"Dee Snider's Rock & Roll Christmas Tale" in Chicago | Seth Bate

KICT/Wichita, Kansas, listener Seth Bate recently won our killer prize package to catch the Broadway-bound metal musical, Dee Snider’s Rock & Roll Christmas Tale in Chicago. Seth wrote us to share his (and wife Jenny’s) experience...check it out:

Seth Bate

We can’t say enough about what a great time we had as the winners of the “Dee Snider’s Rock & Roll Christmas Tale” contest. At first, we were afraid we wouldn’t be going at all. The Wichita airport was fogged in, and we were told our flight was cancelled. As it turned out, we were barely delayed. You can’t stop rock & roll!

Friday night, we had an amazing four-course meal at RPM Italian from the housemade ricotta starter to the cannoli for dessert.

Saturday we visited the National Hellenic Museum, which we have wanted to see for a long time, and ate and shopped in Greek Town. Then we went to be in the throngs of shoppers at the BMO Harris Bank Magnificent Mile Lights Festival. Everywhere we looked there were taxis advertising “Dee Snider’s Rock & Roll Christmas Tale,” and you can tell the whole town is excited for it.

The show itself is everything you could want in a Christmas story – equal parts Jean Shepherd and Gene Simmons. We were in the front row looking directly up at Dee in his distinguished narrator’s chair. The stage graffiti even says “I heart Jenny,” which we decided was a good sign. Producer John Yanover checked on us many times before and after the show, and everyone we talked to knew our contest entry story. It was like we were the celebrities.

As soon as the show was over, [Dee’s wife] Suzette Guilot-Snider ran over to greet us. Believe us, you know when you have been hugged and kissed by Suzette! Dee spent a generous amount of time with us, signed everything we brought – including my 1983 12” single of “The Kids Are Back” – and we were on our way.

If you can possibly make it to Chicago this holiday season, go see “Dee Snider’s Rock & Roll Christmas Tale”! And remember that metal miracles do happen!

Horns up,

-- Seth Bate and Jenny Muret Bate

Shared from The House of Hair, linked here:

http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=8b0d3bf813e629c2280953147&id=d62eaa7a4d

CCSR Behavioral Health Team strengthens Consumer Run Organizations

Members of consumer run organizations participated in peer
support training this summer.

The Center for Community Support and Research (CCSR) has recently expanded its services to Kansas Consumer Run Organizations (CROs). CROs are grass-roots organizations led by mental health consumers dedicated to promoting recovery among their members. Historically, CCSR has provided organizational capacity support to CROs, such as board development and strategic planning.

Through a new contract with the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services (KDADS), CCSR’s Behavioral Health Team is starting an initiative with CROs to increase their use of peer-to-peer support based on a model that is recognized by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) as one of the best practices for adult mental health support.

“It’s really exciting seeing the impact that the CROs are having on individual lives as their organizations provide more peer-recovery based activities. I’ve been working with our behavioral health partners for years and it is great to be in a position to provide tools to help strengthen organizations across the state,” said Sam Demel, community and organization specialist at CCSR.

In addition to the existing CROs, CCSR is also working with several Regional Recovery Resource Centers in Kansas to promote peer support practices by mental health consumers in areas not currently served by a CRO.

“CCSR has been a proud partner of the Kansas mental health recovery movement for more than half of our 30 history,” said Randy Johnson, CCSR director of Behavioral Health Initiatives. “It only makes sense for an organization rooted in the principles of self-help to live that commitment in the form of service to groups such as these.”

Support for this initiative is provided through a grant from the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services. To learn more about our work with CRO’s, contact Sam Demel at samuel.demel@wichita.edu or 316-978-6474.

Reflections on Lived Poverty | Austin Burke

I thought I came prepared for my year of service in AmeriCorps VISTA. As a VISTA member, you spend a year serving poverty efforts while being paid a living stipend at the poverty level. I would have the opportunity to experience being in poverty while simultaneously fighting it. I knew that it would be challenging but that I could do it. I figured that if 14.5% or 45.3 million Americans are living at the poverty line (https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/about/overview/), I would be able to do it for a year.

