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Vol. 2, No. 2
February 2011
MFS CHRONICLE
NEED TO KNOW participants and their guests at the luncheon February 8.
Left to right are Linda Bedell, Jayme Collins, Melanie Diehl, Karen Punska,
Peg Buchanan, Ron Legacy, Maria Ruiz and Holly Parker.
A CANDLE on a cake donated by Price Chopper is lighted by Linda Bedell
to observe Need To Know’s first anniversary. Melanie Diehl, left, the MFS
liaison to Need To Know, joined Need To Know members, from left to right,
Ron Legacy, Peg Buchanan, Maria Ruiz, Holly Parker and Susan Plas at the
celebration.
MARIA RUIZ, a member of Need To Know, poses with
the carrot cake she baked for the celebratory luncheon
February 8.
LINDA BEDELL, a member of Need To Know, stands by the sign she created
which will mark the group’s home at MFS’ 93rd Street facility..
‘NEED TO KNOW’ MARKS
ANNIVERSARY AT KEENE LIBRARY
Need To Know, an organization that began a year ago as a way to help people gain better understanding of programs and services available to them, marked its first anniversary February 8 with a celebration at the Keene Public Library.
The group, which has an office and a computer at the MFS 93rd Street office, invited speakers who attended their monthly meeting to share information about their programs and services.
The information the speakers provided at each month’s meeting were published by the group in its next monthly newsletter so the material could be shared widely. The February issue featured remarks by Brian Ritchie from the Rural Development staff of the U.S. department of Agriculture office in Concord.
Among the guests at the luncheon were Jayme Collins, chief executive officer of Monadnock Family Services, and Karen Punska, a family resource counselor at Cheshire Medical Center.
Also present was Melanie Diehl, a case manager at MFS who is the MFS liaison to the Need To Know group.
Members of Need To Know who were present were Linda Bedell, Maria Ruiz, Susan Plas, Peg Buchanan, Ron Legacy and Holy Parker.
Need To Know said food for the luncheon was donated by Price Chopper, Dunkin Donuts on Winchester Street in Keene, Hannaford’s and Olive Garden.
MEN WHO COOK
SET FOR MARCH 19
If you haven’t gotten your tickets, now is the time for the 9th annual Men Who Cook event March 19 in the Zorn Dining Commons on the Keene State College campus.
The annual event draws big crowds and rave reviews and this year’s event promises to do the same. Seating is limited.
Tickets are $25 for adults, $5 for children under 10 and you can order your tickets by calling Lisa Sullivan at 283-1565.
The event will benefit the agency’s Acute Care Service, which provides a community safety net for people who need our services but un-insured or under-insured.
ROBERT FUSCO, director of Children’s
programs at MFS.
ROBERT FUSCO APPOINTED DIRECTOR
OF MFS’ CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS
Robert Fusco, who has served as acting director of Children’s Programs at Monadnock Family Services for the past year, has accepted appointment as the program’s permanent director, according to Jayme Collins, CEO of MFS.
“Robert, who has been a part of the clinical team at MFS for many years, brings a wealth of experience in the field of child and adolescent counseling services to our program,” Collins said in announcing his appointment. “He brings a powerful vision for achieving the ultimate integration of prevention and treatment," she added.
Fusco has been a social worker working with seriously abused and neglected children and families since 1967. He was a court social worker in Western Massachusetts for three major courts overseeing a geographical area in Massachusetts spanning the Connecticut River Valley from the Connecticut border north to Vermont and New Hampshire.
For a number of years, he was the clinical field instructor for the University of Vermont’s Graduate School of Social Work. He also was UVM ’s Clinical consultant to the supervisors of the State of Vermont’s Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.
He has significant experience in the organizational aspects of community mental health. He had been for 17 years the representative of the Massachusetts Office for Children to Department of Mental Health Area Board for the Franklin Hampshire Region in Western Massachusetts. He has a strong clinical background in object relations theory, specializing in the internalization taking place within the first 18 months, and has been developing community based social service and mental health programs for seriously abused and neglected children and families since 1978.
For the last 12 years, he has been a therapist in New Hampshire, with nine of those years in the Winchester/Keene area. He has extensive administrative experience in Massachusetts and Vermont. He holds a graduate degree in English literature form the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Master’s degree in Social Work (MSW) from the Smith College School for Social Work in Northampton, Mass. He has been the acting director of MFS Children’s Programs for the last year.
 NOTE FROM JAYME
Hello to everyone.
February has been another month of extreme weather but during the last few days I can imagine that change is coming and spring really is around the corner. There is that word “change” again.
We here at Monadnock Family Services have become quite used to change in recent years and know that we are currently in a year that will certainly bring more. We plan on introducing a new electronic medical records system and accommodating the state in its initiative on Mental Health Medicaid Reform. On March 1, 2011, the managers and supervisors will once again meet with me and consultant Phil Suter to begin Phase 2 of his work with us focusing on “managing change in the workplace”. We will learn some thoughtful new ideas and are committed to diligently communicating and supporting each of you as we move forward into these changes.
