Suncoast Center Inc.

“Auditor provides preliminary copies of 990. Cfo takes to board of trustees for review. Final 990 sent to irs.”

“Covered in the hr manual under table of contents 3.09 "conflicts of interest. In summary this is reviewed annually and verbatim "suncoast will not do business with the relatives of employees, volunteers, interns, contractors or members of board of trustees. If there is a question regarding this policy, it is always best to err on the side of caution and disclose all information that may cause a personal conflict."”

“The board of trustees determines the salary of the ceo. Comparables are used to stay competitive with other similar state and local agencies providing community mental health services. Suncoast center, inc. Desires to ensure that its executive compensation program is competitive, fair and equitable, compliant with regulatory guidelines and representative of market best practices. The executive committee of the board of trustees provides the subcommittee oversight for executive compensation. The decision making process supports the mission, values, strategic direction and tax-exempt status of the agency. The decision process includes the evaluation of pay practices for the industry and rely upon appropriate independent comparability data to support its decision making process. Executive compensation programs and decisions will be approved in advance of their implementation.”

“Decisions are made by the board of trustees. When available, comparatives are used.”

“Documents are available at www.suncoastcenter.org or upon request.”

“For over 74 years, suncoast center, inc. Has provided a comprehensive range of evidence-based programs that address emotional wellness, trauma services, and child advocacy to individuals and families throughout pinellas county. During 2017-2018, suncoast center held true to its mission of strengthening, protecting, and restoring lives for a healthy community, through its provision of 284,828 services to over 23,000 individuals throughout pinellas county. These services included mental health, substance abuse, family counseling, trauma assessment and therapeutic services. Services are provided regardless of the individual's sex, nationality, and/or religion and are administered with respect to the individual. The demographic snapshot of our clients consists of 37% minority with 92% of our clients living in poverty. Suncoast center has 270 employees and 10 interns that include psychiatric and medical staff, clinical therapists, case managers, administrative and support staff. Suncoast center's staff reflects the diversity of clients served. Thirty- six percent (36%) of employees are minority members. Our staff are well trained professionals who practice within their scope of expertise. They receive extensive training, not only in trauma, behavioral health, engagement and advocacy, but also in cultural diversity and cultural competency, not only for racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual orientation, but also on the culture of poverty. Suncoast center ensures that all staff are trained in trauma informed practices and treatment. Awareness of the impact of trauma on behavioral health and wellness is important throughout the recovery process. Suncoast center is one of the largest utilizers of long-acting injectable antipsychotic medication in the state of florida. Long-acting injectable antipsychotic medications can be more efficient and effective for some clients. They can increase medication compliance, improve daily functioning and stability, and improve long term outcomes for severely and persistently mentally ill clients. We have repeatedly seen positive life changing impacts on individuals lives and societal integration through the use of this and other interventions. Treatment works. Our clients receiving behavioral health services received an average of 12 services per person last year. Those services may have been what appear like traditional outpatient therapy or medication management, but embedded into the services are a very effective culture of feedback informed treatment which assists both client and staff in working together to ensure good engagement, connection, and positive outcomes. Trauma informed care and culture is also embedded in all our services because we know how recognizing the impact of, and treating trauma improves the outcomes for our clients. Beyond our office walls at our many sites throughout pinellas, we bring the care to our clients in a variety of ways. Twenty-seven percent (27%) of our services are in community locations such as homes, schools, or embedded into health care sites. We have therapists that are in five elementary schools and in the health clinics in four high schools. Suncoast center early childhood therapists are a resource to all the head start and early head start preschool centers in pinellas. Being able to meet clients where they are when they need help is important to us. We are a partner with community health centers of pinellas and have therapists in their health care locations to excellent mental health and screen for mental health and family therapy needs and link to our other services. Proving that treatment does work, our efforts resulted in 88% of our adult clients with severe and persistent mental illnesses are now living in a stable housing environment, and 33% of our adult clients with serious mental illness are competitively employed. Our child outcomes are just as impressive: 91% of our emotionally disturbed (ed) youth have improved functioning; 86% of our severely”

“Suncoast center continuously seeks to make improvements to our system of care. Suncoast center has been able to share referrals and referral information electronically with many of our partners including 211 tampa bay cares and other local mental health and substance abuse providers. Our initiation of this project many years ago has recently led to other agencies being funded to link up to the system that we are using. Improvement of our processes has included many automations this last year. One of the automations improved the linking of psychiatric service information to our client's primary care providers. Suncoast was able to ensure that primary care providers received records of care through a seamless process. The community health centers of pinellas was able to receive these records electronically into their system. This effort will improve client care and is a significant bridge and step forward for our processes. Suncoast center is providing tele-therapy and is prepared to provide tele- psychiatry when the funding mechanisms are more consistent. We have worked hard to engage funders in accepting tele-therapy, and are able to offer the service to many of our clients. We have implemented processes to engage clients through tele-therapy before they leave a psychiatric crisis unit to assist and engage clients, improving their comfort level with attaining services. Through our zero suicide initiative, suncoast center has currently gained agreements from six local behavioral health and health agencies to implement common screening and assessment tools of the patient health questionnaire 9 and columbia suicide severity rating scale, as well as to use a common safety plan. These tools and results will be able to be electronically shared in transitions of care and will be used as common metrics, and measures. Pinellas county experienced a hurricane in 2017 which resulted in disruption of services for one week at our sites. Suncoast center was able to address many clients' needs including instituting a process supported by the state to allow emergency scripts for medication to be released prior to the storm. After the disruptions, suncoast center staff rallied to ensure that all clients were able to be supported and their needs met. The experience allowed a real life test of our emergency preparedness and has led to many additional improvements to our operations.”