operates specialized, physically separate and developmentally appropriate units for younger (6-12 years) and older (13-18 years) youth.
Referrals to The Village for Youth program are accepted from any community or hospital Crisis Program, or from psychiatric hospitals seeking to transition a youth from hospitalization to a residential setting. The Village for Youth is a regional program, serving children referred from across Western Massachusetts.
View the Village for Youth virtual tour.
Representatives of BHN, elected and public officials, community partners, and funders joined on September 8th to celebrate the grand opening of the Village for Youth.
New Family Resource Center Opens in Ware
Growing demand for the services provided by BHN’s Family Resource Center in Ware allowed the program to move a few doors down, from 78 Main Street to 82 Main Street, with larger quarters to serve more people.
The spacious facility connects families with a range of community supports and services and supports families with youth who are at risk and needing court involvement due to behavior issues.
Family Resource Centers are located throughout the state and the Department of Children and Families (DCF) funds the network of centers. The BHN Ware Family Resource Center is free and open to the public and walk-ins are welcomed.
Grants to BHN - Improving the Lives of Those We Serve
- Early Education and Out-of-School Time (EEOST) capital improvement grants used to improve safety features, accessibility, and functionality at BHN's Kidstop Children’s Center in Ware.
- Urgent Care in Schools grant. Funding will be used to partner with Springfield’s Washington Elementary School in Springfield and the program is designed to help youth and families access behavioral health care.
- City of Springfield, ARPA Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to continue providing equitable, accessible, and effective behavioral health services to the residents of Springfield via creating equitable pay structures for BHN entry level staff members.
- Department of Mental Health Medication for Opioid Use Disorders Innovations contract to offer a mobile Opioid Treatment Program to the rural Quaboag Valley region, a former “methadone desert” whose overdose death rate was significantly higher than rates of the surrounding region.
- EOHHS Human Services Workforce Development grant for implementing a employee retention and career pathways program to support BHN staff to overcome barriers that create inequity toward advancement.
BHN is a partner in a Digital Equity Partnership Grant to improve digital inclusion for people with disabilities and those with mental health conditions, part of a $4.4 million statewide grant to Vinfen, on behalf of the Human Services Alliance for Digital Equity
According to Michelle Michaelian, Senior Vice President at BHN, “We are excited to be a part of this meaningful initiative. So many of the people we and other providers serve have been disconnected from the world and from vital resources since they lack even basic digital access. This is an issue of equity and this grant will help BHN connect those we serve with the digital connections they need and deserve.”
Hear Their Stories
Patrick's Story
Patrick lives in a BHN group home and thrives with support from his family and BHN staff. BHN’s group residences provide 24-hour supports and services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The safe, accessible, and comfortable homes are in local neighborhoods and accommodate between two and five people. BHN’s professional and compassionate staff assist with day-to-day tasks, community integration, and quality-of-life enhancement.
Ronald’s Story
After serving two years in prison, Ronald needed help getting back on his feet and finding direction. Through the Behavioral Health for Justice-Involved Individuals (BH-JI) program, funded through MassHealth, he found support in his Care Navigator Carla. Watch to learn how Ronald says the program helped him save himself, his future, and his family.
Organizational Excellence
Social Justice
Our commitment to Social Justice values at BHN is strong and the work of infusing the five pillars (Participation, Access, Diversity, Human Rights, Equity) of social justice in all aspects of operations and culture at BHN is on-going and is reflected throughout all sections of this annual report. This year saw the development and implementation of new social justice training courses for staff, intentional inclusion of a social justice lens within policy development and review, and robust bidirectional engagement and collaboration with community partners on shared goals.
The Center for Educational and Professional Excellence added an Institue of Social Justice with the goal of guiding the organization in training, education and learning in order to operationalize social justice in the BHN community. Over the course of this year, they created and implemented Social Justice related courses that are available in the Education HUB that include: LGBTQIA+, Dialogue Across Differences, Compassionate, Accountable Conversations and Familism, Acculturation and Assimilation courses. Additional training initiatives include training all staff in Social Justice 101, training all staff with supervisor responsibilities in Implicit Bias, and training a new cohort of clinicians specializing in delivering trans and nonbinary affirming treatment to youth and adults.
Our Social Justice team at BHN has collaborated with the Human Resources department to ensure that our workforce is diverse and reflects the individuals in the communities we serve. To achieve this, we have placed culturally relevant recruitment ads in a variety of media outlets.
BHN New Hire Ethnicity (816 total)
BHN New Hire Ethnicity (816 Total)
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We engage in an on-going effort to review agency policy to ensure they reflect and support all 5 pillars of social justice. In addition, we identify areas where new policies are needed. One critical new policy was created which allows employees to utilize their chosen name instead of their legal name in select BHN systems and in their email address.
BHN firmly believes that every person should have the freedom to express their identity authentically. Using a chosen name holds vital significance as it acknowledges, respects, and affirms an individual's gender identity, cultural background, or personal preference. By adopting this policy, we are taking another significant step towards creating an environment where each team member feels valued, respected, and empowered to be their true selves.
BHN's Facilities Vendor Fair & Networking Event
BHN held a Facilities Vendor Fair & Networking event in May to grow its vendor pool for upcoming projects. BHN strives to provide safe, accessible, and calming facilities designed with the needs of the individuals we serve in mind. By including and supporting diverse businesses in our supply chain, we create opportunity, promote innovation, and stimulate growth that enriches our marketplace as a whole.
BHN strives to partner with vendors who reflect the diversity of the communities we serve, respect, and embody our social justice values and bring experience and expertise to the table. The contributions of our vendors make it possible for more people to embrace recovery, live independently, and realize their fullest potential.
BHN Staff Wear Green in May for Mental Health Awareness Month
Community Events
2022 Kamp for Kids Holds Welcome Day Celebration
Kamp for Kids held its annual Welcome Day celebration with families and community members in attendance, celebrating 47 years of Kamp! Kampers put on a variety of wonderful and creative performances and displayed artwork. Located at Camp Togowauk in Westfield, Kamp provides children with and without disabilities the opportunity to express themselves through arts and crafts, non-competitive sports, and performing arts.
According to Program Director Anne Benoit, “Nearly 50 years ago, Kamp for Kids was started by a group of community members to provide an inclusive experience for children. Today that concept still prevails and that goes to show that when we work together anything is possible."
Welcome Day had special guests including Jerry Scott, Director of the DDS, Urban Youth Collaborative Program (UYCP). Many of the Kamp staff members are interns through this program.
BHN Celebrates Pride Month
BHN team members joined thousands of people marching to promote and celebrate equality and acceptance at the 2nd Annual Springfield Pride Parade! BHN proudly sponsors the parade and supports our LGBTQIA+ staff and community members.
FY23 Annual Statistics
Communities Served
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Communities Served
Individuals Served Age %
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Individuals Served Ethnicity/Race
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Individuals Served by Division
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Workforce Data
Staff Age
Number of employees: 2,373 Communities represented = 197
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Workforce Ethnicity
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Financials
Revenue
$186,562,854 in Total Revenue
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Expenses
$166,324,212 in Total Revenue
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Thank You to Our Sponsors
