A Vision for the “Next Generation” Community Behavioral Health Center

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Original Publish Date: September 13, 2016

All too often, behavioral health is viewed as a secondary health care segment, incorrectly perceived as ancillary to larger health care quality outcomes and measures. The nonprofit community behavioral health sector is encumbered by these perceptions, struggling to stake its claim as a valid contributor to the business and health care communities.

Yet, as part of a larger system dedicated to the integration of health care (and, therefore part of the solution in improving health care outcomes, reducing runaway costs and bringing greater efficiencies), the next generation behavioral health providers should find these perceptions changing.

Next generation providers are evolving and adjusting to the various demands in the marketplace, to be poised for the future. We are already witnessing the behavioral health community, as a collective, heeding the call, retooling and making investments that position them to leverage the opportunities that lie ahead.

What are the hallmarks of the “next generation” behavioral health provider? Many of these characteristics fly in the face of traditional perceptions and long-held beliefs about behavioral health: that they are inefficient, undercapitalized and noncompetitive organizations that shrink away from making strategic business investments to ensure long term stability.

Foremost is an Orientation to Business

The next generation nonprofit behavioral health provider possesses a culture of strategic business acumen, viewing itself more as an indispensable social enterprise, more than a basic nonprofit. While these organizations passionately hold onto their mission of social good, their culture must be driven by leadership, accountability and attentiveness to their business that drives it to make decisions that balance “mission” with the “bottom line.”

These providers invest heavily in marketing and branding, because, quite simply, they know that they must to make it in today’s marketplace. Engaging partners and protecting the organizational reputation is essential and these organizations invest, even when the return on investment is not immediate. Fostering a brand identity, maintaining that corporate brand and raising their profile, in their view, establishes a valued presence intended to pursue long term growth and leverage opportunities. Yes, this type of behavioral health provider intrinsically understands that branding and marketing are the lifeblood of any successful, growth oriented business.

Advocacy is Not Optional

Equally significant to the next generation behavioral health provider is advocacy and activism. In fact, advocacy is a vital extension of effective marketing and branding, as it is fundamental in injecting behavioral health issues into national, regional, state and city agendas. Contrary to long held beliefs, many by behavioral health providers themselves, nonprofit organizations can engage in advocacy. In fact, they must. These entities strongly hold the belief that shaping public policy through a persistent, ongoing effort, is a duty and obligation that best serve their patients and the community. Too often, cuts to behavioral health funding leave providers scrambling to preserve their programs. When this happens, any progress gained in addressing health issues is lost. Ongoing engagement with political leaders at the federal, state, county and city levels empowers the next generation behavioral health provider to be an active and informed contributor to the public policy process.

Employee Engagement, Diverse Team

The next generation behavioral health provider understands that it cannot exist long term if it does not effectively invest in its human resources and promote a work environment and culture that is sustainable. And this is not just about paying staff fair and competitive wages, although that is important, too. According to a 2015 report by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), surveyed employees ranked, respectful treatment highest, followed by overall benefits, trust between co-workers/management, compensation, job security and relationship with their supervisor.

While most workplaces should be duty-bound to ensure that staff feel connected to their work, this is especially critical in an environment such as behavioral health care, where working with extremely challenging populations is an intense experience for staff. What makes staff feel engaged and invigorated? 76 percent of staff surveyed by SHRM indicated that their contributions to organizational goals were most important, while 75 percent ranked meaningfulness of their job as most important. The next generation behavioral health provider, then, sees it as a key role to ensure that staff are reminded of their value, feel their contributions carry weight and are proactively engaged to the corporate vision and mission.

The next generation behavioral health provider must also look beyond the clinical aspects of their business, actively seeking to hire and retain individuals outside of clinical settings to serve the organization’s essential administrative functions. Literacy in marketing, technology, government affairs, finance, development and other functions are no longer nice options to have, but are non-negotiable to the growth of next generation nonprofits. Without these diverse professional contributions, long term, strategic and industry-changing business opportunities are more likely to be overlooked or, worse yet, unrecognized.

Inspiring Productivity

Above all else, next generation behavioral health providers will design a work environment that serves as a rich ecosystem, inspiring productivity, fulfillment, shared purpose and, above all else, sustainability. While aspects of traditional management structures still play a role in achieving accountability, the next generation behavioral health provider must embrace the idea of autonomy among its staff. Staff work directly in the field, whether in a therapeutic setting, in a boardroom or at a networking event, and it is essential they feel empowered to collaborate with supervisors and make informed, strategic decisions. Promoting new ideas and fostering a sense of involvement in the affairs of the organization are essential to improve the quality of services and the customer experience. Staff must be given the freedom and empowerment to pursue additional training and education that develops their talents and interests – which also reflects a willingness to reinvest into our service quality and customer experiences.

Infrastructure and Technology

Another way the next generation behavioral health provider can empower its employees, and promote service quality, of course, is through technology and infrastructure. Providing staff with sufficient platforms to perform their work is essential to serving patients and supporting the mission. As employees develop skills, they can be more productive and serve more clients and the organization serves its function. But, technology and infrastructure is also an important aspect of promoting a level of efficiency and productivity for behavioral health staff to adjust to a few key developments in the industry: increased access to care driven by the Affordable Care Act and the movement toward behavioral health integration with primary care. Part of the business acumen mentioned above compels the next generation behavioral health provider to make significant and unprecedented investments in technology to drive industry-changing partnerships with major health providers. Integration, improved outcomes, reduced costs and better overall health care quality all are enhanced when the next generation behavioral health provider makes these investments. It simply is not possible for forward-thinking behavioral health providers to ensure a level of longevity and the ability to impact the future of health care delivery without such a commitment.

Conclusion

These, of course, are but a few key elements I believe to be essential to foster an effective and sustainable community behavioral health organization. In my view, the next generation behavioral health provider recognizes that a vibrant, dynamic and efficient organization actively poses the question “What kind of organization do we want to be?” It also askes “What investments will we make to become that type of organization?”

Our investments in our human resources, our organizational infrastructure, our workplace environment and our engagements beyond the clinical mission are key to being a sustainable workplace. But these things are also essential, in my view, to being a viable, long term partner in the integration of health care. It is where health care is headed -- and next generation behavioral health care organizations will be a critical part of that future, a future in which I expect Sound Mental Health to play a contributing role.

Patrick Evans is CEO at Sound Mental Health, which serves nearly one-third of King County’s publicly-funded behavioral health population with mental health and addiction services. Mr. Evans brings a strong background in business, behavioral health integration and technology implementation to his role at SMH and is committed to engaging partners in business and public policy.