Organizational Change of St. Lukes Addiction Recovery Center - Essay Example

Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE Part I: Organizational Change James Jean Barry February 12, 2008 St. Luke's Addiction Recovery Center operates as a program under Catholic Charities. Catholic Charities was formed over 75 years ago in South Florida, with the aim of assisting people who were depressed due to multiple problems, including poverty. Upon its formation, it addressed problems ranging from broken families, unwanted pregnancies, juvenile delinquency, and immigrants' problems, to problems placing children in fostered care. St Lukes has evolved over the years to help in solving problems whether they are personal psychosocial or financial needs or issues that stress the community. It provides care for the elderly and shelters orphaned and abandoned children. St Lukes also deals with problems arising from HIV/AIDS related cases and rehabilitating individuals with substance abuse (Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Miami, 2008). St. Luke's Addiction Recovery Centre offers rehabilitation services for those with substance abuse. This location is well maintained to ensure that it is able to offer its services in an efficient manner and in a pleasing environment. This is a non-governmental organization, which is non-profit social service organization and is aimed at alleviating human suffering by offering the necessary assistance. It has continued services aimed a restoring dignity to the human race. This has been achieved by operating within the set goals and mission (Addiction Treatment Centers, 2008). The mission of Catholic Charities is to honor God by ensuing that they enhance the quality of life and dignity through offering the necessary support to individuals and families, fighting poverty, building communities and working towards a justice cause. The primary goal of the organization is to alleviate human suffering by ensuring that those who are suffering get the necessary assistance. (Kim, 2003) The organization offers different types of services. It offers services ranging from child care and development in its seven centers which offers comprehensive educational and social services; elderly services including elderly day care services; community services offered under community services division which assists immigrants; housing services for the homeless; and behavioral health care which includes counseling, prevention and basic treatment offered in sites like Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. In the organization, I was functioning as an intern in the outpatients department. In this section I offered individual therapy. I also facilitated peer led group services with other people in the organization. Internal structure of the organization The whole organization has about 23 staff working in different programs in the organization. All these people are of diverse origin comparable to that of South Florida. The staff is balanced in terms of gender, ethnicity, disability, age, and professional status. Of all the staff there are 20 females and 16 males which shows close gender equality in distribution. The staff has paid close attention to the ethnicity of the community and has included Cubans, African American people, Puerto Rican, Jamaicans, and there are also white American staff members in the organization. The organization is headed by the president who also acts as the chairperson of the board. Under the chairperson there is the Chief Executive Officer. The Chief Executive Officer delegates the duty to Chief Operating Officer who delegates to Financial Officer and Data Security Officer. In matters of operation efficiency, the organization is very efficient in it operation given the great division of labor and specialization in the organization. Every staff member is assigned to their duties, which they attend to efficiently. The initial treatment plan is usually completed within three days of admission. The treatment plans are revised with the counselor after every 30 days. It ensures that a month before discharge at least 72% complete treatment with no alcohol and other use prior to discharge. In terms of operational effectiveness, the organization is very effective in terms of its operation. Since it was started it has served the community well. It has been able to rehabilitate many people who have been suffering from substance abuse. It has recorded that at least 72% of the person discharged from the treatment are employed upon discharge. To motivate the staff, there is a reward system. The organization has put in place a merit based awarded program, which is meant to raise the morale of the staff in order to work well. Service delivery structure The program targets those who are addicted who have substance abuse issues; It mainly targets the young and the youth who are mostly victims of substance abuse. It aims at rehabilitating those with mental health problem. The program has actually kept to its target population as they are the only one who are served at the centre. St Luke's Rehabilitation centre is situated in Miami where there are unusually high cases of substance abuse. Miami-Dade County has been recorded as an area with high rates of mental health problems due to substance abuse. The program is located in Miami-Dade County 7707 NW 2nd Avenue Miami, FL 33150, and it operates all days of the year day and night (Addiction Treatment Centers, 2008). It offers a variety of services ranging from residential Substance Abuse treatment for adults with co-occurring disorders, medical assessment, case management, day and night interventions, outpatient, outreach services, and other services. The program defines a social problem as any problem that is affecting not only an individual but also other members of the society. This is a problem, which even if suffered by one person will have adverse effect on other members of the society. St. Luke's Recovery centre uses service modalities like 12-model, cognitive-behavioral intervention like staffing, relapse prevention forums and consequences, holiday activities, and others. These form the theory under which the program offers its services (Addiction Treatment Centers, 2008). The quality of services offered is very important to the program. All services are evaluated through Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI). Client Satisfaction surveys which are conducting bi-monthly, DCF outcome measures, client council, anonymous suggestion box, and the mere word of mouth which tells of the effectiveness of the services offered at the centre (Kim, 2003). Social structure The agency puts the value of alleviating the client first in their services. The main aim of their services is to help the client resume their normal life and lead it in a better way. Their aim is to serve all people in the society equally. The group has a vertical communication pattern among the staff. The power to manage the centre starts with the board of directors who delegate the power to others below it. At the center power is shared between the health coordinator, psychiatrist and program administrator. There is horizontal communication between the three but then there is vertical communication between the three and other members in the organization. However all the power seems to rest with the program administrator who is answerable to the catholic Charities ADOM, Inc (Kim, 2003). External structure The program is primarily funded by South Florida Providers Coalition (SFPC), Florida. Department of children and Families, United Way of Miami-Dade, Ryan White Title-I, and Florida. Medicaid. The program relates well with the funding agencies. The program ensures that there is transparency to account for every cent that is used in the program. The funding is important since it affects how the program is delivered through availability of funds. Other agencies within the service network include Local Match Funds, SAMH and others. The organization has been relating well with these other organizations (Kim, 2003). The program has ensured that it retains good relationships with the community it serves. In return the community has always been there for the program and it has helped it in running the program by offering necessary social support. Internal conditions The first internal condition that would help improves the service includes hiring four clinical therapists to help in serving the outpatients. This is due to the limit that is experienced by those working in the outpatient department. Currently the patient coordinator serves 30 patients alone (Kim, 2003). The second internal condition to be considered is the need to improve communication between the staff. There is a poor handing over procedure in place for those working for the day and night shift, which sometimes affects services. One external condition, I would like to consider is the need to seek more funds for the program, as currently the funds available do no cover all the requirements of the program. Another external condition that would enhance services if it were addressed would be to provide more community resources. This would help enlighten the community and perhaps help in alleviate the substance abuse situation, which is partly contributed by lack of knowledge. I chose the issue concerning the need to hire retired licensed social workers for outpatient section who would undergo an extensive training and then work 5 hours a week. This is because interns in the department help the agency and in case of school breaks the agency is constrained with serving all the people since one clinician has to see all the clients including the ones generally seen by the social work interns. This means that the clinician has to see about 10 to 13 clients every day. This is really strenuous for him since each client usually has a session lasting about an hour. Condition statement All clients requesting services at St. Lukes Addiction Recovery Unit outpatient are not receiving adequate services during college breaks and holidays because there is only one clinician to cover all clients while social work interns are not present at agency. References Catholic Charities of Archdiocese of Miami, Inc. Organization description. Retrieved from, http://www.catholiccharitiesadm.org/what_we_do.htm on 9th July 2007 Kim, S. (2003). St. Luke's Addiction Recovery Centre. Disaster News Network, November 2005 Addiction Treatment Centers. (2008). St. Luke's Addiction Recovery Centre: Program Description. Retrieved from, http://www.adictiontreatmentcentres.org/htm on 9th February 2008 Read More