Events of 2004
Events important to the fulfillment
of our mission.

News of 2004

Events of 2003

Psychology News

MHS eMail Newsletters

- More -

Metro North Block Club honors Safe Haven III.

30-Nov-2004

Neighbors of the MHS Safe Haven III, a supportive housing program for 12 people with severe mental illness, gave its residents an award for bringing value to the community. Christine L. Krosel, Chair of the Metro North Block Club, presented the award.

The award citation states that the "Block Club recognizes SAFE HAVEN for outstanding leadership in dealing with human services, mental health issues, and community outreach issues in our neighborhood during the year 2004." The program moved to the neighborhood in late September, 2003. Daniel Wutsch is the Safe Haven III Program Manager.

Read more about it!

HHS Deputy Secretary visits Community Women's Shelter.

06-Oct-2004

On Thursday, 6 October 2004, the Honorable Claude A. Allen, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services came to the Community Women's Shelter to launch a new program of specialized services for homeless women who have alcohol or drug addictions, and co-occurring mental disorders. To learn more about his visit and the new program, click here.
 

Home Depot, City Year, ICI Paints, and Rubbermaid help the Community Women's Shelter.



30-September-2004

On the morning of Thursday, 30 September 2004, ten teams of Home Depot employees and City Year volunteers, each led by a Home Depot "Build Captain" and a City Year Representative, converged on the Community Women's Shelter in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. They were joined by workers from ICI Paints and Rubbermaid.

Workers and volunteers patched and painted walls, repaired floors and fixtures, installed cabinets, blinds, and shelving, built outdoor benches, and installed commercial washers and dryers. Their efforts transformed the Shelter by making long-needed renovations, and adding features that make the physical facilities better suited to the needs of the 100-140 women and children who stay at the Shelter each night. MHS thanks all the organizations who provided the materials and talented workers for this project. To learn more, click here.

Beachwood Benevolence  benefits MHS.

This charity shopping event hosted by Beachwood Place took place on the evening of Sunday, 12 September 2004.

MHS thanks Tammy Cvelbar, a Program Manager for the MHS Mobile Crisis Team, for her energetic and enthusiastic organization of this fund-raising event, and to all those who purchased tickets to support MHS.

MHS supporters purchased 439 tickets, more than were sold by any other participating charitable organization. Thank you!

From left to right, Steve Prengler, Vice President, MHS Board of Trustees; Sandy Major, MHS Accounting Manager; Bob Lang, Treasurer, MHS Board of Trustees; Greg Dostal, Fifth Third Bank; Rich Catalano and Rich Robins, MHS Trustees.

Fifth Third Bank not only serves the banking needs of MHS, but also the needs of those clients for whom MHS has been appointed by the Social Security Representative as the client's representative payee. This is one of the services offered by the MHS Outreach and Representative Payee program, managed by Robert Smith, Jr. Sandy Major, Accounting Manager, oversees staff members who work with clients to formulate a budget, and learn money management skills. Fifth Third Bank made the contribution after seeing how MHS supportive services help those with disabling conditions. We thank Fifth Third Bank for its generous contribution.

The Cuyahoga County Community Mental Health Board (CCCMHB) completed its annual audit of MHS on Friday, 9 April 2004.  Auditors found no significant problems in any of the services provided by MHS. Chapter 340, Section 340.03 of the Ohio Revised Code states that each mental health board shall :”Review, evaluate, and conduct program audits for community mental health services, … and determine if the services meet minimum standards … and submit its findings and recommendations to the department of mental health.” The board shall also “Audit … at least annually all programs and services provided under contract with the board. … A copy of the fiscal audit shall be provided to the director of mental health, the auditor of state, and the county auditor …”

Myra Henderson was the leader of the Compliance Audit Specialists who conducted the audit. She and Leisha Yarbrough-Franklin began the audit at MHS on the morning of Tuesday, 6 April. They were joined late in the week by Paulette Baglyos. The auditors reviewed the records of 50 clients who had participated in services paid by Medicaid, five clients who received services not paid by Medicaid, and five clients who received hotline and referral services by phone. They also examined selected agency policies, records of meetings, and other documents to ensure that MHS services are performed in accordance with the standards established by the Ohio Department of Mental Health.

Audit specialists presented their preliminary findings during an exit interview. They reported that MHS staff members had appropriate clinical licenses, and that the records reviewed met standards for obtaining consent for treatment and protecting the confidentiality of health information. Only one record had insufficient documentation to support the medical necessity of services. They determined that several claims were ineligible because of discrepancies in service times, use of incorrect modifiers when documenting services, and other reasons. Auditors again claimed that some community support program services they reviewed were actually payee services, but MHS has contested similar claims in prior audits.

The CCCMHB will send MHS a final audit report in 15 business days, and may ask MHS to submit a written “plan of correction” for correcting deficiencies discovered by the audit team. MHS must make any response within 14 days.

Children of War was presented on Friday, March 26, 2004, at 8 PM, at the Performing Arts Center at the Eastern Campus of Cuyahoga Community College. MHS hosted a special event for the young people, who come from Kurdistan, El Salvador, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Sierra Leone. MHS provided tickets to all members of its staff for the presentation by Ping Chong and the young performers.

