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Mass. Consumer Satisfaction Team Report
Editor's Note: the Massachusetts Consumer Satisfaction Team is based on accountability. The surveys the Team collects from consumers at various treatment settings around the state become the basis for program evaluation and improvement. The staff of the Team is largely comprised of consumer/survivors in addition to those employees whose loved ones have been impacted by psychiatric disabilities. Therefore, it is hoped that the consumers, whom the team gives MCST surveys to, will be more comfortable with these interviewers, who have the kind of empathy which can only come from other seasoned veterans of the system. In this article Executive Director Jonathan Delman Celebrates the MCST 1st Anniversary. Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in the first annual meeting of Massachusetts Consumer Satisfaction Team (MCST), held on July 24th at our main office we share with M-POWER in Dorchester. It was a celebration of our becoming a single incorporated organization, the coming together of workers formerly employed by our sponsoring organizations, Western Massachusetts Empowerment Center and M-POWER. Decorations, posters and food adorned the office as guests entered to a capacity crowd of over 60 people. The event took shape early on as DMH Commissioner Marylou Sudders, Partnership CEO Richard Sheola, Director of Behavioral Health Services for DMA Laurie Ansorge Ball, and Peer Educator Director Moe Armstrong, each offered MCST strong words of support for the worthiness of our mission: quality improvement based on the words of current and former service recipients (consumers). I followed by talking for a while about our accomplishments. I am especially proud of the in depth high quality reports we write, which commend program strengths but also make recommendations based on our collective experience as consumers. The best part of the day for me was when our Director of Development, Susan Cavacuiti, introduced our tremendous workers, who interview, enter data, write reports, and do many other things to strengthen the team:
Finally, thanks to Susan Cavacuiti and Nan Donald for special effort to make this day happen, and special thanks to Ann Stillman, M-POWER, who is steady as a rock. (Please read John Depaulo's article in this edition. He talks from the heart about working for MCST.)
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