Social Responsibility
FAMILY ADVANTAGE, LLC was established in 2007 in Pleasant Hill, North Carolina. We are a licensed, 4 bed Level III Residential Services Facility for male youth ranging in ages from 7-17. We have expanded our healthcare services to Halifax County and Mecklenburg County. We are dedicated to ensuring that quality care is provided and that our youth are treated with dignity and respect. Our goal is to create services that address the previously unmet needs of the community for quality treatment services. Our facility is designed to serve those children who have been identified as having significant behavioral difficulties. At our residential facility, we utilize a behavioral point system to assist the youth with learning the importance of earning privileges. Our behavioral point system is designed to ensure that every client has the opportunity to earn points daily. In addition our clients have structured programming and 24 hour supervision. Family Advantage is committed to effectively improving self-concept; improving healthy decision-making skills, and in some clients, reduced recidivism for youthful offenders.
Family Advantage addresses the identified needs of children and adolescents who are qualified for out of home placements and need intensive interventions to remain stable in a positive community environment. While service is render primarily to youth in Family Advantage Residential Facility with a family focus to: diffuse current crisis; evaluate its nature and intervene to reduce the likelihood of a recurrence; ensure linkage to needed community services and resources; provide self-help and living-skills training for youth; provide parenting-skills training to help the family build skills for coping with the youth's disorder; 24-hour monitoring and manage the presenting psychiatric and addiction symptoms, and work with caregivers in the implementation of home-based behavioral supports. The mission Family Advantage services is to empower families with whom we service. We strive to ensure positive success in children and families develop effective coping
Strategies and to draw on both their previously untapped or under used personal and familial strengths. All services are provided in a fashion that displays respect for personal choice and self-determination. Family Advantage engages in ongoing, quality assurance activities to ensure that we are providing care that meets the best standards of practice in our field. This means: continuous review of the treatment interventions we employ; ongoing review of treatment related documentation, and routine review of the skill level and training needs of both direct care and supervisory staff. Our commitment has been and will continue to be to provide the most professional care to our consumers and maintain strong relationships and communication with other treatment partners in order to affect the greatest amount of positive change.
Corporate Social Responsibility at Family Advantage
At Family Advantage, our primary mission is to improve the lives of our patients through successful treatment and recovery. We are focused on providing quality care to patients in our facility treatment centers daily. Corporate social responsibility is at the core of who we are, of how we care for our patients, each other, and our local communities.
Hand in hand with our commitment to patient care is our commitment to our employees – to providing appropriate training, assuring safety, and fostering genuine engagement by our employees in the delivery of quality patient care.
We are focused on meeting the behavioral healthcare needs of our communities and supporting agencies that have a meaningful impact on people’s mental health. Through our affiliation with the Trillium Healthcare Resources, we are making a difference in the lives of young people and helping to prevent youth suicides.
Finally, in addition to our commitments to people, we also strive to conserve environmental resources and to reduce the environmental impact of our operations.
Caring About Our Patients
Quality clinical care and therapeutic services: The most important part of corporate social responsibility at Family Advantage is what we do every day: providing quality care to our patients and helping people improve their lives. We will soon provide a full spectrum of behavioral healthcare services — from acute inpatient and residential care, to intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization, to detoxification, recovery and medication assisted treatment — for children, youth, adults, and seniors. Though our facilities operate with a significant degree of independence, Family Advantage enhances its facilities’ delivery of quality care through its national compliance team of 15 professionals.
Locally controlled: The highest priority for all of our facilities is meeting the behavioral healthcare needs in our local communities. We continuously look to add new treatment programs and build additional beds to meet the needs of the communities we serve.
Investment in physical facilities: In order to enhance care for patients, we continuously invest financial resources in our physical facilities. This assures that our patients are receiving treatment in a safe, secure therapeutic setting and enables our patients to feel more hopeful as they progress towards recovery.
Helping reduce the opioid crisis: As the US continues to seek solutions for the opioid crisis, we are one of the nation’s largest provider of opiate addiction treatment services. With treatment clinics dedicated to helping patients who are struggling with opiate addiction, we are committed to reducing this epidemic that has become a national crisis.
