June 2022  |  Issue No. 3

Q&A with Danielle Carter

PCC Employee of the Year

How did you find out that you are Employee of the Year?
I was sipping my coffee early one morning, and our CEO (Leslie Graham) contacted me to let me know I had been selected as PCC's Employee of the Year. I couldn't believe it. I had no idea I was even being considered for the award. The last few years have come with both professional and personal challenges for many of us. There have definitely been some trying days for myself and my family, so having my work recognized during such a chaotic time feels amazing!

How long have you been at PCC?
I will be with PCC for ten years in December. I love my job. I feel beyond lucky to work with a core group of people who advocate and support me. I don't know if I'd be as successful in another organization. PCC is constantly offering opportunities to develop staff professionally, asking us what we need, and is a truly family-friendly workplace. That's meant the world to me. It's allowed me to raise my children and be there for them whenever they were sick or needed me, including when we lost their father to cancer at the beginning of COVID.

RFP Issued For Montgomery Cares
Network Adequacy Assessment

The Primary Care Coalition (PCC) is seeking a vendor to set standards for reasonable access, and perform network adequacy assessments of the primary care and specialty care provider networks for the locally-funded Montgomery Cares program. Annually, Montgomery Cares provides access to healthcare for ~20,000 uninsured, low-income adult residents of Montgomery County, MD.  PCC seeks a vendor with experience working with provider networks and ability to collect input directly from current and former Montgomery Cares patients using statistically valid mechanism(s). The vendor must have experience working with low-income populations, and with people who have limited English proficiency.

Proposals Due: 3:00 p.m. (EDT) on July 11, 2022.

Period of Performance: August 15, 2022 to January 27, 2023.

In Addressing the Trauma of Unaccompanied Minors, PCC Develops Sustainable Behavioral Health Services

When Montgomery County began welcoming large numbers of unaccompanied minors from Central America, it quickly became apparent that they needed more than resettlement. These children had been through incredibly challenging journeys and still faced many tough days. They had experienced trauma, and they needed complex, compassionate care.

The Primary Care Coalition and our partners initially had no mechanism to connect Care for Kids (CFK) participants with essential behavioral health services. But in 2017, PCC received a five-year grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to pilot behavioral health services for CFK participants through the Caring for the Whole Child (CWC) project.

CFK enrollment grew quickly during the five-year CWC pilot, from 4,800 to more than 7,000 children a year. When the program took in 794 new children in FY 21, 65.8% (523) were from the influx of unaccompanied minors, many of whom had experienced violence and trauma that no child should have to endure. CFK could not have addressed their behavioral health needs without the Caring for the Whole Child services.

June 30, 6 – 7 p.m. COVID Trivia and Pride History, hosted by Independence Now via Zoom, featuring drag performer Dissa Bility. June is Pride Month, so feel free to dress up and celebrate in style. Everyone is welcome.

July 6, 4 – 5 p.m. Free Adaptive Fitness Class hosted by Disability Partnerships via Zoom every Wednesday for people with limited to no mobility and seniors. Funded by a grant from the Adventist Community Partnership Fund. Register here.

SAVE THE DATE – November 10, 2022, 30th Anniversary Kick-Off Celebration Story-Telling Show, hosted by the Primary Care Coalition at AFI Theatre, 8633 Colesville Rd, Silver Spring, MD 20910.

PCC Job Openings

Bilingual Client Services Referral Specialist (Full-Time)

Bilingual Community Health Worker (Full-Time)

Dental Assistant-Certified Radiation Technologist (Full-Time)

Dental Clinic Principal Administrative Aide (Full-Time)

Director, Diabetes Programming (Full-Time)

Senior Accountant (Full-Time)

 

Solving Montgomery's Healthcare Crisis: It Takes An International Village

By Mona Negm
Executive Director and Founder,
American Muslim Senior Society

I've spent 54 years in the field of multi-cultural aging, working at the local, state, and national level helping develop programs, research and policy that impacted the quality of life for the county's diverse older population. 

When I founded the American Muslim Senior Society (AMSS), an interfaith, not-for-profit health and long-term

care organization in 2017, it was natural that we address the social determinants of health that challenge low-income Montgomery County residents 55 and older, as well as families. To develop culturally sensitive programs reflective of the needs of the county’s diverse communities, we partnered with interfaith and community leaders, and trained culturally diverse Ambassadors to help us identify persons in need. We  held many community dialogues to find out their  issues of concern and found out that having access to food, financial security, and culturally sensitive caregiving, were essential to their health and wellness.

Primary Care Coalition
8757 Georgia Ave 10th Floor | Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
301-628-3405 | info@primarycarecoalition.org

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