NJAMHAA News Spring 2021

spring 2021 16 B elieve it or not, back in the 1980’s, NJAMHAA’s members were still using paper and pencils for billing and documentation. Then, in 1984, NJAMHAA’s Management Information Systems Project was born to bring agencies into the computer age. It was renamed the Information Technology (IT) Project in 2003 to reflect a wider array of services incorporating new technologies. “The creation of the IT Project was groundbreaking. It is a truly unique partnership between a state and private organization to provide technical support and training for mental healthcare and substance use treatment agencies,” said Debra L. Wentz, PhD, President and CEO of NJAMHAA, referring to the then New Jersey Division of Mental Health Services as the state partner. “Over the years, we literally took providers from paper to computers, to local and wide area networks, to cyberspace and to the cloud. And we are constantly evolving our services as technology continues to grow and change.” In fact, Teri Gilroy, Senior Data Analyst, Acenda Integrated Health, who has been involved with the IT Project since 1990, remembers when NJAMHAA gave a dot matrix printer to Mid-Bergen Community Mental Health Center (now CarePlus NJ), where she worked at the time. “It was the best thing back then. We were able to print multiple copies of USTFs [Universal Services Transaction Forms], separate the printouts and send them to the state, clients, etc. It was better than using mimeographs,” she said. According to Gilroy, the IT Project also provided computers and word processing and database software programs. “The IT Project offered many services, despite having only two or three staff members at the time,” Gilroy noted. Actually, the team has not grown much. There are currently five IT Project teammembers. However, the scope of services, level of technological sophistication, knowledge of IT-related laws and how to comply with them and, therefore, value of the support they provide have increased exponentially over the years. For instance, NJAMHAA has been operating a Help Desk to assist members with submitting USTF’s and Quarterly Contract Monitoring Reports (QCMRs), as well as working with the Contract Information Management System in the New Jersey Substance Abuse Monitoring System, in addition to many other issues as they arise. “In the past few years, we implemented a more sophisticated ticketing system to better support agencies,” said Ron Gordon, Director of the IT Project. According to Gordon, it was a lucky thing that the IT Project implemented a system of remote connectivity shortly before the pandemic hit. “This enables us to connect to every server, each network device and every user’s computer at each contracted agency. During the lockdown and since, this has become critical to help support agencies. The remote tool also has an ad hoc feature, so we can set up a remote session with a user working from home. We have been able to assist agencies set up remote services, so staff can work from home and still provide critical telehealth service during the pandemic,” he said. Long-termStaff Demonstrate Ongoing Commitment to Providers Gordon has been providing IT support for NJAMHAAmembers since 1986. At the time, NJAMHAA contracted with an outside IT company. Then, the IT Project was brought in house and Gordon became a NJAMHAA staff member in 1991. “Technology has been a critical backbone for every agency to deliver services. Agencies are embracing technology and using it more, especially because of COVID. The most amazing thing is the ability to service clients because of technology,” he said. IT Project Constantly Evolves Winter Data sharing is essential for ensuring that individuals receive the highest quality services not only for substance use disorders, but also mental illnesses and physical health conditions. - June Noto, Vice President of IT, Human Resources and Administrative Services, NJAMHAA