title: Changing the system by changing the workforce: employing consumers to increase access, cultural diversity, and engagement.
abstract: Services to families have traditionally been delivered in a medical model. This presents challenges including workforce shortages, lack of cultural diversity, lack of training in strength-based work, and difficulty in successfully engaging and retaining families in the therapy process. The system of care (SOC) effort has worked to establish formal roles for caregivers in SOC to improve services. This paper provides an example of one community's efforts to change the SOC by expanding the roles available to caregivers in creating systems change. It describes the model developed by Communities of Care (CoC), a SOC in Central Massachusetts, and its evolution over a 10 year period. First person accounts by system partners, caregivers hired into professional roles as well as a family receiving services, demonstrate how hiring caregivers at all levels can change systems and change lives, not only for those being served but for the caregiver/professionals doing the work. It also demonstrates, however, that change at the system level is incremental, takes time, and can be fleeting unless an ongoing effort is made to support and sustain those changes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA, melodie.wenzgross@umassmed.edu.
authors.forename: Melodie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wenz-Gross
authors.forename: Toni DuBrino
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Irsfeld
authors.forename: Tammy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Twomey
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Perez
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wally
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Colleton
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kroell
authors.forename: Steven K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: McKeown
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Metz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D017028:Caregivers; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D019033:Delivery of Health Care, Integrated / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006280:Health Workforce / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008404:Massachusetts; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods; D012380:Role