This program will give an overview of Cenpatico Integrated Care, the services we offer and the commitments we made in our contract for better health outcomes for the people we serve.  We will detail the key measurements we will use to show we are meeting these commitments.

 

 

 

Terry has more than 40 years of behavioral health experience in both public and commercial managed care. She began her career as a child and family therapist in a rural community mental health center in central Illinois and has worked for the last 30 years in Arizona. Terry earned a master‘s degree from the University of Illinois in Clinical Psychology, and she is a licensed counselor, certified coach and certified focus director.

 

For the last 30 years Terry has lived and worked in Arizona. Before coming to Cenpatico, Terry was the Chief Operation Officer for Maricopa County behavioral health crisis network and the operations manager for Medical Professionals of Arizona-Department of Psychiatry. Terry is also an associate professor and prepares fourth year psychiatric residents for Maricopa Integrated Health Systems.

 

Terry was one of the original writers of the 2005 bid that launched Cenpatico Behavioral Health of Arizona. As the Regional Behavioral Health Authority (RBHA), Cenpatico is the organization that oversees the provision of services for people who have behavioral health problems that qualify for AHCCCS. Cenpatico contracts with providers, directs services to best practices, ensures the quality of services, monitors the crisis services, provides community outreach and training and resolves complaints and grievances. After the award of the contract she was offered the opportunity to bring the proposal to life as the CEO. Cenpatico has 90 employees with offices in Tempe, Casa Grande, Bisbee and Yuma.

 

Our program for this day before Thanksgiving was presented by Betty Stauffer, Executive Director of Literacy Connects. Betty shared with us the progress made by Reading Seed in Tucson, which was almost fully funded by RCOT donations in the early years. Reading Seed was established in 1995, and RCOT adopted the program in 2005. In 2011, the program was merged with 4 other local literacy programs, and the 5 combined programs formed Literacy Connects. Today the program serves nearly 1700 students in Pima County by providing a one-on-one 30-minute tutoring sessions weekly. In addition, Reading Seed maintains a library with 20,000 books and hands-out nearly 40,000 books to children each year! While the combined program has a significantly larger budget than back in 2005, Reading Seed did receive $84,000 from RCOT last year alone. As RCOT members, we should all be proud to know that those donated dollars helped improve the reading skills of 94% of the children served. Furthermore, Reading Seed is helping to significantly close the achievement gap for those children. Tomorrow as we give thanks, be sure to thank the more than 150 volunteers who mentor these young children and help the RCOT donations serve to improve our local community.

 

We had four Paul Harris presentations: KATIE DUSENBERRY, DICK KOLASA, JIM MURPHY and SCOTT VAUGHAN. Thanks to the four of you for your continued generous donations!

 

We also had three birthday celebrations: MARGARET HIGGINS, DAN GUARE and BRUCE TUNZE. We wish you all a happy birthday!

And as a reminder, the RCOT Holiday Party has been rescheduled for Tuesday 15 December at 6:00 PM. Don’t forget to register and attend the event!

 

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving with friends and family! And be safe if you’re traveling.

 

 

Although it is six months from RI’s international convention in Seoul, it is not too soon to be taking action if you plan to attend. Registration prices increase in just two weeks. Hotels sell out many months ahead (and you need to hold a cancellable reservation at a second hotel in case your first choice is dropped from the shuttle list by RI, as happened in Sao Paulo). No surprise, the less expensive hotels fill earlier than the luxury locales. Airline tickets are not as urgent a need. Just remember that your preferred dates and times, particularly using award miles, can become scarce even now. But there is also the chance of flight bargains very close to departure (as happened this year).

 

It is clearly an optimum time to decide to attend and to make your plans. The fundamental question is: “Why should I go?”

Reasons to be at the Seoul RI Convention:

Reasons to pass on the Seoul RI Convention (or wait for the 2017 Atlanta event):

Large clubs such as ours have the luxury of allowing members to focus their effort on a limited number of service projects. There will almost always be someone who volunteers in the areas you don’t. If RI conventions are not your interest, our club will still benefit by participation in Seoul from your fellow member(s).

 

If you are on the edge about making a trip to Seoul, know that you wouldn’t be the lone member from Rotary Club of Tucson. President-elect Ellie plans to be there, and our club has had other members attend in years past. Ask any of our Past Presidents about their experiences and to identify others who participated.

 

Rotary is all about improving the world. The Rotary International Convention is yet another way, among a multitude, to bring that about.