I came in with every advantage possible. I am college educated, have my own car, and had ample

time to research and prepare. I think it’s worth noting that many people are living two paychecks away from poverty and don’t have time to prepare. I read blogs from other VISTAs, got cheap housing with reliable roommates, downloaded a cookbook for people on SNAP (food stamps),

figured out the minimum I could budget for food through the USDA ($190/month), and figured out how far my work commute would be and estimated my gas costs. I set what I thought was a reasonable budget and hoped for the best.

My term started off alright in July with my position at the Center for Community Support and Research at Wichita State University. At first I was able to keep to my budget. I cooked every meal, planned my car trips to the store and Laundromat to save on gas, didn’t spend money on clothing or entertainment, and took advantage of SNAP benefits and the YMCA slider scale membership fee. However, I was running at capacity with no room for error. The amount of effort and time it took to live like this is immense and I found there couldn’t be much deviation from my daily plan. Not to mention all the relationship and family obligations that doesn’t go away when you are poor. Once one thing went wrong, everything snowballed. I found that even with a good plan, it was exhausting to keep up.

Also, there are things about poverty that aren’t talked about and I didn’t plan to happen. Nobody talks about the amount of guilt and fear you feel every day because of your circumstance. There is the guilt of using SNAP. Do I really need them? I could get by eating canned ravioli and ramen noodles. One day I forgot my lunch at home and bought a healthy lunch for $6.50. This may not seem like much, but it’s the amount I budget for food for the entire day and I wasn’t full. I felt guilty, kicking myself for the mistake. There was another time when I was mistakenly charged for a hotel room and would be refunded once the credit card company cleared the transaction. It temporarily left me with under $100 in the bank. It’s a pretty scary feeling knowing you may not have money for gas to get to work. Every mistake, no matter how small, feels like the start of an out of control snowball.

However, I am very happy I decided to do this year of service, even with all of the challenges. I’ve gained insight on poverty that only those in poverty understand. I’ve been supported by my work colleagues and organizations that help the impoverished. I’ve learned great skills, both at work and at home that I’ll use for the rest of my life. I’m grateful for this opportunity to serve and for those who serve the impoverished. 

Recovery is Possible | Christine Young

Recovery Is Possible: Inducing Hope Through Recovery-Based Models of Mental Health

Adapted from “Recovery is Possible: life on the other side of a psychiatric diagnosis,” a speech by Christine Young.

According to the National Institutes for Mental Health (NIMH), there were an estimated 9.6 million
adults aged 18 or older in the U.S. with a “serious mental illness” (SMI) diagnosis in 2012. This represented 4.1 percent of all U.S. adults. About 1 in 5 Americans can expect to suffer from some type of mental health challenge during their lifetime.

With the prevalence of Mental Health diagnosis being 1 in 5, the odds are that either someone you know or perhaps even yourself have been labeled with a diagnosis. But life on the other side of that diagnosis is possible. Recovery is possible.

 As a Peer Educator and Certified Peer Specialist Christine Young has spent the last five years training and educating people on the possibility of recovery after a mental health diagnosis. In her work, the prevalence of mental health diagnoses has made the message that recovery is possible particularly important to convey.

Key to the idea that recovery is possible is that it is a non-linear process of gaining control over one’s life and life direction.

According to Young, “When people receive a mental health diagnosis like depression, bi-polar or anxiety disorder, they are often left to feel like that is it. This is the way that the rest of their lives will be. They often face stigma and self-esteem issues around the belief that they are permanently ill or somehow broken.” 

A recovery orientation rejects that idea and recognizes that there are things people can do to get well and stay well. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) defines recovery as “a process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live self-directed lives, and strive to reach their full potential.”

According to Christine Young, “Hope plays a pivotal role in recovery. A person has to have both the ability and the opportunity to engage in the recovery process. So this includes access to recovery based services.” Recovery-based services include peer support, services based on a person’s strengths instead of deficits, and self-supported tools such as the Wellness Recovery Action Plan, among other activities and interventions.

