Message from OHA Director, Pat Allen
Yesterday I submitted my resignation to Governor Brown, effective at the end of her term on Jan. 9, 2023.
As I told the governor in my letter, over the past five years, you and our many health care, public health and community partners have been tested in unprecedented ways. You have met every challenge with an unwavering commitment to the health and well-being of people in our state, especially during Oregon’s nationally recognized response to the COVID-19 pandemic. I am humbled to have supported you and to have seen the life-saving impact of your work.
Honestly, I am sad to be leaving this work behind. We have much ahead of us still to do at OHA. While we have demonstrated that we can deliver real health equity as we did in closing our COVID-19 vaccine gap, we have a long way to go to allocate and reallocate power and resources in a way that recognizes, reconciles and rectifies the injustices and unfairness in our health systems. While we have made great strides to improve our behavioral health system, we have a long way to go, and the pandemic has made that path longer and much more difficult. Our recent Medicaid waiver is an exciting opportunity to provide benefits not available anywhere else in the country to address homelessness, hunger and climate change, but the work to deliver those new benefits will be hard.
But, most of all, I’m incredibly proud of the ways I’ve seen people at OHA think about their work differently, and do their work differently in the time I’ve had the privilege to be in my role. Thank you all so much for your dedication, your heart, and your commitment to the people we serve.
Further leadership changes
Yesterday, Steve Allen, OHA’s behavioral health director, informed Margie Stanton and me that he will be stepping down in January.
When I first came to OHA, we really didn’t have a robust behavioral health program. We didn’t have the staffing or resources needed for the state to take a leadership role in fixing a broken system.
Steve has been critical to our work to build that system. After reorganizing behavioral health to pull together disparate functions around the agency, Steve joined us from the Council of State Governments as our new director. Steve was a nationally recognized expert in the field, and impressed me, legislators, and our partners with his expertise, creativity and dedication. Over the past nearly four years, he has built an incredibly strong team, filled with talented, dedicated, passionate people who are working tirelessly every day to fix mental health and addictions treatment in Oregon while being equally committed to delivering our strategic goal of eliminating health inequities in Oregon by 2030.
Read more about Steve’s accomplishments on the OWL.
I’m sorry we’ll lose Steve’s considerable talents, and I wish him well in his next endeavors. Please join me in thanking Steve for his work serving the people of Oregon.
Pat.
 Changes at Publications and Creative Services
The Office of Publications and Creative Services (PCS), a shared service that provides translations and communication materials for ODHS and OHA, is under new leadership and launching a revamped request system and other improvements to better serve both agencies. Dr. Matthew Eagles is the interim director, replacing Nick Kerns, who left to pursue new interests.
How to make a new request
You can make a new request by visiting the PCS project request page on the OWL and selecting the type of request you want to submit. Read more here if you are not sure which request option to choose.
The 1001 and 2001 project request forms are now obsolete. Please do not use these forms. All requests submitted to the PCS email box will receive an email asking the requestor to resubmit it with Workfront.
Here are a few highlights of what requestors can expect of the new process:
- When a new request comes in through Workfront, PCS will schedule a 15-minute meeting for the client and design team to discuss the project scope and set a deadline based on PCS workloads.
- Translation-only requests will go directly to translation coordinators to prevent translations from getting stalled behind other requests.
- EBT orders will be handled at PCS’ new address: 3455 Aumsville Hwy SE, Suite 100, Salem, OR, 97317.
In addition, ODHS and OHA have convened a joint-agency steering committee with PCS and representatives from agency communication and equity teams to analyze existing processes and resources and recommend changes to align with agency priorities.
The first phase of process improvements include:
- Revamping the request process with new software called Workfront to help manage requests.
- Rebalancing the team to make sure workloads are manageable.
- Adding new staff to accommodate a 400 percent workload increase.
- Accommodating storage needs with a new location that has more warehouse space.
What about previously submitted projects?
PCS is sorting through a months-long backlist of projects to see which have been completed, which are pending, and which need to be assigned. It will take some time to resolve the backlog.
If you submitted a project to the PCS email and it has not been assigned, you will receive an email asking you to complete a new Workfront request form. Workfront replaces the old publications project form. PCS began testing Workfront in June. After completing the Workfront request form, your project is entered into Workfront for assignment.
Adding requests to Workfront will improve tracking and transparency and is the first step in rolling out the Workfront tool. Workfront allows requestors to see how many requests are in process and how many are waiting to be assigned. More information will come when additional Workfront features are launched.
The PCS team would like to send a big thank you to staff for patience and understanding during this transition.
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