Montgomery County MH/MR Emergency Service
Building Better Tomorrows
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
MCES is an important part of the safety net for low income individuals with serious mental illness, co-occurring substance abuse and other potentially life-threatening behavioral health needs. These are some of our own critical needs: • We serve people based on their need rather than insurance coverage. Most of our patients are felt to be at imminent risk. Reports by the Pennsylvania Cost Containment Council consistently show that we have the highest proportion of uncompensated care among psychiatric hospitals in the state. This charity care represents admissions of patients who do not qualify for available reimbursement from other sources. • In recent years the demand for crisis intervention services has grown significantly. This has been driven by individuals, family members and others seeking help on behalf of someone who has overdosed on opioids or who is at risk of doing so. We are also part of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Network and respond to several thousand
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Acute Inpatient Psychiatric Care
Provides voluntary and involuntary short-term psychiatric hospitalization to individuals in danger of harm to self or others because of serious mental illness and, in many cases, co-occurring substance use disorder
Crisis Response Center
Provides crisis hot line and walk-in crisis intervention services 24/7 to Montgomery County, PA and adjacent communities; Part of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Network
Carol's Place Crisis Residential Program (CRP)
Short-stay homelike residential treatment setting for individuals needing to develop care resources
Psychiatric Emergency Medical Service (EMS)
State-licensed dedicated psychiatric EMS responding to mental health emergencies, assisting police, transporting psychiatric patients to EDs and other inpatient facilities
Crisis Intervention Specialist (CIS) Program
Mental health crisis intervention training for police officers and other criminal justice/emergency response personnel
Suicide Prevention Program
Community and professional suicide prevention/post-vention education; technical assistance and support to suicide prevention efforts, emergency responders, and behavioral health providers
Where we work
Awards
Community Impact Award 2015
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The principal goals of MCES are:
Enhance our organizational viability as a multi-service regional psychiatric emergency system offering crisis intervention and mental health crisis services to individuals with serious behavioral health needs in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Enhance our capability to provide acute inpatient psychiatric care to patients at high risk of self-harm and other life-threatening conditions or behaviors.
Enhance awareness of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline as a crisis resource for Area Codes 215, 267, 484, and 610 in Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties in SE Pennsylvania.
Enhance the availability of evidence-based suicide prevention information for persons with serious mental illness, developmental disabilities, elders, emergency responders, victims of domestic violence and abuse, and other groups at risk of suicidal behavior and mortality.
Enhance community understanding and access as needed to voluntary and involuntary emergency psychiatric evaluations.
Enhance the diversion to treatment as appropriate of persons with serious mental illness who have criminal justice contact because of behavior related to symptoms of their psychiatric disorders and are at risk of detention or incarceration.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
1. Expanding our service area from Montgomery County, PA and adjacent communities to 6 counties in southeastern PA.
2. Establishing contractual relationships with county mental health authorities, managed Medicaid and Medicare behavioral health payers and other insurers.
3. Expand capacity to serve high risk patients by creating an additional high acuity unit with 8-10 beds to complement existing high acuity unity with 20-23 beds.
4. Diversifying revenues by offering the Crisis Intervention Specialist (CIS) Program on a fee-for-service basis to law enforcement personnel and other emergency responders throughout PA.
5. Promote community awareness of National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by placing logo with hotline number on EMS vehicles.
6. Promote behavioral health provider knowledge of suicide prevention by offered accredited CE programs on selected topics (e.g., elder suicide, alcohol use disorders and suicide, domestic violence/abuse and suicide, problem gambling and suicide).
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
1, Service Area Expansion: Established referral relationships with crisis services, county behavioral health authorities, hospital emergency departments, and managed behavioral health care payers support increasing delivery of key services throughout SE PA.
2. County Mental Health Authority Relationships: Established track contractual record with Montgomery County, effective performance of contracts with Berks and Bucks Counties, demonstrated capacity to serve residents of Chester and Delaware Counties.
3. Expand High Risk Patient Capacity: Safety upgrade of inpatient unit completed enabling care of more high acuity patients at potential risk of self-harm.
4. Crisis Intervention Specialist (CIS) Program: Bidding on contracts with regional and national special police agencies; expanded training offerings.
5. Promote National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: Post number on MCES EMS vehicles and seek funding to underwrite costs for other EMS station participation.
6. Provider Suicide Prevention Education: Extensive organizational background in provider education.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Monthly referral and admission objectives for high acuity patients are being met.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
-
How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
-
Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We act on the feedback we receive
-
What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback
Financials
Unlock nonprofit financial insights that will help you make more informed decisions. Try our monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights?
Learn more
about GuideStar Pro.
Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Montgomery County MH/MR Emergency Service
Board of directorsas of 10/20/2023
Mr. Mike Kennedy
KB Mortgage
Logan Brown
Randall S. Floyd
Michael Kennedy
Barbara Watson Rawls
Clifford Rogers
Randy S. Floyd
Telford Borough Police Dept.
Faith C. Parshall
W. Douglas Hager
Caroline Ellison
PhD
Mary Turner
RN
Jon Wallner
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
-
Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 10/20/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.