According to Young, we’re often hindered in our recovery by what the Appalachian Consulting Group has called the “disabling powers” of a psychiatric diagnosis, including one’s self-image, the side-effects of medication, stigma, and sometimes the mental health system itself.

The Appalachian Consulting Group’s Stages Model of recovery gives us one idea of how to approach a person’s relationship with those disabling powers as we move through the “impact of illness,” a period where “life is limited,” a point at which we see that “change is possible,” where we go through a “commitment to change,” and where we make “actions for change” in our lives.

We may engage in these stages in a non-linear way, at times feeling overwhelmed and ill, but perhaps skipping quickly to seeing hope as we realize that change is possible.

None of the ideas about recovery presented here mention that symptoms have to go away, as long as they aren't a barrier to engaging in the process of controlling one’s life and life direction.

By communicating that all are able to enter into the recovery process, people can live lives of hope and opportunity. As stated on the SAMHSA website, “Today when individuals with mental and/or substance use disorders seek help, they are met with the knowledge and belief that anyone can recover.”            

What I've Learned About Public Health | Austin Burke

I don’t have a background in public health. I only had a basic understanding of it when I accepted my VISTA position on the Public Health Initiatives team at Wichita State’s Center for Community Support and Research (CCSR). I get to serve, protect and improve the public’s health? Sure that sounds fun, sign me up! My mom thinks public health is “like that Ebola stuff”. That’s not wrong, but it’s not all public health does. Through my work in Public Health Accreditation, I learned an amazing amount about public health and the people who do this work every day. 

Public Health Accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) is a measurement of health department performance against a set of nationally recognized, practice-

focused and evidenced-based standards. Accreditation is based off of the three core functions (assurance, assessment and policy development) and 10 essential services of public health (pictured). In order to gain accreditation, a health department must perform and be able to document these services in addition to passing a site review. The goal of accreditation is to improve and protect the health of the public by advancing the quality and performance of tribal, state, local, and territorial public health departments.

The Kansas Accreditation Readiness Project (KARP) is a learning group designed to build health departments capacity to prepare for this accreditation. Every month CCSR facilitates a webinar where the learning group reviews accreditation standards information, peer reviews documents needed for accreditation, and gain insight from PHAB site reviewers.

This project has opened my eyes to all aspects of public health. The first thing I learned was about the comprehensiveness of public health. The standards and measures document for accreditation is 264 pages long, and it doesn’t go into details! There are hundreds of required documents to demonstrate that a health department meets the measures.

I also learned about some of the barriers health departments face on a day-to-day basis. I was surprised to learn that for many counties in Kansas, the number of health department staff can be counted on one hand. Many of these employees have other duties in addition to the public health work they do. It also made me feel great to see that these people are making an effort to get accredited in order to better serve their community. It can seem like a daunting task for a small department, but they are making an effort to better serve their population.

Lastly, I was able to learn that public health is a small world. I met some of the KARP participants at the Kansas Public Health Association conference in Topeka and ran into other public health professionals that I thought I’d never meet. I’m excited to continue work on this project and meet more great public health workers. 

Meet Jessica, one of our interns!

Jessica Hutton joined the Center for Community Support and Research as a Master of Science in Social Administration practicum student in 2014. An honor graduate from Newman University, Jessica earned her Bachelor of Science in psychology in 2013. She is a distance learner through the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University in Wichita, concentrating in community practice for social change.

Jessica has contributed to the efforts of the Trauma-Informed Systems of Care team and the AmeriCorps VISTA program and looks forward to contributing to additional projects in the two years she will continue as a practicum student at CCSR.

Jessica is passionate about systems change and program development, especially related to corrections and other traumatized systems. In her free time, Jessica enjoys reading, writing non-fiction, watching movies and spending time with her teen son and life partner.

