Behavioral Health Pacesetter Award
in Support of Direct Care Workers
“Better Jobs, Better Services, and Better Business”
August 2010
On March 31, 2010, the Annapolis Coalition released a national Call for Nominations for the Behavioral Health Pacesetter Award as part of its continuing efforts to identify and support exemplary workforce practices in community-based behavioral health. The Pacesetter competition is the result of a partnership between the Annapolis Coalition and the Hitachi Foundation and represents the shared desire of both organizations to improve conditions for direct care workers. An important part of this initiative is to develop the business case for supporting lower wage employees, many of whom are unlicensed staff who hold a bachelor’s degree or less, but who provide essential client services on a day-to-day basis.
This initiative, created under the banner “Better Jobs, Better Services, and Better Business” will culminate in national recognition of several organizations engaged in best workforce practices who will become recipients of the Behavioral Health Pacesetter Award.
By mid-May, 2010, fifty-one nominations had been submitted for the award from mental health and substance use treatment and support organizations throughout the United States. In June, 2010, the Annapolis Coalition convened four evaluation teams, comprised of subject matter experts in behavioral health, to begin the process of reviewing applications. The teams seek to identify workforce practices that:
• Strengthen business performance and bottom line results, and;
• Improve work life, skills, and economic advancement among direct support employees, and;
• Improve client outcomes based on the organization’s delivery of high quality services and supports.
As the field of applicants is narrowed down to finalists, the Annapolis Coalition plans to produce case studies that reveal details of the exemplary workforce practices. It is expected that award winners will be announced in late 2010 or early 2011, at which point the Annapolis Coalition and The Hitachi Foundation will use their communication resources to broadly disseminate information about the award recipients and their innovations in national meetings of various major behavioral health organizations, and in the behavioral health trade press.
As a adjunct to the Behavioral Health Pacesetter Award, the Annapolis Coalition is participating in a series of discussions led by The Hitachi Foundation that involve other Hitachi Foundation-sponsored organizations studying ways to improve workforces practices in other segments of the healthcare industry and in manufacturing. As with the Annapolis Coalition effort, these other studies are focused on improving conditions for lower wage workers.
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