From the desk of Becky Flood:
September is National Recovery Month, a national observance held every year to educate Americans that substance use treatment and mental health services can enable those with a mental and/or substance use disorder to live a healthy and rewarding life. We should all be celebrating this month by recognizing the gains made by those in recovery, just as we celebrate health improvements made by those who are managing other health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease. This observance reinforces the positive message that behavioral health is essential to overall health, prevention works, treatment is effective, and people can and do recover. As mentioned in our announcement of the cancellation of our 35^th^ Anniversary Alumni Homecoming, please consider joining us on September 30^th^ at Ripken Stadium for our National Recovery Month Crab Feast. Tickets are available here: https://www.ashleytreatment.org/crabfeast.
I am pleased to tell you that we are making great strides with the strategic planning process. First, I want to thank all of you who participated in the survey and let you know that your results and feedback will be added into our strategic plan going forward. As a follow-up to our initial two-day planning session, we completed a third session with our Management Group on August 23^rd^ and 24th. During this session, we expanded on the Execution Road Map to include our Key Focus Areas for years’ one and three, and the metrics associated with those areas. The next step is to bring in the Board of Directors for the final phase. We have scheduled an October retreat in Park City, Utah with the board to complete this strategic planning process. A few select members of the management team will be attending to provide guidance relative to their operational areas.
Once the strategic plan is finalized, our outside facilitator, Beth Adkisson, will be facilitating half day sessions with each department to work out how each function will be supporting the Ashley Strategic Plan. These initiatives won’t happen overnight but I am sure we can complete this strategic alignment within the next three years; just in time to start the process over again. Additionally, we are looking at layering in team building for every department as well. We are looking at a proposal from a few facilitators that will work with us to strengthen our teams so we can work better together to build a solid foundation that will make our founders’ proud.
Another change happening within Ashley, is our brand. We have been working diligently to better align the brand with Ashley’s forward momentum. The three main components that we have begun updating are the colors, Ashley logo and byline. Going forward, we will be using the name “Ashley” as our “doing business as” (DBA) name and have dropped “Addiction Treatment” from our logo. Additionally, the byline will now read “Everything for Recovery”. This will appear as “ASHLEY – Everything for recovery”. Finally, we have created an updated Ashley color palette updated, including designated colors for specific programs. These colors have been taken directly from elements that are unique to Maryland. The Maryland Blue Crab, The Chesapeake Bay, and the life cycle of the Maryland White Oak Leaf. I will keep you apprised as these changes are implemented throughout the organization. Do not hesitate to reach out with any thoughts and/or feedback on these changes.
The final piece of good news I want to share is that our latest Patient Satisfaction survey showed improvement over July’s results. I am thankful to our staff who have put time and attention towards these surveys and ensuring that we continue to move forward to better improve our programs. We do still have some specific identified opportunities for improvement and each department is spending time working on those areas. Overall, recommending Ashley was high this past month at 93%, 3% over our target goal of 90% and 8% over our threshold of 85%. We do still have some specific identified opportunities for improvement and each department is spending time working on those areas. Overall experiences with individual counselors was high; 94% of all patients had a good to excellent experience with their counselors.
I think that’s all the major news for now, however there is so much news at Ashley so be sure to stay tuned for exciting updates in the months to come. In closing, I want to thank you for your continued support!
Peace, Becky
