Plan Lifetime Assistance Network of Northeast Ohio

JFSA and PLAN combine mental health services. $2 million gift from Maltz Foundation helps fund merger.

By Douglas J. Guth, dguth@cjn.org
Senior Staff Reporter at Cleveland Jewish News

Published: Friday, July 22, 2011 1:08 AM EDT

Two Cleveland-area mental health service organizations with a history of sharing clients have agreed to join forces. With funding help from a local philanthropic family, Planned Lifetime Assistance Network (PLAN) officially joined Jewish Family Service Association of Cleveland (JFSA) on July 1.

As a result of the merger, JFSA will expand its behavioral health, housing, employment and family support services for people with mental illness. The merged operation received a major boost from The Milton and Tamar Maltz Family Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, which made a $2 million endowment gift to support the joined entities’ mental health services, according to the principals involved.

PLAN, a 501(c)(3) that had been in operation since 1989, provided home-based social work by licensed social workers to individuals with mental illness, cognitive disabilities and mood disorders.   Services included case management, counseling, residential     support, wellness, art therapy, and a “holistic recovery” option   including social outings and other recreational programming.

These services will continue through JFSA, although the manner in which they are delivered will change structurally, said JFSA president and CEO Susan Bichsel. PLAN’s mental health programs will be incorporated into JFSA’s Ascentia program, operated out of its Drost Family Center in Beachwood. PLAN clients under Ascentia will be able to access Medicaid, which previously was not available through PLAN.

Holistic work will remain under the PLAN name, with services continuing to take place at PLAN’s Lyndhurst location next to the Hillcrest YMCA. Clients from both agencies,    meanwhile, will have access to a broader range of services, although as PLAN is a national membership organization with locally run chapters, JFSA clients who want access to PLAN programming will have to pay a fee.

While PLAN is bringing its 125 families to JFSA, the group will remain a separate 501(c)(3) entity with membership in the National PLAN Alliance, an organization consisting of 26 PLAN affiliates in 21 states. Administrative redundancies may result in back office staff cutbacks, but no service staff will be let go, note leaders of both nonprofits.

“This is a shared commitment moving forward with strengths on both sides,” Bichsel said.

With the two agencies carrying    similar missions, the transition should be smooth, she added. The organizations already share clients, with some individuals receiving services every day of the week. Merging into one service system will increase efficiency and reduce risk, Bichsel said.

The catalyst behind the merger is largely financial, she said. The economic downturn has diminished philanthropic and foundational funding for mental health services outside of basic human needs. State and federal funding in this realm have also taken a hit, meaning smaller organizations like PLAN, with an annual operating budget of about $900,000, are unable to sustain administrative operations on their own, Bichsel said.

Sustainability of programming was the primary focus of a consolidation that has been discussed at various points over the last several years, said Robert Immerman, JFSA board chair.

PLAN’s merger with the larger agency is similar to JFSA’s partnership with Hebrew Shelter Home (HSH), a nonprofit providing support and housing for Jewish women and children. It merged with JFSA in 2009. That move allowed HSH to increase its budget, while also taking advantage of JFSA’s marketing, grant writing, human resources department and financial services, Immerman said.

The board chair can see a similar relationship between PLAN and JFSA. “We have the advantage of scale,” said Immerman. By bringing the services of PLAN under the JFSA umbrella, those services can be rendered all the more efficiently, he believes.

In recent years, PLAN experienced a funding gap primarily related to such holistic services as art therapy, so JFSA needed to secure adequate long-term funding in order to proceed with the merger. The Maltz endowment will allow the joined entity to keep these programs going.

“Joining forces was an imperative,” said Bichsel. “These services are what give these people a life.”

The Maltz family has been supportive of PLAN since its inception, said PLAN board president Harvey Kotler. The new funding will further its mission of assisting those with chronic mental illness through intensive, individualized treatments, he said.

It also helps that an established, financially sustainable organization like JFSA already serves a similar community. “This (merger) is a   natural amalgamation,” Kotler said. “The fact that (our services) are going to be around will be a comfort to our families.”

PLAN Board member, Harvey Kotler winner of Woodruff Foundation Award

Harvey Kotler is the recipient of the 2008 Emerging Volunteer Leader award from the prestigious Woodruff Foundation. Harvey Kotler is a Vice President, Board of Trustees, PLAN of NE Ohio, and Board Member, Hopewell and Jewish Family Service Association.

In a separate Outstanding Organization Catagory, PLAN of Northeast Ohio was recognized as a finalist for the Organizational prize. PLAN consistently excels in delivering exceptional solutions and innovative programs that assist those living with mental illness progress in their recovery. The road to recovery has no map but there is a PLAN.

The Woodruff Foundation was established in 1986 to enhance, through financial support, the development and delivery of mental health services. In addition to their traditional grant making, the Trustees of the Woodruff Foundation have sought to recognize and honor those organizations and individuals doing superior work in the mental health and/or chemical dependency fields.

From this objective, the Woodruff Prize Awards were established in 1989. Each year one nonprofit organization in Cuyahoga County, Ohio and one individual, either a professional or a volunteer, are awarded the Woodruff Prizes, each with a prize of $10,000.