New CCSR project supports public health agencies statewide

The Center for Community Support and Research (CCSR) has recently been awarded a two-year contract from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) to build the organizational capacity of health departments. Through this nearly $400,000 contract, CCSR will assist health departments in the implementation of electronic health records and provide training which will increase the number of immunizations health departments provide. If current estimates are correct, there could be a twenty-five percent increase in billing revenue for health departments through the appropriate provision of immunizations.

Financial Planning and Management Skills are among the eight core public health competencies. Nationwide and statewide, local public health officials consistently self-assess their competence with Financial Planning and Management Skills lowest among those eight core skills. Billing is a key component of the financial management process. 

“This effort offers training and tools to sustain local health departments by maximizing access to resources already available in the system, which in turn assures more residents are protected from vaccine-preventable diseases,” says Sonja Armbruster, CCSR director of public health initiatives. 

This project is an implementation phase of a previous planning grant and builds on needs previously identified by local health departments. The CCSR will provide statewide training and create a billing and coding manual for Kansas health departments. In addition, the CCSR will provide more focused assistance to 10 health departments to implement the use of Practice Management Software and/or electronic health records. The CCSR will partner with the Kansas Association of Local Health Departments (KALHD), to select the departments to participate in the project.

The contract originates from a grant the Centers for Disease and Control awarded to the KDHE in September. For more information contact Sonja Armbruster at sonja.armbruster@wichita.edu or 316-978-3988.

Meet Melissa, our new Student Engagement Assistant!

Melissa joined CCSR in October of 2014 as an intern assisting with our student engagement and VISTA projects.

Not long out of college, Melissa graduated from Northern Michigan University (NMU) in May 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education. While at NMU she was a member of the varsity track and field team; participating in the pentathlon and heptathlon. She also has been an avid equestrian her entire life with a special love for rodeo. For the last five years she volunteered with the Great Lakes Rodeo as the queen and court coordinator after passing on her own crown in 2009. When she’s home in Michigan, she competes in barrel racing, team penning, team roping and bull riding with her two geldings, Kenny and Scotty. (Pictured)

Melissa is attending Wichita State University and taking graduate classes in sport management. In her free time she volunteers as a coach for Wichita State University’s track and field team and gives horseback riding lesson to children at a local stable.

Meet Alison Acridge, our social media intern

Alison Acridge, goes by Allie, has joined the CCSR team as the social media person. She is a communication major and is graduating with her Bachelor’s in December. She has always loved social media and is now putting it to use for CCSR.

She loves to travel. She has been to 23 states and three other countries. “I loved South Carolina, I’d love to move there someday. You just kind of fall in love with places when you travel so much,” she said, “I hope to some day see all 50 states.” She went to Nova Scotia with her great-grandma, dad and step-mom over fall break. “This year I went to Cozumel, Mexico, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Maine.” She has applied to the Peace Corps and hopes to travel more after graduation.

In her spare time she loves Netflix, reading, sailing, going to the gym and taking photographs. “I’d love to take a whole class on photography. It just hasn't worked out while in college,” she stated.

Meet Emily, one of our new interns!

Emily Chace recently joined our staff as a Masters of Social Work student. She is helping with our Home & Community Based Services Medicaid project and contributing to the Trauma-Informed Systems of Care (TISC) team. Emily earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology with minors in sociology and Spanish at Wichita State University.

Emily Chace

To complete her degree in Spanish, she recently took a 6-week trip to Mexico. “I loved it,” she said. “I liked the people especially. I found them to be very family orientated, loving and accepting. “

Emily appreciated the cultural differences she encountered on her trip. “I think that different cultures can bring different things to experiences,” she said. “By accepting people you can have great relationships.”

This semester she is researching what other states are doing in the area of trauma. This work may possibly contribute to her future interests as she one day plans to continue her education toward a PhD in clinical psychology.

Hunting is a favorite pass-time for this girl who grew up in the country. She’s hunted just about everything, especially deer. We’ll want to watch what dish she brings to the office potlucks because she said that the only thing in her freezer is deer meat. “For fun I like yoga, visiting my one-year old nephew, JW, and being outdoors.”

