Bowen Continues Growing In Programs, Footprint
October 12, 2022 at 1:12 a.m.
By David [email protected]
Jay Baumgartner, chief financial officer for the Bowen Center, told the Commissioners they were there to “share with you what is happening at the Bowen Center, what changes are going on and definitely want to share appreciation for the funding that you provide for us each year.”
An annual report was shared with the Commissioners. Bowen Center’s fiscal year ends at the end of June annually so the report included the highlights of the last fiscal year, he said.
For 2022, Kosciusko County provided the Bowen Center with $714,186 in funding, according to information provided by Bowen Center. They provided $2,662,351 in free care in Kosciusko County, has 431 total employees, served 12,574 patients with 114,285 patient visits. Bowen Center provided $30,377,604 in payroll/benefits.
President and CEO Dr. Rob Ryan, who took over the positions earlier this year at Bowen Center with the retirement of Dr. Kurt Carlson, said he was excited to share with the Commissioners not only what they have done but also “the more important thing is what we’re planning on doing, and that’s what we want to share with you today.”
Ryan said the community needs Bowen Center more now than ever.
“There are people unfortunately falling through the cracks who if we only connected them to services earlier would take a small stumble and stop it from becoming a crisis,” he said.
The National Association of Mental Illness estimates that medication therapy is as effective as around 70 to 90%, depending on which mental illness one is talking about, Ryan said. “Which is equal to or greater than our physical health outcomes with things like coronary heart disease, COPD or diabetes. The challenge with that is we know that if a person’s in even more difficulty - let’s say that they’re thinking of taking their own lives - that they would go to our in-patient unit in Pierceton where over 99% ... are stopped from taking their own lives.”
While Bowen Center is proud of that statistic, Ryan acknowledged that there are people who don’t come to the Bowen Center. They suffer in silence, maybe they tell their primary care doctor, and worse they end up taking their own life.
“They do this because of the stigma attached to mental illness. We’re committed to finding those people and getting them the life-saving or life-returning treatment that we provide. To do that, though, we’re going to have to add to what we do. We need to change our reputation and we need to provide new services to meet people where they’re at when they’re in crisis,” Ryan stated.
Bowen Center can’t do that alone, he said, and they need to make sure they’re collaborating with others to break through that stigma.
Something that Ryan, Baumgartner and Chief Operations Officer Shannon Hannon are committed to, Ryan said, is finding new ways to work closely with the schools, social services and local government.
“While we provide in-school services and pre-K services to every student here in Kosciusko County, we met with Warsaw Schools leadership this summer to find new ways to get in front of parents and students. We’re collaborating with agencies to find new ways to meet people earlier in their crisis to make sure we get them a better outcome,” Ryan said.
Recently, Ryan went on a ride-along with city of Warsaw CARES (Community Assistance Resources & Emergency Services) Coordinator Mikaela Bixler. CARES is a program that addresses those suffering a mental health crisis, assists those who are having issues acquiring or reconciling medications and aid in getting appropriate medical care, according to the city of Warsaw website.
“Many of the people they connect with are our patients. Many of them are not. I met some of them for the first time. I met one lady at Retired Tigers, who were it not for Mikaela, would not have seen another human being for two weeks,” Ryan said.
He also met with Eric Lane from Fellowship Missions and they “doubled-down on finding new ways to help people not just find stable housing but to return them to the community. To get them a job again and to make sure that stumble doesn’t become something greater.”
Bowen Center’s values are permission, respect, integrity and stewardship. “I believe that certainly represents the best of Bowen, arguably the best of Kosciusko County. As a community working together, we think we can meet these challenges that we face,” Ryan said.
Mike Murphy, a director at Bowen Center who primarily oversees the Syracuse office, the Enchanted Hills location and the health clinic in Warsaw, said one of the best organizations Bowen works with are the schools.
“Every public school in Kosciusko County has a relationship with us for ... services through our organization. That’s one of the best things we’ve been able to accomplish because we’ve had a number of students who struggle with many different things,” he said.
Another “great” relationship Bowen Center has is with the Department of Child Services, Murphy said.
The new Family Preservation Program is geared toward keeping families together and has been “such a huge success,” he said.
