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Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health Agency (D-WCCMHA) designed the Virtual Center of Excellence in response to an increasing need for system transformation. The idea originated through the Annapolis coalition on the Behavioral Health Workforce in 2000. The following year, The Institute of Medicine published the first of a series of books dedicated to quality in health care, Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century.
The Institute of Medicine published a new volume each year, and in 2006, released a report for the mental health community. Improving the Quality of Health Care for Mental And Substance-Use Conditions was the catalyst that helped to bring Virtual Center of Excellence into existence. Chapter Seven of this book, "Increasing Workforce Capacity for Quality Improvement" shined a light on the inconsistent and uneven education and training of behavioral health employees. The formal education for medical doctors and nurses is based on the universal application of strict standards and guidelines. However, professionals providing counseling services to populations with a mental illness or substance use condition can potentially follow dramatically different educational tracks.
The Virtual Center of Excellence was created to overcome these differences, improve quality of service, and ultimately improve care for our consumers. Using proven Evidence Based Practices, we offer the most current curriculums in the field to advance the knowledge and skill of Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health Staff.
DWCCMHA partnered with The Guidance Center, Wayne State University and Wayne County Community College District to establish the VCE in 2006. The VCE provides quality education and training opportunities to all Wayne County Community Mental Health Staff. By supporting our workforce, we help to ensure exceptional and consistent care to our consumers of mental health and substance abuse services. Our continual support also helps guarantee workforce retention and competency.
In 2008 DWCCMHA launched the VCE website. This multimedia site provides 24/7 training opportunities for the Detroit Wayne County CMH workforce. One of the key objectives of this site is to provide convenient and easily accessible event listings, online registration, archive of video recorded lectures and distance learning opportunities. Members have the benefit of a virtual resume which tracks registration and attendance for VCE sponsored trainings.
The Guidance Center, a non-profit behavioral health organization headquartered in Southgate, Michigan houses and manages this unique program. The program is directed by Carol Oleksiak, LMSW, who leads a team dedicated to this mission. With on-staff curriculum and event planning specialists, plus the use of cutting edge technology, the Virtual Center of Excellence has the capability of researching, creating, and implementing successful, organized educational opportunities for the Agency.
Open communication between partners has been an imperative part of the process of turning the Virtual Center of Excellence into the role model it is today. We hope to continue collaborating with new partners, to create a widespread learning community where we can share knowledge and experience.
Our goals are:
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to learn who our workforce is, and determine their needs through membership registration, focus groups, surveys, and evaluations
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to research evidence based practices
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to develop new curriculums for CMH staff working with under-served populations
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to implement innovative and relevant programming
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to distribute information through a variety of mediums, including web based trainings and teleconferencing for the convenience of our workforce
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to offer programs that provide continuing education credits to meet licensure requirements
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to analyze the results of new systems transformations
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to stay current and continue evolving into the best system of care as possible
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