Meet Zachariah, Our new student at CCSR!

Zachariah McCallister is one of the Wichita State students working at the Center for Community Support and Research this semester. A senior studying social work from Wichita. He graduated from Southeast High School with a focus on math, science and music.

“A near-death experience and an extended recovery caused many changes in my life and I found a new path for myself in the field of social work,” said McCallister. “Many of my life experiences have shown that people can get trapped in challenging situations because of circumstances they cannot control. I want to be an advocate who helps others discover ways to get the resources they need in order to have the quality of life everyone deserves. I decided that becoming a social worker would be the best path for me to succeed, and I have been excited every step of the way.”

CCSR Selected for VISTA Intermediary Sponsor to Address Poverty in Kansas

Public Health Initiatives VISTA Fellows Austin Burke, BS

The Center for Community Support and Research (CCSR) was recently selected by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) to serve Kansas as an AmeriCorps VISTA Intermediary Sponsor. AmeriCorps VISTA is a national and community service program administered by the CNCS placing volunteers in poverty-fighting organizations across the United States.  Through this award, CCSR will create WSU VISTA Fellows connecting them with nonprofits, government, and public health serving agencies statewide. This project is an innovative way to connect WSU with community organizations that address poverty.

Through the VISTA Fellows Project, WSU graduates will engage in one year of hands-on service in their community while applying knowledge, expertise and skills they learned during their educational experience. “It’s a way to put their degree to use while giving back to their community,” said Teresa Strausz, MSOD, LMSW, CCSR Community Engagement and Learning Coordinator. WSU VISTA Fellows help build capacity of nonprofits and other organizations whose missions and/or services impact those who are economically disadvantaged.

The inaugural group of VISTA Fellows arrived in Kansas on July 18 serving Peace Connections/Circles of Hope in Harvey County, Communities In Schools of Wichita/Sedgwick County, Rainbows United, Inc. and CCSR’s Public Health Initiatives team. You can find these Fellows engaged in a variety of activities including program development, marketing/communications, fund development/grant writing, and volunteer management. 

Scott Wituk, CCSR’s Executive Director said, “We are honored to be selected by CNCS to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA Intermediary Sponsor.  This is a great opportunity for recent WSU graduates to apply what they have learned through their WSU coursework. I think they will learn a lot more through this applied experience and it will also position them to be more engaged citizens for the rest of their lives.  I also know we have a lot of hard, challenging work in front of us, but are hopeful that in a few years, dozens of WSU VISTA Fellows will be actively engaged in addressing poverty throughout Kansas.”

WSU VISTA Fellows serve 40 hours per week for one year, receiving an educational stipend in addition to a modest living allowance. CCSR accepts applications anytime from organizations interested in hosting VISTA Fellows as well as students or graduates interested in serving as a WSU VISTA Fellow.  

More information is provided online at www.wichita.edu/CCSR/AmericorpsVISTA. For the application process or to discuss VISTA contact Teresa Strausz at teresa.strausz@wichita.edu or 316-978-6778.

Positive Changes to Certified Peer Specialist Training and Certification

In order to expand and strengthen peer support in Kansas, CCSR is partnering with the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services to advance peer specialist training and certification. The details are still being worked out, but here is what we know for sure:

• Multiple levels of certification will be offered to provide a career path for peer specialists (those currently certified will keep their certification)
• Entry level peer support training will be open to all those interested who self-identify as having direct, lived experience with a mental health recovery
• Those hired to provide peer support under Medicaid will now have one year to complete billing-level certification via an “in training” status
• Peer support training will be offered regionally, details to follow

The CPS training team is excited to be able to support a stronger career path for peer specialists and welcomes your input. Please contact Lael Ewy, MFA, CPS, at lael.ewy@wichita.edu with suggestions or questions as the process moves forward.

