ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce’s Quality Council is bringing together local quality professionals for a single day of collaboration.
At Gavia Lifecare Center, Maryellen Dance is new to her role as the executive director.
However, the need for mental health services is not.
“Oftentimes people, you know, reach out to find a therapist and people don’t call them back or they get on a waitlist for six months, things like that,” Dance said. “And so Gavia wants to be different and wants to get people in, in a reasonable amount of time, when they need help. We are an office, a mental health outpatient clinic. So we offer mental health services to people 11 years old and up. We’re a newer company. We only opened in 2021. I’m also newer in my position. We had a change in leadership. So that comes with a lot of changes and a lot of struggles.”
As the United States experiences a mental health crisis, the workforce struggles to meet the demand with limited help.
“The whole mental health system is a challenge in some ways,” Dance said. “And so we wanted any kind of extra help. Having outside perspectives is really helpful. Because seeing how different companies do things different, healthcare systems do things, sharing what people can bring to us because, you know, when we’re in it day to day, it’s hard to see out of it. There’s a huge mental health need in our community, and we want to make sure that we are providing quality care that’s also accessible.”
Which is why Greater Rochester Quality Council volunteer Paige Miller is finding her skillset from her work to go beyond just her own career.
“I just have an amazing job where I’m able to work with different stakeholders and different departments daily at Rochester Regional Health,” Miller said. “Everything from our surgical services area to quality finance. Anything you can think of, we can get involved.”
Modeled after United Way’s Day of Caring, the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce’s Greater Rochester Quality Council finds experts to work side by side with local nonprofits to tackle any and all operational challenges. In operation since 2014, the annual program Day of Quality facilitated by GRQC, is twofold. Nonprofit organizations are able to request assistance for a challenge of their choice, while their volunteer professionals help utilize their skills from their outside workforce industries to help its community.
“You look at these larger organizations, you just realize how much resourcing they have, and then you look at these smaller community organizations that, you know, are working on smaller margins, and you just realize that they need so much help and they’re still trying to do the right thing,” Miller said. “They just need that extra nudge. I’ve been able to make an impact and speak with their leaders and kind of help them identify some areas where processes could be improved.”
They are addressing the needs of the organizations’ choice.
“We all started as therapists, like none of us have business degrees or marketing degrees,” Dance said. “And so it’s really helpful to bring other expertise in as well to help us. This is our second year applying. So last year we focused a lot more on figuring out the problem and focused a lot more on like specific workflows. They helped us revamp some specific workflows, which was incredible. But what was more incredible than that was thinking about how we defined the problem and how we were. We were probably defining problems incorrectly or we were missing the mark. We thought the problem was one thing, but it was really something else. This year is a little bit more broader. We’re a newer company; we have newer leadership. We kind of need a little bit of not a rebrand, but like a cultural revamp. We’ve been around six years. We started with 10 people. We now have 70 people. So we kind of need like a little bit of like a mission, vision, cultural kind of revamp.”
They are changing the trajectory of healthcare for both its patients and its professionals.
“It’s honestly probably more helpful for me in some ways than it is for them, because I get to come out and use these facilitation tools that are, you know, often used in the same way in the health system,” Miller said. “It’s really a win-win. ” My leadership team at Rochester Regional is incredibly supportive of my work with the day of Quality in the Greater Rochester Quality Committee, and I’m really thankful for that because it allows me to, you know, really expand and provide a helping hand to these folks.”
“Gavia, our mission is to serve the community,” Dance said. “And then what they’re doing to come help us is serving the community and helping us serve the community. And so it is this like domino effect, which is cool.”
The Greater Rochester Chamber has contributed 137 years of advocacy and innovation. Each year, its team surveys its members and curates an agenda based on areas of concern. For issues that affect your business or organization, you can make your voice heard here.
