Devereux President’s Blog

I am very pleased to announce that, effective September 1, Gail Atkinson will become Vice President of Operations, with oversight of Texas, Colorado, Arizona, and California. Pam Helm will be promoted to succeed Gail as Executive Director of our Texas Center.

In our most recent strategic planning process, we identified the goal of being the “Employer of Choice” as absolutely critical to our continued success. I believe that these two promotions constitute very important positive steps toward achievement of this goal – for two reasons.

First, our ability to develop leadership talent within Devereux is impressive. Of Devereux’s fifteen senior corporate officers, Gail is one of four who joined Devereux soon after graduation and have been with Devereux for more than thirty years. Since I became President-Elect of Devereux two and a half years ago, three Executive Directors moved into Corporate roles and two Executive Directors retired; all five new Executive Directors, like Pam, came from within the organization.

Second, we are proud of the increasing presence of women in our leadership team. It seems absolutely fitting for women to take leadership roles in an organization founded by a woman! Ten years ago, no Senior Vice Presidents or above were women, and only one Vice President was a woman. Today, three of four Senior Vice Presidents, six of the fifteen senior corporate officers, and seven of fourteen Center Directors are women.

Nevertheless, despite our strong commitment to diversity in our workforce, our record of hiring and promoting minorities to leadership positions is still not as strong as I, and Devereux, would like. While we certainly have more work to do, we are deeply committed to continuing our efforts to assure that we afford career development opportunities for all people in our organization and that we maintain an organizational culture that is attractive and nurturing for all people – regardless of their gender, background, beliefs, or disabilities.

Recognizing and promoting excellent employees, and continuing to build the diversity of our workforce, are two critical elements of being the Employer of Choice.

Miss Devereux believed that every child is a program. In the summer of 1912, Miss Devereux moved a few children who had been unsuccessful in a traditional school setting into her parents’ home to provide individualized educational programs that capitalized on their strengths – not their weaknesses.From that simple beginning, ninety-four years ago, Devereux has grown into the largest, most diversified, not-for-profit provider of behavioral health care services in the country.The diversity of Devereux’s services was made apparent to me, once again, when I visited one of our newest programs, the Esperanza program in Phoenix, Arizona.

Devereux’s Esperanza provides services for unaccompanied alien children. This program provides a safe, structured, nurturing, and therapeutic environment to children who have been detained for entering the country illegally by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Office of Refugee Resettlement.While a child is in Esperanza, Devereux assists either in locating a responsible relative in the United States or initiating a request for asylum based on unstable conditions in the child’s homeland.Since Mexican children are not eligible for the program, children in Devereux’s Esperanza hail from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and further. One child had found her way from Iraq, illegally crossed the border from Mexico, and began her search for a relative living in the United States.How fortunate for her that caring individuals with Devereux could fold her into their caring community at Esperanza.

As many as twenty-three children live in the two group homes of Esperanza. I was immediately struck by how clean and tidy the two houses were. The children themselves do all of the housekeeping. Eager to learn new skills and proud of their new surroundings, they do an excellent job. Although they all have endured significant hardship and are very poorly educated, the children seem to understand the opportunities available to them in the United States. These children look forward to working hard to make a new life for themselves and to sending money back to their families.

Equally amazing to me was the staff – caring, gentle, supportive, and very proud of the work they are doing. All of the staff members are bilingual, critical to working with children who speak little or no English when they arrive at Esperanza. Drawn to the sense of community in the Esperanza program, several of the present staff had migrated to Devereux from other agencies that participated in similar programs of transition for children so far from family and home.

Given the daily heart-breaking news of the war in the Middle East, complete with pictures of displaced families in war-ravaged neighborhoods, visiting Devereux’s Esperanza program made my day.

This morning, like many eBay-ers, I received an eMail from Ms. Meg Whitman, President & CEO of eBay. Ms. Whitman used an email to advocate eBay’s viewpoint on the current congressional debate about a “two-tier” internet that could ultimately give the largest companies preferential access to the highest speeds on the net. Ms. Whitman’s use of email advocacy brought to mind our own efforts to give Devereux stakeholders a way to communicate to their representatives about critical issues related to mental health and developmental disabilities.

Over the past year, however, many of our representatives have responded to the growing use of emails with what’s often called a “logic puzzle.” This logic puzzle adds a step that requires human interaction e.g., “what is the sum of 4+3” and is intended to prevent automated use of emails even though such communications are purposely sent by each individual to express their own position or in support of an organization’s position.

We appreciate the problems that the growing frequency of emails may cause our legislators, but we stand behind our stakeholders’ rights to communicate as a united group(s). Grassroots coalitions are often the most effective voice to address issues like Medicaid, improved schools, access to appropriate services, and the rights of individuals with mental health and developmental challenges. Finding that voice through prudent emails and the internet just makes a lot of sense.

Having just closed our 2006 fiscal year brings to mind thoughts of a few of the important accomplishments of the past 12 months at Devereux and a glimpse into our future. The outlook, as we round the bend just a few years before our 100th birthday, is bright – although significant challenges remain. The developing war in the Middle East, events in Iraq and Afghanistan, the large, long-term structural deficit of the Federal government, and the large Federal trade imbalance all suggest a decreasing willingness and ability of the Federal government to fund human services adequately over the coming years. A separate issue, but related to the pressure on the Federal budget, is a strong, broad effort by the Federal government to reduce future Federal Medicaid expenditures through aggressive auditing of state programs. These issues are daunting challenges, but our work must be a very high priority in a nation that often acknowledges the critical need but under-funds solutions.

On a more local level in Devereux communities across the country, several difficult operational situations were managed very effectively. Most notable were the hurricane evacuation in Texas, the destruction of our New Jersey administrative offices due to fire, and the placement of almost 80 California clients because of the closure of our California children’s MR/DD programs. Devereux staffs are to be commended as all three situations shared a common, critical element: well organized corporate support that helped a Center remain focused on the clients’ needs despite significant administrative and logistic challenges.

Hurricane Rita forced Devereux to coordinate the move of about 100 clients, and a similar number of staff, half-way across the State of Texas under emergency conditions. Devereux staff had to sustain programs for several days in a much different, more open, setting, transport everyone back to campus, and maintain strong communications with families and friends of clients and staff. All of this was done successfully and without major incident.

When the leased New Jersey administrative offices burned to the ground in June, there was no disruption in clients’ programs because of a good disaster plan and exceptional coordination between the New Jersey leadership and the corporate information resources team. All electronic files had been appropriately backed up off-site the night before, so the business recovery was very smoothly executed.

Over the last three months of fiscal 2006, Devereux closed two programs in Santa Barbara, the most difficult and upsetting challenge that we faced. Despite the disappointment and distress that all of us feel about the necessity for this to occur, our ability to support our clients, their families, and our staff through this closure is a measure of our worth as an organization. I am very proud of the team of staff from California, corporate, and other Devereux centers that oversaw this transition.

Although we face many external challenges, we enter fiscal 2007 with very positive momentum. Our new strategic plan provides an achievable road map for long-term success. The Devereux Philosophy of Care is positively impacting the quality of our programs, our balance sheet is the strongest it has ever been, and we are making a difference in thousands of lives every day.

Earlier this week I met with a group of Devereux staff to get their thoughts about the creation of a new mission statement for Devereux. I have to admit I was initially surprised at the interest everyone showed and their eagerness to participate. As the discussion developed, the reason for everyone’s enthusiasm was clear – we are all so proud of the incredibly important mission of Devereux and want everyone to share our passion for this life-changing work. It doesn’t get any better than that!