“Just in the Syracuse area alone, we’ve had seven of those families that we’ve gotten that we’ve been able to keep together, so that’s about a 95% hit rate on that program with those families we’ve been getting,” Murphy said. “It’s just an awesome program that we’ve been able to develop.”
On Oct. 19 at the K21 Health Pavilion, he mentioned that they will have an event where Bowen Center will partner with all the organizations in the Pavilion where families can come to one place for resources and a free meal and other things.
Warsaw office Interim Director Johanna Hendrikse highlighted Bowen Center’s work with the Jail Chemical Addiction Program (JCAP) at the Kosciusko County Jail.
Hannon said she has a passion for creating access to high-quality healthcare for the most vulnerable in the community.
“We see Kosciusko County continue to invest in Bowen Center and trust us with your most vulnerable. In turn, we’re investing back into the community by expanding our services as Dr. Ryan, Mike, Johanna have outlined for you. But we’re also doing it in other ways to expand those services. You’ll also see new footprints across the county,” Hannon said.
Bowen Center recently secured some additional property on U.S. 30 next to Aegis Dental and Goodwill Industries, she said. There’s about 5 acres there that Bowen Center is looking to put a new location on to expand their services.
“We intend to grow our Syracuse office to expand some services there to ensure we’re meeting those needs of the Enchanted Hills community, who we committed ourselves to for quite some time,” Hannon said.
Dental and optometry services are two additional things that Bowen Center views as part of its responsibility to be able to respond to in Kosciusko County, she said. “So as we continue to look at expanding that footprint, we intend to expand those services to ensure when the most vulnerable in our community have a need - whether it’s a fiscal, health or a mental health need - that Bowen Center continues to be a trusted partner.”
Baumgartner returned to the podium and said Bowen’s greatest challenge is staffing, but that’s where the county’s funding provides a big help. Bowen continues to grow, see more patients and expand its service line.
Ryan wrapped up the presentation and said the Commissioners could be confident that Bowen Center isn’t going anywhere any time soon. “Who we are is who we’re going to be,” he said. He invited the Commissioners to visit the Bowen Center.
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Jay Baumgartner, chief financial officer for the Bowen Center, told the Commissioners they were there to “share with you what is happening at the Bowen Center, what changes are going on and definitely want to share appreciation for the funding that you provide for us each year.”
An annual report was shared with the Commissioners. Bowen Center’s fiscal year ends at the end of June annually so the report included the highlights of the last fiscal year, he said.
For 2022, Kosciusko County provided the Bowen Center with $714,186 in funding, according to information provided by Bowen Center. They provided $2,662,351 in free care in Kosciusko County, has 431 total employees, served 12,574 patients with 114,285 patient visits. Bowen Center provided $30,377,604 in payroll/benefits.
President and CEO Dr. Rob Ryan, who took over the positions earlier this year at Bowen Center with the retirement of Dr. Kurt Carlson, said he was excited to share with the Commissioners not only what they have done but also “the more important thing is what we’re planning on doing, and that’s what we want to share with you today.”
Ryan said the community needs Bowen Center more now than ever.
“There are people unfortunately falling through the cracks who if we only connected them to services earlier would take a small stumble and stop it from becoming a crisis,” he said.
The National Association of Mental Illness estimates that medication therapy is as effective as around 70 to 90%, depending on which mental illness one is talking about, Ryan said. “Which is equal to or greater than our physical health outcomes with things like coronary heart disease, COPD or diabetes. The challenge with that is we know that if a person’s in even more difficulty - let’s say that they’re thinking of taking their own lives - that they would go to our in-patient unit in Pierceton where over 99% ... are stopped from taking their own lives.”
While Bowen Center is proud of that statistic, Ryan acknowledged that there are people who don’t come to the Bowen Center. They suffer in silence, maybe they tell their primary care doctor, and worse they end up taking their own life.
“They do this because of the stigma attached to mental illness. We’re committed to finding those people and getting them the life-saving or life-returning treatment that we provide. To do that, though, we’re going to have to add to what we do. We need to change our reputation and we need to provide new services to meet people where they’re at when they’re in crisis,” Ryan stated.