Children of War is an original theater work presented by young people who have experienced war, civil strife, and domestic trauma in other countries. MHS has a strong interest in this work because of our work in providing trauma intervention services last year for 1,278 children who had witnessed assaults or other forms of interpersonal violence. MHS is one of the 38 Community Practice Centers of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, and it was at a Network meeting that we learned of this theatre work. Children of War was presented by Ping Chong and Company, and the Center for Multicultural Human Services.

20-Mar-2004

Thank you!   We thank those who contributed to The Plain Dealer’s 2003 “Holiday Spirit: A Community Fund.” Donations reached $263,300, a record high, according to a report in The Plain Dealer, which sponsors and coordinates the fund. Funds from the Holiday Spirit campaign helped needy clients of more than 30 local service agencies, including five clients of MHS.

The Plain Dealer reports that "The Holiday Spirit campaign began in 1913 and was operated by an organization that eventually became the Federation for Community Planning." The Plain Dealer "took over coordinating efforts in the mid-1990s."

Article reference: Atassi, Leila. (2004, March 20). Hard times don’t sap generosity. Cleveland, OH: The Plain Dealer, pp. B-1, B-6. To see the article, click here.
To learn more about the Holiday Spirit campaign, click here. To read The Plain Dealer feature article,  click here.

Cleveland City Councilman Matthew Zone meets with MHS staff members.

18-Mar-2004
9:30-11:00 a.m.

Cleveland City Councilman Matthew Zone visited MHS to discuss homeless assistance and crisis services for those in Ward 17, west of downtown. He was accompanied by his Executive Assistant Maggie Massa, and by Annie Slota of the Detroit Shoreway Development Corporation. The visit was arranged by MHS Executive Director Steven M. Friedman, Ph.D. MHS staff members who took part in the discussion included Susan Neth (Director of Homeless Services), Sarah McGuire (Director of Crisis Services), LaTonya Murray (Outreach Programs Director), Eric Morse (Case Management Director), Mary Zoller and Rick Oliver (Mobile Crisis Team Managers).

Councilman Zone discussed a proposal for building 52-56 units of permanent housing on Madison Avenue on Cleveland’s west side. Dr. Friedman has been a participant in community meetings led by Councilman Zone to discuss this proposal with area residents, property owners, and business owners. The development would not only provide new housing for homeless persons, but supportive services to help them maintain their housing and independence. EDEN Commons is the working name of the proposed development that would be built on property owned by Emerald Development and Economic Network, Inc. (EDEN), a nonprofit housing development corporation with offices on Madison Avenue. MHS collaborates with EDEN on several projects, and MHS would provide supportive services to residents of the development. The Cleveland Housing Council is to design and build the structures. Recovery Resources Inc. and the AIDS Task Force of Greater Cleveland would also provide services to residents.

Councilman Zone also asked MHS staff members about agency services that might help homeless people in the Ward. LaTonya Murray described how outreach staff members have worked with the many homeless persons they identify throughout the community. Steps for getting help for people in crisis were also discussed. Rick Oliver of the Mobile Crisis Team, and Eric Morse, who directs MHS case management services, explained how MHS helps those who are being released from Ohio prisons by working with the Ohio Department of Mental Health’s Community Linkages program.

County Review and Ranking Committee conducts MHS site visits.

19-Feb-2004
to
04-Mar-2004

The Review and Ranking Committee of the Cleveland and Cuyahoga County Office of Homeless Services completed the last of its five site visits to MHS homeless assistance programs on Thursday, 4 March 2004. Committee members included representatives of service providers, local funders, city and county offices, homeless advocates, and persons who had been homeless. Their program reviews signal the beginning of another cycle of competitive applications for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Continuum of Care Homeless Assistance Programs. Eighteen nonprofit organizations operate 29 programs in the current Continuum of Care.

This year, Review and Ranking committees conducted reviews of the Outreach and Representative Payee program, the SPOT clubhouse program of psychosocial rehabilitation, Safe Havens I and III, and the Young Adult Program (Other MHS homeless assistance programs were not reviewed this year, because they had been renewed in prior years for grant terms of two to three years.) During each of the five site visits, three committee members conducted a detailed review of program operations, expenditures, and outcomes. They visited each program site, reviewed selected client charts, and spoke with clients about their satisfaction with the program.

After the completion of all program reviews in the community, the Review and Ranking Committee meets to assign priority scores to projects seeking funding. Last year, among 31 programs in the community seeking renewal funding, the MHS Safe Haven III program had the highest priority, with a rank of #1; Safe Haven II was ranked #2; Safe Haven I was #12; and the Outreach and Representative Payee program was #17.

For other news and information about MHS, click on the links below.

Copyright ©
Mental Health Services for Homeless Persons, Inc. (MHS)
1744 Payne Avenue; Cleveland, Ohio 44114 U.S.A.
216-623-6555 - TTY/TDD: 216-623-6540

The URL of this page is
http://www.mhs-inc.org/Events2004.asp
It was most recently updated on 28 February 2006.
We welcome your comments.
Please write to Joel[at]mhs-inc.org