Hands-On Expereince: Public Health Intern Contributes To Billing Initiatives Project | by Elizabeth Toney

Elizabeth Toney

In the beginning…all I knew about the Center for Community Support and Research (CCSR) was what I could assume from the name of the organization and its association with Wichita State University. Community suggested one’s local neighborhood, support spoke of helping, lending a hand, and its association with WSU spoke of education. When I found that CCSR had a current public health initiatives project that involved medical billing and coding I was excited to get the chance to learn how public assistance programs functioned. Through their billing project I hoped to gain a better understanding of the public health reimbursement process. This was going to be an opportunity to put into action the skills I learned from my bachelor’s degree in Health Services Management and associate’s degree in billing and coding.

Working with the Public Health Initiatives team of Sonja, Aaron, Vanessa, and Kristina along with Executive Director Scott Wituk I have had an opportunity to become exposed to a public health program that helps those who struggle with access to health care. CCSR is currently involved with a Local Health Department Billing initiative project for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) and Kansas Association of Local Health Departments (KALHD) towards maximizing sustainability of the local health departments. The Billing initiative provided opportunity for me to utilize my skills in determining types of valuable training programs that would help improve the billing practices and processes of health departments and minimize claim denials.

After research, the necessary information was utilized to create a two page training and professional certification guide that can be used when deciding to invest in training for billing staff to become certified. The guide provides sources for online training programs and a choice of medical biller certifications available. Though certification is not required it can benefit staff at the facilities obtaining reimbursement. This hands-on project gave me an opportunity to improve my research, decision making, planning, and communication skills.

This practicum opportunity allowed me to improve upon my own leadership skills. I had the opportunity to attend meetings of local coalition groups like Interfaith Ministries and Visioneering Wichita and participate in the discussion of past and upcoming public programs to assist those in need. All of my core competency skills have been improved through observing the leadership style of the Public Health Initiative team and the CCSR staff. It has been a real pleasure to have the opportunity to work with a group of dedicated people.

Internship in Public Health | With comments by Breanna Sneed

Breanna at a conference in April.

The Public Health Initiatives team at the Wichita State University Center for Community Support and Research (CCSR) continues to expand its reach and scope, impacting a variety of individuals, communities, and systems across the State. At the individual level, the team works closely with students from various programs at WSU, including those working to complete their degrees in Health Service Management and Community Development. 

“My internship experience at [CCSR] was a great experience for me”, writes Breanna Sneed, who joined CCSR in her final semester in the program. “It opened my eyes to things that I was not aware of in Public Health.”

At the community level, the CCSR Public Health Initiatives (PHI) team supports initiatives like the Visioneering Health Alliance in the Wichita Metropolitan Statistical Area and Project 17, representing 17 counties in Southeast Kansas. The Visioneering Health Alliance recently held a forum at the Kansas Leadership Center focused on community efforts to improve healthy eating behaviors.

Of the many speakers at this forum, Breanna writes, “I was ‘wowed’ by Mim McKenzie, of the Greater Wichita YMCA, and her information about the YMCA’s efforts to improve the community and outreach to young people.”

To support Project 17’s efforts to develop a regional Health Improvement Plan that will be used to work toward their goal of using regional cooperation to improve the quality of life for their communities, Breanna assisted in gathering research data from the public health systems in Southeast Kansas. “With this project, I was able to develop multiple core competency skills including leadership and communication.”

In addition to supporting the Kansas Department of Health and Environment in the roll-out and support of a new initiative within the KanCare system, called “Health Homes”, and other system level initiatives, CCSR’s PHI team is partnering with the Kansas Association of Local Health Departments to develop prioritized funding recommendations that aim to improve the public health emergency preparedness system across the state.

“This project allowed me to demonstrate leadership and system thinking as I assisted in putting together questions for those participating in the emergency preparedness planning so that, when we came together, it would open the door for better discussion.” Breanna Sneed writes, “By doing my internship at CCSR, it has helped me grow and my leadership and public health skills have greatly improved.”

In keeping with the CCSR mission, the PHI team will continue to work with individuals, communities and systems to strengthen Kansas. This will include working with students like Breanna Sneed and others, who are essential to our success.