On Tuesday (February 15), Governor Lynch presented his budget and announced his goal of combining the upper level management of three of the ten Mental Health Centers in New Hampshire to create only seven centers.
This suggested reconfiguration will leave us with three fewer mental health centers. The state’s unrelenting attack on the mental health system continues. Within hours of the governor’s speech, our executive team had written a press release and I was interviewed by The Keene Sentinel. Each of you was copied on these communications.
My message to each of you, our valued employees at MFS, is to remain confident and proud of what we have accomplished. We are diverse in programming, we have strong community partners and we also have a challenging geographic location. In addition, we have sacrificed pay and administrative positions, in recent years, to ensure that service to our consumers was not interrupted or altered. MFS is the essence of what a “community mental health center” should be.
During the next few weeks you were all asked to participate in the strategic planning activity that our Board of Directors are leading for MFS. Approximately 60 percent of our programs are state supported. The other 40 percent of the agency programs reflect a number of unique and important services that are valued and financially supported by our region. Our organization is as unique and independent as the people we serve. Hundreds of children and adults depend on our non-state supported services to insure safety and quality of life.
I look forward to your work on our strategic plan.
In conclusion, Governor Lynch’s idea of combining agencies is just another of the challenges we need to master as we continue our mission to provide quality mental health care for the Monadnock region. I encourage you to tell the story of Monadnock Family Services’ unique “strengths” to anyone who might be able to influence the outcome of this year’s state budget. If we continue to work together I envision nothing but success for the future.
JAYME COLLINS
JENNIFER BOWLER, MFS’ new Director
of Development
MFS APPOINTS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
Jennifer M. Bowler, primarily a fundraiser and public relations specialist, began working January 31 as Director of Development for Monadnock Family Services.
Mrs. Bowler most recently worked for the Dancing Gryphon as Vice President of Marketing and Development. Mrs. Bowler has served many national and state non-profit agencies while working with the Dancing Gryphon, a national consulting firm with offices in New England and Florida..
Her experience as a grant writer, annual campaign fundraiser and a legislative lobbyist will help her develop her department here at MFS. Mrs. Bowler is looking forward to meeting many of you at the Men Who Cook event March 19 which will benefit the MFS Acute Care Service.
She is the mother of two girls, ages 8 and 10.
BOARD CHAIR Robert Rooney, left, Board member Ivy Merrill, consultant
Emily Hall Warren, Board members David Bergeron, John Santos, Jill
Batty and Nancy Vincent at the Board meeting January 27.
BOARD MEMBER Sarah Webb, left, MFS CFO Peter Skalaban, CEO
Jayme Collins, CMO Dr. Frederick Agisim and Robert Fusco, director of
Children’s Services, at the Board strategic planning meeting.
NEW DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Jennifer Bowler, left, along with, left
to right, Board members Laura Hanson, David Orgaz, Michael DiRusso,
Heather Melander, administrative assistant Linda Price, Bob Rooney,
Board chair, and Ivy Merrill at the strategic planning meeting.
STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS BEGINS
The Board of Directors and senior management of Monadnock Family Services gathered January 27 at Stonewall Farm in Keene to begin creating a new strategic plan for the agency.
The Board heard from the agency’s senior staff on what had been accomplished from the previous strategic plan and next steps in the process were discussed. Board members and senior staff are canvassing MFS staff, consumers, community partners and other stakeholders as they prepare to gather again March 24 to move the process forward.
Emily Hall Warren, a former member of the Board, has been helping the Board facilitate the strategic planning process.
The goal is have a new strategic plan in place by the beginning of the next fiscal year, July 1, 2011.
IAN WHIPPIE, left, of Keene High School, Eric Snare,
ActingOut program assistant, and Caitlin Marquis, an
AmeriCorps member from Keene High School, prepare to
do an improvisational performance at the Let’s Move!
celebration.
ACTINGOUT PARTICIPATES IN
NATIONAL SALUTE TO KEENE
A member of the Obama administration came to Keene February 8 to honor the city for its involvement in First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation.
The ceremony at the Keene Recreation Center on Washington Street marked the first anniversary of the program. ActingOut, the theater performance program sponsored by Monadnock Family Services, participated in the 90-minute salute to Keene. ActingOut helps adolescents explore contemporary issues through theatre arts and through the facilitation of stable, healthy group and peer interaction.
The program featured Keene Mayor Dale Pregent; Christie Hager, regional director from Boston for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Arthur Nichols, president and CEO of Cheshire Medical Center and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene, and Emil Netzhammer, provost, and Karrie Kalich, director of the Early Sprouts Program, both from Keene State College.
A cast from ActingOut closed the program with an improvisational skit that acted out the goals of the national “5-2-1-0” project -- encouraging children every day to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, spend no more than 2 hours of recreational screen time (which refers to television, computers, IPods and the like), have 1 hour of physical activity and consume no sugared drinks.
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