A Conversation, and News, with Kathy Reynolds

The following conversation with Kathy Reynolds, director of Washtenaw Community Health Organization, took place in Ann Arbor on January 22nd, 2009. 
 
It should be news enough that Kathy Reynolds is moving on from her position as Director of the Washtenaw Community Health Organization (WCHO), and 31 years as a Washtenaw County employee.  But this week brought even bigger news:  a vital piece to further the mission of this regional agency which manages mental health, substance abuse, and primary care funding had fallen into place.  The WCHO has received its “waiver”.

The waiver is a Pilot Disease Management Program for persons with Severe and Persistent Mental Illness (SPMI), Developmental Disabilities and substance use/abuse problems that allows Medicaid funding to be integrated - paid with primary care funds.  Due to the integration, the waiver also brings $1.2 million to help bolster the clinics – the Community Partners – which provide services for indigent and Medicaid populations in Washtenaw County.

“I like to say that integrated funding allows us to give back the neck between the head and the body in caring for consumers. There is no artificial disconnect between what’s going on with the body, and what’s going on with the mind,” says Reynolds.

A single setting for receiving both primary care and mental health services is referred to as a “Medical Home” where providers work as a team to coordinate care. In Washtenaw County, there are a number of Medical Homes where primary care health providers work along side mental health professionals from Community Support and Treatment Services (CSTS): Packard Community Clinic, the Neighborhood Health Clinic, the Corner Health Clinic, the Ypsilanti Family Practice and, recently, a clinic based in the County’s Towner Campus.

As she leaves her position, with a community farewell at an Open House (January 29, 2009, 2:00—5:00 p.m., St. Luke Lutheran Church (Lower Level) 4205 Washtenaw Ave., Ann Arbor), Kathy Reynolds leaves many accomplishments in her three decades of service.  Only the fourth director of mental health services for the County in 40 years, Reynolds says she found her path on the CETA (Comprehensive Employment & Training Act) bulletin board. 

“I come from a family of public servants – all teachers.  In fact I’m just about the only person in my family who’s not part of the education field.  What I found in that first job as a mental health worker was that I really liked working with people who had mental illness.  I found the whole area – the symptoms, the delusions, the hallucinations very interesting, and I’ve been motivated to find ways to help treat those people, and move systems to serve them.”

Reynolds’ motivation was amply supported in her work with the County – one of the reasons she’s stayed. 

“I stayed because it was always an open environment and if I wanted to propose a project or a program they would say yes.  And then they would say there is no money, but if I could find a way to do it, and find the money, I always had an open door.  So, throughout my career a lot of programs grew out of “we really ought to do that,” and then figure out a way to find existing funding sources to make it happen.  And as long as I was able to do that I could generate all sorts of programs that had never existed.  I always found that I had the freedom – and the support – to do that, continuing on up to and including the creation of the WCHO.”

In 1995 Reynolds became director of the then Community Mental Health.  In 1997, “we started the WCHO, taking us three years to get the legislation passed to create it,” says Reynolds.  “One of the incentives for creating the WCHO was how tired we were of being told by the State, from one year to the next, what the new priorities and plans were.  They always seemed to be “responding” to situations.  And so we said, let’s sit down and try to create something here in Washtenaw County that, no matter what the State says or does, we have a mission and vision we’re creating that is flexible enough to respond well to whatever they decide or do.”

In May, 2000 the Washtenaw Community Health Organization was born. The WCHO replaced the Community Mental Health Board and created a new policy board with broader responsibilities. Through this transformation, oversight of publicly funded behavioral healthcare, substance abuse treatment, and primary care for indigent and Medicaid populations was integrated into a single administrative unit. The WCHO is a joint venture between the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners and the University of Michigan Health System.

The WCHO operates in close partnership with the county's Public Health Department, the Washtenaw Health Plan, and Community Support and Treatment Services, the primary provider of community mental health services. 

As Kathy Reynolds leaves this job, already committed to a nearly full agenda of service, advocacy and organizing activities around the country, the news of the day is still with her.

“It really is cool that we received the waiver for integrated funding before I left.  If you look at the Vision we set up ten years ago for the WCHO, that waiver pertains to the last piece - and one of things we thought we’d never see happen,” says Reynolds.