Summer 2016
DonateNow

YOU ARE HERE: NEWSROOM → NEWSLETTER → SPRING 2017

MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID – What Is It And Why It's Important?

If you have been trained in Medical First Aid and you see someone is having a heart attack, you know to call 911. If someone is unconscious, you know to monitor them until medics arrive, and so on. Mental health issues however, are at times harder to recognize. Sometimes someone is having an emergency right in front of you and can be coming off as “scary”—with this new training, you are taught how to determine if it is an emergency and the basic steps to assist.

Ribbon Cutting
Mental Health First Aid Training

Mental Health First Aid got its start in Australia in 2001 and came to the US in 2008. The drive behind the development of the program was the deficit in public knowledge on how to help someone who may be experiencing mental health complications. And just as medical first aid helps with a range of medical issues or crisis, Mental Health First Aid helps in the same ways. The class itself was developed to educate the general public, bring compassion and empathy for mental health issues, and break down social stigmas. Social service organizations and non-profits have been moving to get their staff certified to better themselves within their fields. Willamette Family’s trained personnel hope to help each person develop skills to better serve clients, but most importantly, their friends and loved ones.

Willamette Family often will have policies and practices that can help someone talk with a client about difficult topics like addiction, mental health crises, and suicide. But when we are at home, in the break room talking to team members, or participating in activities outside of work, there may not be such guidance, and the thought of approaching might be paralyzing. Suicide alone is at a national crisis level being number ten in the top causes of death in our nation, where in Oregon, it is number eight. That is not counting overdose. By providing education to staff and community members, we can bring those statistics down, and bring hope for recovery.

Willamette Family is excited to offer this training to staff and to community members! If you are interested in learning more about Mental Health First Aid, contact Nicole Ormsbee at 541-684-4102.


New Electronic Health Record (EHR)

We are proud to announce that we have officially launched our new EHR – Advanced Data Systems (ADS). For Healthcare organizations like Willamette Family, the implementation of an EHR brings promise to improve efficiency and productivity. With the advent of Coordinated Care Organizations, resultant changes to billing requirements and alternative payment model requirements approach. All of which require a fully integrated EHR capable of data collection and outcome measurement.

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner

While we remain within the early implementation phase as we conclude 2016, we have already experienced many of those promises the use of an EHR is intended to deliver. Naturally, our providers describe efficiency due to the ease of recording, storing, managing, and retrieving client information. Cues in the software ensure essential information is recorded and fewer mistakes are made. In turn, this decreases the administrative burden of file review management. Erroneous claim submissions are all too common in the world of paper, but we embrace Advanced Data Systems seamless billing system interface and electronic claim feature decreasing our liability for errors. Other remarkable benefits include:
* Patient access to records via Portal
* Aggregate data
* Assurance of secure transmission of information
* Improved care delivery
* Productivity and ultimately financial improvement

Apart from the above mentioned benefits, and most important, we believe that once our EHR is fully implemented we will have increased our quality of care.


Testimony: Michael

I was born in a city in Central California where gangs and addiction are prevalent. I lived in a house full of addicts; I was born to two addicted parents. At an early age, I was taken out of the home and was raised by my grandparents. I had a couple of male figures, but it wasn’t my dad. I went searching for another male role model and that role model happened to be a gang. My involvement with the gang fed my addiction as well as my addiction fed my criminality. For years it went on like this…

Client Testimony
Michael and His Family

After I met my wife and had my children, I thought everything was going to be different, but it wasn’t the case. I wanted to be happy. I think that’s what it was, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t be happy.

My turning point came around when I finally saw the real impact of my behavior to my children and how it can affect their future. I called Willamette Family and they welcomed me with open arms. It was so good to finally see my children being so proud of me because I was doing something right. It warms me inside everytime I see my children happy. It was one the best decision I’ve made in lilfe. Willamette Family showed me what I was looking for.

To see more of Michael’s story, please click here