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North Sound ACH

North Sound Accountable Community of Health

Announcements

Community Impact Director Joins North Sound ACH Team

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In January we welcomed Alicia Benish to the team as the new Community Impact Director. In her role, Alicia will develop meaningful community engagement opportunities among regional partners while supporting North Sound’s collaborative learning initiatives.


Before joining North Sound ACH, Alicia managed the Mobile Medical Program for Seattle-King County Public Health. In this role, Alicia collaborated with community and governmental agencies to develop outreach strategies to provide person-centered physical, dental, and behavioral health services to people experiencing homelessness across the region.
 
Prior to working for Public Health, Alicia was a management consultant who advised health industry clients in developing best practices to engage individuals with complex health conditions. Alicia’s work as a consultant and program manager were informed by her early experiences assisting individuals in navigating health and social service systems as a Spanish medical interpreter, case manager, and community organizer.

Alicia grew up in Snohomish County before moving to Seattle to attend the University of Washington, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies in 2006 and a Master of Health Administration in 2014. In her free time, Alicia enjoys cooking, skiing, and discovering new hiking trails in the PNW. Welcome, Alicia!

Project Managers Reflect on Partner Site Visits

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Our project managers Lindsay Knaus, Heather McGuinness, and Amanda Robins shared some takeaways from recent partner site visits.

From Lindsay: 

This summer’s site visits provided a unique opportunity to connect with partner organizations and learn more about their work on the ground-level. Throughout July and August, we met with partners and their teams across the North Sound region to learn more about implementation efforts and build relationships. 

Through these visits, we were able to go on tours, meet team members, obtain resources and information used for clients and patients, and connect partners across sectors and counties to improve care coordination efforts. 

I learned first-hand about the unique challenges around transportation for San Juan County partners. I gained a new appreciation around planning events and meetings with partners in rural areas, specifically those who can only be reached by ferry or plane. Navigating the ferries during the summer months gave me an appreciation for the unique challenges around access to care and hospital discharge planning between island and mainland partners.

A key takeaway for me was being able to hear partners success stories and through those, connecting the dots between partners working both across sectors and counties to aid care coordination effort.

This experience was extremely valuable to bring back to our ACH team to determine strategies for supporting partners in their implementation work.

From Heather:

This summer’s site visits were a great opportunity for ACH staff to connect with partner organizations. At each visit, project managers sat down with the team to to learn more about how their work was going related to the Medicaid Transformation Project. Partners were able to ask questions and get clarity on ACH expectations, the reporting process, and where to get access to training and technical assistance. ACH staff were able to get a deeper understanding about partner successes and challenges in implementing strategies.

At many site visits, ACH staff were invited on tours of the facilities, which gave us an opportunity to see the work of partner organizations in action. These tours also gave us the chance to learn about programs outside of the scope of ACH work – for example, WSU Extension’s programs to support agricultural workers in starting their own businesses and supporting farmers’ mental health. 

 One key takeaway was the importance of collaboration: nearly all partners expressed a desire to connect with partners working on similar strategies, both to learn from one another and to strengthen referral partnerships.

From Amanda:

Site visits this summer allowed for a wonderful opportunity for me to meet our partners face-to-face and begin developing a long-term relationship rooted in achieving the goals of Medicaid Transformation together. Partners were wonderfully gracious hosts and were clearly excited about the initiatives they are implementing. Learning more in-depth about the challenges that partners are facing in implementing transformation strategies allowed me to recognize areas for collaboration between partners as well as areas where our whole region needs support. Sharing these insights with the greater ACH team allows us to develop plans to thoughtfully support and engage partners in our region. 

As someone who comes from a direct service background, it was great for me to spend time on site with partners and be reminded of the many lives our healthcare system touches. 

Through getting to know our partners and the specific work they are achieving, I more fully understand the depth and breadth of the work we are undertaking and how to help partners in accomplishing the work, region-wide, together.

