Enabling Learning Across Mountain Communities
Convening
Each year in May, the Katz Amsterdam Foundation brings together experienced behavioral health leaders from across our mountain communities to discuss their unique challenges and innovative solutions. The Convening provides the crucial opportunity for these groups to build supportive peer relationships and establish a mutually beneficial network supported by the Foundation. Through strategic and intimate sessions, leaders share the issues they face and explore how they can contribute learnings and insights to one another’s organizations and programs. Starting in 2019, strong connections were created across communities that spurred joint programs and investments.
Continued Shared Learning
Leveraging the expertise of the community behavioral health leaders and organizers, KAF developed a list of prioritized questions to address together as a network. The network maintains ongoing connections and discussions through a regular webinar series. KAF promotes ongoing knowledge sharing across these communities to facilitate learning amongst providers and behavioral health leaders. Together, communities have created programs implemented in multiple locations including an anti-stigma campaign, volunteer peer training program and provider education series.
Shared Measurement Across Communities
Katz Amsterdam mountain communities frequently convene to discuss shared challenges and solutions related to mental and behavioral health. These conversations have surfaced a number of similarities that are unique to these communities, and stakeholders agreed to align on a set of shared measures to support learning across communities. A working group comprised of representatives from seven communities convened multiple times over the course of several months in 2019 to align on key outcome areas and indicators that best capture the areas they want to learn about together.
The working group systematically reviewed what data was being collected at a local, state and national level to ensure that indicators added to the shared measurement framework would be grounded in validated and existing measurements wherever possible. What communities learned was that much of the data needed to provide a comprehensive picture of their mental health systems and community well-being did not exist. For that reason, some communities developed surveys to collect information from community members and behavioral health providers. In partnership, communities continue to revise and update both the indicators measured and the survey tools.
Together each year, all Katz Amsterdam communities examine the data collected in individual communities to share learnings and best practices.
Shared Measurement Framework
The shared measures below indicate progress toward priority outcomes within mountain communities.
Elevated risk factors and reduced protective factors
Social Dynamics and Party Culture
- Increase belonging and connection
- Decrease the role of substance use in social life
Behavioral Health Knowledge & Attitudes
- Decrease stigma towards behavioral health
- Increase willingness to reach out for behavioral health support
- Increase awareness of local mental health resources
Difficulty getting the right care at the right time
Provider Capacity
- Increase provider capacity to provide services for unmet behavioral health needs
- Increase the diversity of behavioral health providers
- Increase behavioral health provider mental well-being
Access and Affordability of Care
- Decrease unmet demand for behavioral health services
- Decrease barriers experienced when accessing behavioral health care
- Increase provider availability and insurance acceptance
Adverse Behavioral Health Outcomes
- Increased community member mental well-being
- Decreased substance use rates
- Decreased behavioral-health-related deaths