By Anne Bakar, Â黨ɫÇéƬ President and CEO

The past year, we made the important decision to review and refine our organizational mission, to reflect our future direction — and how we are meeting the changing needs of the clients, customers, and communities we serve.

We are happy to share our new mission statement with you today.

Here are some highlights of what's new and improved.

• Behavioral Health: We’re broadening our orientation beyond serious mental illness to include co-occurring substance use issues.

• Excellent & Effective: We’re focusing on outcomes and measurable results as well as striving for excellence.

• Complex Needs: We’re expanding our services to address the multi-faceted, complex needs of our clients including physical health issues, substance use education and treatment, intellectual disabilities, justice involvement, and a myriad of social needs that can impact a person’s stability and recovery.

• (Health) Hopes & Dreams: We’re actively moving toward whole person care, and explicitly recognizing that hopes and dreams are what motivate people.

We will share more detail about the changes it contains in the months to come. In the meantime, we welcome and encourage your thoughts on our mission. Please feel free to reach out and share your feedback.