Lummi Ceremony for Tibetian Monks

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Lummi Ceremony for Tibetian Monks

Members of the North Sound ACH team were honored with an invitation to join a special day with Lummi elders, storytellers and singers, and a group of Tibetan monks who had journeyed to Lummi to join in prayers for the earth. It was an amazing day affirming what binds people together, even when their homelands are thousands of miles apart. The messages of compassion, connectedness, and our spiritual relationship to the earth’s wellbeing was both nurturing and inspiring. We are so thankful to Lummi Nation for inviting us onto their land to join in that very special event.

“Attending this event was an incredible experience, and took me several days to fully process the honor, depth, and breadth of how special it was to share. I was humbled and extremely honored to be invited to join the event, and was struck by the history of the space. The recurring messages of compassion and connectedness to our families, communities, and culture was truly special. The healing aspects of the storytelling and singing that crossed cultures created a beautiful, peaceful space.” ~ Tiffany Edlin, North Sound ACH Staff

“Coming in to this experience with little knowledge of what to expect, I was so impacted by the great history and spiritual connection shared. The overwhelming, radical inclusivity we experienced that afternoon will stick with me for quite some time.”  ~ Hillary Thomsen, North Sound ACH Staff

Thank you to Darrell Hillaire and Children of the Setting Sun for this special invitation and their generous hospitality.

Gratitude and Celebration

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November is Native American Heritage Month, proclaimed by Governor Inslee as a time to “honor the unique heritage of this continent’s First People and reaffirm the commitment to respect each tribe’s sovereignty and cultural identity.”  We give thanks for the leadership of the tribes and their approach to whole person care. Our team continues to learn from them and aim to grow those practices in other parts of the North Sound region.

While the media focuses on the day after Thanksgiving as “Black Friday” we hope you will join us in two other (more important) ways. First, Washington is one of several states that celebrates the day after Thanksgiving as Native American Heritage Day, naming it a state and school holiday. But the holiday is only one part; the proclamation also calls for educating students about the history achievements, and contributions of the tribes. Washington is rich in its 29 tribes and you can learn more about each tribe at this link. Spend at least part of your day learning about the Washington’s tribes, their history and culture.

Second, the day after Thanksgiving is a day where we are called to Opt-Outside. You can #optoutside or check out this link at the Nature Conservancy to find ways to get out and connect to the outdoors. The tribes we work with have known the connection between nature and health since time immemorial, and continue to show leadership in positioning the health of our communities, ecosystems, and wildlife as inextricably linked. They might encourage us to ‘Opt Outside’ every day to find the path to our wellness and wholeness. 

We wish you wellness and gratitude this week, and hope you will celebrate your connectedness to others who were here before us, are here in our communities now, and the amazing land that surrounds us. 

Liz

Happy New Year!

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As we close out the final days of 2017, and march into the new year, we are grateful for the breadth and depth of knowledge, innovation and passion that exists within the North Sound partners and communities. Together, you all have laid the groundwork for change, and our team sees so much opportunity in front of us. To address an issue as challenging – and devastating – as opioids will take us all, with the usual and unexpected partners working together. 

In 2018, we will be working with you to – 

  • Support the counties and the BHO (Behavioral Health Organization) as they forge ahead in integrating managed care and behavioral health services;
  • Detail out the initiatives that will be carried out in our region, with the goal of having those initiatives starting on the ground in the second half of the year;
  • Negotiate contracts with partners who will be carrying out the initiatives; 
  • Pushing out data that describes needs and assets across the region;
  • Analyze workforce (current and future needs), value based payment and population health management strategies;
  • Explore opportunities with partners to support regional work beyond the Medicaid Transformation Project (recognizing that the current Transformation funds will only carry us so far).

That is the promise of the ACH – to be a regional table that coordinates work across partner organizations, optimizes funding to partners who do the work of transforming Medicaid; solicit and incorporate insights and perspectives from community members to guide the work, and find the ‘next’ opportunity to work together for positive change. Thank you for being on this journey with us, and we wish you all a healthy and happy new year!

Liz