Patient satisfaction: While evaluating effectiveness in behavioral healthcare is always a difficult challenge, we measure our efficacy through patient satisfaction surveys and other metrics. We regularly evaluate each of our facilities, identifying trends and assessing areas for improvement in our treatment programs and physical facilities.
Safety, Privacy, Security: Our patients’ safety and security is at the core of Family Advantage’s mission. In addition to the patients’ physical safety, we also assure the privacy of their medical records and personal information. Family Advantage has 14 full-time professionals who lead the Risk Management program, working closely with the full-time Risk Manager at each of our inpatient facilities.
We continuously work to improve our culture of safety and strive for zero patient harm. In addition to our facility-based safety practices, we have undertaken a number of initiatives to embed our commitment to safety throughout our organization.
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Corporate Safety Committee: Our Corporate Safety Committee continuously evaluates safety risks to our patients and employees and routinely revises corporate policies and/or establishes new policies.
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Zero Tolerance Training: Every Family Advantage employee takes zero tolerance training upon hire and annually. This training is focused on defining and eliminating any and all abuse, neglect, boundary violations, or exploitation, with a mandatory test each year and the requirement of a passing grade of 100%.
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Safe Driving: Every employee who drives patients must take a safe driving course upon hire and annually, and is subject to regular driving record reviews. All trips require an assessment of whether accommodations must be made to meet the special needs of any patients being transported.
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Incident Reporting: Despite our best efforts, incidents do occur at our facilities. Family Advantage reports and reviews all such incidents, analyzing the data for trends and follow-up tracking. The data is then reviewed by the Patient Safety Sub-Committee, which is chaired by Family Advantage’s VP of Risk Management and includes Family Advantage’s Chief Quality and Compliance Officer, VP of Human Resources, VP of Clinical Services and Division Presidents.
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Safe Catch Program: Family Advantage encourages employees to participate in maintaining a safe environment and acknowledges staff who identify and report any potential hazards.
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Monthly Safety Assessment Walk-Through: The Risk Manager at each of our facilities conducts a monthly walk-through of the facility utilizing a formal checklist of safety and risk indicators that provides the basis for both immediate on-the-spot corrective action and longer-term improvement plans.
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Facility Safety Committees: Each of our facilities has a safety committee, co-chaired by the Facility Risk Manager and the Facility Human Resources Manager, that meets monthly to discuss, implement and monitor improvements for patient, employee and visitor safety.
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Safety Certification Program: Family Advantage facilities are evaluated every year against a set of requirements designed to enhance a culture of safety excellence.
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Corporate Risk Assessment Audits: Corporate Risk Analysts regularly conduct facility visits to ensure compliance with our safety and risk management policies.
Caring About Our Employees
Safety: Our employees are our most important asset and are essential to Family Advantage’s success. The initiatives and programs highlighted under “Caring about our Patients” are designed to benefit our employees as well. Our goal is to have zero accident injuries within our facilities.
Training: All of our clinical staff are trained in their professional disciplines and skills, and we provide support for their continuing education. In addition, we provide company-wide training on an annual basis. Our employees are required to take classes targeted to reinforce key policies and training relating to regulatory compliance, safety and patient care.
The 12 courses taken by our employees in 2017 are listed below:
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Regulatory Compliance: Part I – January 2017 – Corporate Compliance, Sexual Harassment, Patient Rights, Confidentiality, HIPAA and Grievances.
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Regulatory Compliance: Part II – February 2017 – General Safety, Fire Safety, Electrical Safety, Ergonomics, Back Safety, Hazard Communication, Security & Workplace Violence, Reporting Incidents, Emergency Preparedness and Infection Control.
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Zero Tolerance – March 2017 – Boundaries, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation.
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Customer Service – April 2017 – Excellent Customer Service, Delighting Customers, Methods For Handling Customer Complaints.
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Active Shooter Response in Healthcare Settings – May 2017 – How To Recognize Indicators Of Potential Violence, How To Become Familiar With Various Response Concepts.
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High Reliability – June 2017 – Foundational Principles Of Becoming A High Reliability Organization.