Bowen Center can’t do that alone, he said, and they need to make sure they’re collaborating with others to break through that stigma.
Something that Ryan, Baumgartner and Chief Operations Officer Shannon Hannon are committed to, Ryan said, is finding new ways to work closely with the schools, social services and local government.
“While we provide in-school services and pre-K services to every student here in Kosciusko County, we met with Warsaw Schools leadership this summer to find new ways to get in front of parents and students. We’re collaborating with agencies to find new ways to meet people earlier in their crisis to make sure we get them a better outcome,” Ryan said.
Recently, Ryan went on a ride-along with city of Warsaw CARES (Community Assistance Resources & Emergency Services) Coordinator Mikaela Bixler. CARES is a program that addresses those suffering a mental health crisis, assists those who are having issues acquiring or reconciling medications and aid in getting appropriate medical care, according to the city of Warsaw website.
“Many of the people they connect with are our patients. Many of them are not. I met some of them for the first time. I met one lady at Retired Tigers, who were it not for Mikaela, would not have seen another human being for two weeks,” Ryan said.
He also met with Eric Lane from Fellowship Missions and they “doubled-down on finding new ways to help people not just find stable housing but to return them to the community. To get them a job again and to make sure that stumble doesn’t become something greater.”
Bowen Center’s values are permission, respect, integrity and stewardship. “I believe that certainly represents the best of Bowen, arguably the best of Kosciusko County. As a community working together, we think we can meet these challenges that we face,” Ryan said.
Mike Murphy, a director at Bowen Center who primarily oversees the Syracuse office, the Enchanted Hills location and the health clinic in Warsaw, said one of the best organizations Bowen works with are the schools.
“Every public school in Kosciusko County has a relationship with us for ... services through our organization. That’s one of the best things we’ve been able to accomplish because we’ve had a number of students who struggle with many different things,” he said.
Another “great” relationship Bowen Center has is with the Department of Child Services, Murphy said.
The new Family Preservation Program is geared toward keeping families together and has been “such a huge success,” he said.
“Just in the Syracuse area alone, we’ve had seven of those families that we’ve gotten that we’ve been able to keep together, so that’s about a 95% hit rate on that program with those families we’ve been getting,” Murphy said. “It’s just an awesome program that we’ve been able to develop.”
On Oct. 19 at the K21 Health Pavilion, he mentioned that they will have an event where Bowen Center will partner with all the organizations in the Pavilion where families can come to one place for resources and a free meal and other things.
Warsaw office Interim Director Johanna Hendrikse highlighted Bowen Center’s work with the Jail Chemical Addiction Program (JCAP) at the Kosciusko County Jail.
Hannon said she has a passion for creating access to high-quality healthcare for the most vulnerable in the community.
“We see Kosciusko County continue to invest in Bowen Center and trust us with your most vulnerable. In turn, we’re investing back into the community by expanding our services as Dr. Ryan, Mike, Johanna have outlined for you. But we’re also doing it in other ways to expand those services. You’ll also see new footprints across the county,” Hannon said.
Bowen Center recently secured some additional property on U.S. 30 next to Aegis Dental and Goodwill Industries, she said. There’s about 5 acres there that Bowen Center is looking to put a new location on to expand their services.
“We intend to grow our Syracuse office to expand some services there to ensure we’re meeting those needs of the Enchanted Hills community, who we committed ourselves to for quite some time,” Hannon said.
Dental and optometry services are two additional things that Bowen Center views as part of its responsibility to be able to respond to in Kosciusko County, she said. “So as we continue to look at expanding that footprint, we intend to expand those services to ensure when the most vulnerable in our community have a need - whether it’s a fiscal, health or a mental health need - that Bowen Center continues to be a trusted partner.”
Baumgartner returned to the podium and said Bowen’s greatest challenge is staffing, but that’s where the county’s funding provides a big help. Bowen continues to grow, see more patients and expand its service line.
Ryan wrapped up the presentation and said the Commissioners could be confident that Bowen Center isn’t going anywhere any time soon. “Who we are is who we’re going to be,” he said. He invited the Commissioners to visit the Bowen Center.
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