RAMA Consulting Group, Inc.

Minority Community Recruitment Initiative (MCRI) is a statewide research and assessment initiative supported by NAMI Ohio’s Parent Advocacy Connection Program (PAC) and the Ohio Department of Mental Health. MCRI was formed to ensure that minority children, families, and adults have information, support and a voice in the behavioral healthcare system. PAC Advocates help families across Ohio in crisis feel less isolated by accompanying them to meetings regarding the mental health needs of their children including those held at schools, mental health agencies, courts, children’s services, etc. Based on some anecdotal feedback, the MCRI committee learned that African American consumers and family members were not taking advantage of opportunities to advocate and have their voices heard in behavioral health care in Ohio. The MCRI engaged the RAMA Consulting Group to evaluate the validity of this claim and to asses why African American were not serving in advocacy roles.

The RAMA team developed an approach that mixed both quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate the engagement levels of minority consumers and families in advocacy. The RAMA process relied heavily on qualitative processes due to the cultural understanding that many African Americans would share “richer” perspective verbally than they might in written form. Our team also recognized that literacy levels among the target population would verify as well as access to technology to complete and online survey. RAMA led research activities which included facilitation of 10 focus groups in 5 regions of the state. The focus groups questions developed sought to better understand minority consumer perspectives and to gain insights into what strategies work for engaging diverse consumers in advocacy.

Themes from the evaluation process will be used to develop an information guide that can be used to promote advocacy, engagement, and inclusion of minority families within the behavioral healthcare system. The information guide will be developed based on feedback obtained from focus groups throughout the State of Ohio and quantitative data obtained from a survey (paper-based and online) developed by RAMA.

The Columbus Office of Minority Health is one of six local offices in Ohio under the direction of the Ohio Commission on Minority Health. Among the core work of the Columbus Office of Minority Health is to 1) monitor and report health status of minority populations 2)inform, educate, and empower people to make choice about their health, 3)mobilize community partnerships, and 4) develop policies and plans to support minority health efforts. The Commission requires that each of its local office and grantees have a Research Evaluation and Enhancement Program (REEP) certified evaluator to work with them through program design, implementation, and evaluation. The REEP program is led by professors at Wright State University and seeks to work with qualified, culturally competent evaluators throughout Ohio. Mataryun Wright is one of only 3 REEP certified evaluators in Columbus, Ohio.

Mo Wright is currently serving as the REEP evaluator to the Columbus Office of Minority Health (COMH) through evaluation design, monitoring, analysis and reporting. Our evaluation services have employed a number of both qualitative and quantitative approaches in order to determine the most accurate status and performance improvement opportunities for the COMH. The RAMA team recently entered year two of this project and continues to improve evaluation processes and data collection method for the local office. A comprehensive report of activities to date was recently prepared for submission to the Ohio Commission on Minority Health. All feedback from the state has been positive.

RAMA Consulting Group was asked by MACC/ODMH to undertake a research project to assess and present the needs of a broad range of stakeholders in Ohio’s Behavioral Health Care System around the issue of cultural competence.

RAMA designed a highly participative process that included facilitating provider and consumer focus groups (Learning Your Needs Forums), collecting and analyzing survey data, conducting cultural specific focus groups, availing opportunities for online feedback from stakeholders, and preparing the needs assessment report, “Cultural Competence in Mental Health: An Overview of Needs in Ohio”. RAMA was asked to continue the needs assessment process in 2007 by updating the report with insights from several new cultural groups and communities.

The information from our work will be utilized by MACC and ODMH to develop their strategic plan, design training curricula, and determine necessary system modifications to better serve consumers in our state.

In 2009 RAMA was asked again to uptake and update the MACC Veterans and Families “Learning Your Needs” Project. This project is designed to gain insights on how best to “Learn the Needs” of the Ohio Veterans Population and their families in regards to behavioral/mental health services. RAMA Consulting Group, Inc. and Multiethnic Advocates for Cultural Competence (MACC) are pleased to announce that they will be holding Veterans & Families “Learning Your Needs” Forums in Columbus, Chillicothe, Marietta, Akron, Hamilton, and Toledo, Ohio. These forums will begin mid-October and last until mid-November. There will also be surveys online and distributed in hard copy to obtain input from the Veterans and their Families about their experiences in the Behavioral Health Systems. The initial set of focus groups in Central Ohio is designed to develop baseline learning and to inform the survey design process. The survey was designed to capture a relatively large sample of individuals from this population. After aggregation of the survey data, the 5 regional forums will commence. Veterans or military personnel will serve as facilitators for the veteran’s groups. RAMA will provide orientation, oversight, and logistical support to military facilitators. RAMA will work with Veterans Advisory Group to ensure a diverse team of facilitators based on the sub-sets that we target for participation.

To help address the achievement gap in Ohio urban schools, a network of the eight urban College Tech Prep consortia has been established. The urban network sought to develop a 3-year strategic plan to improve the recruitment, retention, transition, non-remediation, and college completion rates of high poverty urban youth in College Tech Prep pathways.

RAMA Consulting Group served as the planning consultants to the project as well as project managers for the statewide urban network. The intent of the plan is to increase the sharing of effective practices, leveraging of resources, piloting of improvement strategies, and partnerships with related urban initiatives and organizations.

The project initial phases yield both a Situation Analysis and Strategic Plan authored by our consulting team. RAMA has continued its work with the network into Year 3 as the group formulates its organizational structure and works to accomplish its strategic plan.

RAMA Consulting Group was responsible for the development of the overall planning approach, meeting agenda formation and meeting logistics, meeting with agency leadership and setting priorities. Our team also synthesized the data collected and produced interim reports for OCMHH.

Our work also included fielding questions and inquiries throughout the process from various stakeholders. As lead consultants we oversaw all aspects of the project and were responsible for interface with the client on project deliverables.

Our work with the OCMH provided strategic focus around several critical elements for the organization including the establishment of local offices of Minority Health that were recently opened.

RAMA Consulting Group provided comprehensive project management including fiscal management, committee and meeting management, managing stakeholder feedback, facilitation and presentation of the three year plan to various audiences.

Challenges of the project included engagement of non-profit agency directors who were not always enthusiastic partners on the project due to high demands for their time and lack of understanding about the use of the Cultural Competence Standards. The project was successful at meeting its year 1 objectives under RAMA’s leadership.

The project was also a significant step for the non-profit sector in general as there is currently not widespread use of Cultural Competence Standards in this arena. Our work at United Way should lay the foundation for future work that will be considered cutting edge and long overdue in the human service system.

RAMA was responsible for designing the scope of work and the process to accomplish this task in a 6 month period. Due to scheduling constraints, the process needed to be efficient for university stakeholders while at the same time ensuring that the larger community was well represented in the process. A very participative approach to the planning project was designed and implemented to gather relevant data from individuals who had some connection to the OSU-M campus.

Our firm used each data-gathering step to inform the next stage of the assessment process. Using our background in evaluation and research, a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods were employed. Our team was responsible for survey design, interview and focus group protocol design, facilitation of focus groups and planning meetings and writing the interim and final reports.

Among the recommendations in RAMA’s final report were the establishment of a Coordinator for Multicultural Affairs, establishment of satellite course offerings in minority communities, and development of a brand awareness campaign geared toward multicultural communities.

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