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Workplace Violence – July 2017 – How To Prevent And Handle Workplace Violence.
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Social Media – August 2017 – Family Advantage’s Company Policy And Procedures On Social Media In The Workplace, Social Media Best Practices.
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Diversity in the Workplace – September 2017 – Defining Diversity, The Benefits Of Valuing Workplace Diversity, Legal Aspects Of Diversity, Managing Workplace Diversity.
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IT Security Awareness – October 2017 – Best Practices Of Information Security For Data Protection, Passwords, Social Engineering And Spear Phishing.
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Infection Control – November 2017 – Infection Control, How To Help Prevent The Spread Of Disease In The Healthcare Setting.
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Workers’ Compensation – December 2017 – Family Advantage’s Company Policy And Procedures On Workers’ Compensation. Company-wide leadership development training is also scheduled to begin in 2018.
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Benefits: Family Advantage will soon provide comprehensive package of benefits for our employees. Current benefits include:
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Standard medical insurance as well as high deductible health savings accounts
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Health care flexible spending accounts
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PhysicianNow and Nurseline virtual support programs
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Prescription drug plans
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Dental insurance
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Vision insurance
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Disability and life insurance
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Tobacco Cessation programs, free to all employees
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401K plan with employer matching funds
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Mail order pharmacy program
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Employee assistance program
Caring About The Environment
Another important part of our corporate social responsibility is to minimize the environmental impact of our operations. We take this responsibility seriously and are committed to complying with environmental laws and regulations.
Environmental Management:
Each of our inpatient facilities has a Risk Manager, whose responsibilities include effective environmental management, and an environmental compliance officer. We have detailed policies and procedures regarding the storage, handling and disposal of waste products, hazardous waste and other regulated materials to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.
Our Risk Management Incident Reporting program provides for the immediate reporting of any unsafe storage or improper disposal or release of a hazardous or toxic substance. We did not receive any notices of violations for any significant environmental non-compliance in 2018 at any of our facilities.
Reducing our environmental impact:
In addition to adhering to environmental laws and regulations, we also look to reduce our biggest overall environmental impact – the use of energy in our buildings.
MEP Systems: We specify for all our new construction and renovations Mechanical-Electrical-Plumbing systems that, on average, achieve facility energy performance that is 50% better than typical systems.
Lighting designs: In our construction and renovations, we specify lighting designs that typically are over 20% more efficient than code – including long-life lamps, high-efficiency ballasts, and LED lighting.
Energy Conservation: All Family Advantage facilities are fully IECC (International Energy Conservation Code) compliant. Our corporate headquarters are in a LEED-certified building.
“Exercise keeps me occupied, which is good for my mental health.
— Gail Porter
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WHAT WE'VE ACHIEVED
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2019-2022 CARF Accreditation
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Maintain North Carolina Mental Health License since 2007
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CARF Accreditation since 2008
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Contracted with Trillium Health Care Resources since 2007
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New Contract with Cardinal Behavioral Health
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Nominated for Provider of the Year in 2012 and 2015
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Provided Psycho Social Rehabilitation in Eastern North Carolina 2010-2013
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Added Live Stock to the residential facility providing Goat Therapy
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Expanding services in Georgia & South Carolina 2019
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Expanding services in Georgia 2019
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August 2019 Expanding Two Additional Residential Level III Locations
“Life is fragile. We’re not guaranteed a tomorrow so give it everything you’ve got.
— Tim Cook
WHAT WE'VE ACHIEVED
We are contracted with all NC MCOs​
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CARF Accreditation 2010-2023
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Maintain North Carolina Mental Health License since 2007
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CARF Accreditation since 2008
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Contracted with Trillium Health Care Resources since 2007
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New Contract with Cardinal Behavioral Health
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Nominated for Provider of the Year in 2012 and 2015
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Provided Psycho Social Rehabilitation in Eastern North Carolina 2010-2013
-
Added Live Stock to the residential facility providing Goat Therapy
-
Expanding services in Georgia & South Carolina 2019
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Expanding services in Georgia 2019
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August 2019 Expanding Two Additional Residential Level III Locations