The front-page story (April 28) about Kern County’s draft three-year plan for local mental health services includes an element perceived by many as far too long underprovided and underfunded. To my surprise and delight, this proposed plan reverses that perception for the benefit of all Kern County residents.
As a long-term risk management consultant — including a short-term (year-long) role as Kern County interim risk manager while then-County Counsel Bernard Barmann was in the process of hiring a permanent risk mManager — the notion of prevention, mitigation, elimination and overall control of risk was (and remains) of paramount importance.
A key portion of this notion is to plan systems and processes that encourage early intervention and prevention of mental health issues and their severe personal as well as communitywide negative consequences.
The county’s draft plan appears to provide high priority and significant funding ($6 million) for what is titled “Prevention & Early Intervention and Innovative Program Plan.”
I’ve had earlier experiences in this context — with outstanding outcomes. More specifically, several years ago, my daughter-in-law, Regina Pryor, and I led formation of a local entity to provide proactive “early intervention and treatment” for law enforcement officers and other first responders with early indications of post-traumatic stress disorder.
The key word here is “PROactive” — as opposed to the more prevalent RE-active responses to problems — including most problems we confront in our daily lives. It’s all too “human” to be reactive.
Initially, we called the new organization ”Rotary House Retreat” because it was funded by virtually all Kern County Rotary Clubs.
Its success led more recently to formation of its own 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation called “Public Safety Professionals Retreat.” It has saved careers, restored family relations and marriages, and no doubt saved lives — as suicide is all too prevalent in our nation’s law enforcement and first-responder agencies.
As successful as this early-intervention project has been, PTSD represents only a partial dimension of the problem and its opportunity to help individuals, families, employees and others — not to mention major reduction of taxpayer dollars otherwise required.
Most “solutions” reported in the media are reactive — far too late for reasonable recovery of the individuals involved and for taxpayer cost reductions. Reactive approaches only perpetuate problems.
The county’s draft plan refers to critical issues such as suicide prevention, family connections, and other solutions — even “Biblical Counseling” which is wonderful, of course!
However, the draft plan misses early intervention to prevent active shooters. It also omits early intervention and treatment for those headed for homelessness. Frequently referred to as a “Red Flag” system, the need is pronounced to divert potential active shooters or the unfortunate homeless early on from continuing down a path of destructive consequences.
I must compliment our Kern County Mental Health leadership for their excellent response to the pronounced need for early intervention and treatment in the positive performance they provide and oversee. However, I urge them to add reasonable emphasis to systems for early intervention of potential active shooters, potential homeless, and, of course, first responders in our county with early symptoms of PTSD.
Finally, I’m compelled to mention another dimension of their work in drafting this plan — a comment that emanates from my long-term role as a general management consultant with a major emphasis on strategic and operational planning.
If you read through the overall segment on early intervention and prevention, you will see their closing paragraph listing “outcome measures” — what most refer to as SMART goals or objectives. SMART is an acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound objectives.
The county’s plan complies very well with this key standard and best practice.
This is an excellent plan draft but, like other human efforts, there are always opportunities for “continuous process improvement” — a key element of Kern County’s commitment to Lean Six Sigma quality management standards and best practices.
Now, let’s watch for their results! That’s where all-important accountability is found.
John Pryor is a management consultant and author of a 281-page book published by the International Risk Management Institute in Dallas that converges risk management, quality management and general management principles into a common system for any organization to successfully employ.
