Every day at Community Bridges, I am personally inspired by the hard work and dedication our staff puts forth in supporting our mission. We are in our 31st year of service to the community and our image and approach to care are reflective of the three words in our logo:
CELEBRATE recovery – BELIEVE in yourself – INSPIRE others
Over the past 17 years as President and CEO of this compassionate organization, I have had the distinct pleasure to work with our dynamic Board of Directors, our tireless executive leadership team, and hundreds of dedicated professionals who work selflessly to provide help and hope to those we serve.
As we move into 2013, CBI can celebrate incredible accomplishments and advancements:
- Our economic impact in Arizona is far reaching. CBI employs over 700 staff who have served 55,000 individuals in our medical/clinical/behavioral health programs at 29 locations across the state; and presented prevention and community education seminars to over 30,000 men, women, and children.
- The Center for Hope continues to be recognized as a national model “best practice” long-term residential treatment program dedicated to changing the lives of pregnant women struggling to overcome co-occurring disorders. Since opening its doors in 2005, over 160 strong, healthy babies (free from drug/alcohol impairment) have been welcomed into the world by positive, achievement oriented, successful Mothers. Ladies who are now making a difference and contributing to society.
- Permanent supportive housing continues to be a top priority for CBI. We have three CBI owned four-plex apartment units for women transitioning from the CFH and 121 rental assistance units throughout the Valley for women participants of Aspire, a CBI outpatient program for women dedicated to maintaining a life free of impairments associated with co-occurring disorders. CBI housing continues to expand through our outreach efforts connecting those in need to CBI housing in 82 single person housing units at CASS (Central Arizona Shelter Services); 200 apartments for homeless individuals achieving recovery on a daily basis.
- CBI has also acquired apartments and housing units through our “Special Focus” efforts with Project H3 (Home, Health, and Hope) and Project H3 VETS. On December 31st, 2012, our 85th Veteran was successfully placed into housing with the support of our Peer Navigators. Through these more recent projects and our long established partnership with other housing providers, we are reaching new milestones in collaborative efforts to end homelessness.
- CBI continues to meet medical necessity by expanding our fully integrated medical and behavioral health care which, during the past four years, has transformed recovery of those we serve holistically and more effectively by delivering direct Physician and Nurse Practitioner services, both on-site in Maricopa County, and through Telemed to each of our service locations throughout Arizona.
- During this past year, two new Crisis Stabilization programs were added to serve as the “front door” to the behavioral health system in Maricopa County. Access Point and Transition Point are now open in Mesa and Avondale and will have served over 12,000 individuals in their first year of operation.
- CBI Crisis Response Teams have diverted over 3,500 individuals out of hospital Emergency Rooms, while another 1,400 were diverted by Police and an additional 1,500 by Phoenix Fire to CBI facilities, saving our communities millions of dollars in ER costs and creating additional capacity in our hospitals by freeing up bed space and decreasing wait times.
- In 2012, CBI became the single provider of Crisis Mobile Team service in Gila County.
- Our Peer Support Specialists are the largest and most respected peer entity in AZ and we have “Certified” more than 300 staff through intensive training and supervision to perform these critical services.
- Early in 2012, CBI received CARF National Clinical Accreditation for another 3 year accreditation cycle, adding 14 NEW clinical programs to our list of services. (Previous 3-year Accreditation in 2009: 14 programs were available to be certified; in 2012: 28 operational programs certified.)
- Last year, CBI launched a new program called “Unscript“. The program was created to meet the needs of increasing numbers of men and women seeking help to eliminate their unintentional dependence on prescription medications (primarily opiates and benzodiazepines) by utilizing an integrated medical team to properly diagnose and implement a medical intervention, beginning with medical detoxification, followed by education on the physiology of addiction (answering the question “how did this happen to me?”), individual and group counseling (providing the answer “what do I do now?”), and medically directed outpatient treatment and follow-up.
- We’ve also been extremely active in Prevention. Our Prevention team delivered valuable services to over 22,000 youth and adults this year alone in addition to leading the efforts of the Mesa Prevention Alliance and East Valley Synthetic Drugs Task Force. CBI Community Development Specialists have been interviewed numerous times in the print media, on local and national TV, produced and distributed newsletters and information packages on the most current drug trends, and have worked closely with Police/Fire and first responders to educate crisis personnel and the public on signs and symptoms of the negative impact of designer drugs, “Spice”, and “Bath Salts”.
All of these clinical, medical, behavioral health, and education programs are supported by an army of information technology and communication specialists, site support administrators, finance, maintenance, housekeeping, food handlers, landscaping, and transportation specialists who keep our programs on target 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I am extremely proud of each of our employees. Every day I look back and I’m amazed at the important hard work each of our staff members have performed and I look forward to tomorrow with the knowledge that Community Bridges will maintain its focus throughout Arizona changing individual lives and saving generations. To each of our employees, my personal thanks—You are important, Your jobs are important, YOU are Community Bridges.
Dr. Frank Scarpati
President/CEO
CBI is Accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF).
