Crossroads revisited: A lesson in doing it the right way

Comments from a small provider following a Wednesday commentary on access to minutes of the Crossroads Behavioral Healthcare board of directors meetings praised Executive Director David Swann for taking time to consider everyone’s concerns and for being something of an anomaly in the state’s fractured mental health system by not just giving lip service to service delivery, but really caring about it.

While I’m not in a position to judge the latter, I can now certainly vouch for his prompt attention to concerns brought to his attention and his willingness to work toward resolution of those concerns. In short, Swann has indeed sent minutes of Crossroads board meetings and from the cover letter accompanying them, he initiated that response the day after my August 24 email questioning the extensive technological resources and labor originally cited as needed to meet my request.

Which all goes to say, I and North Carolina Mental Hope owe Mr. Swann an apology. While the letter and minutes sent on CD weren’t mailed until a few days later and were apparently delayed a few more days in a backwater eddy of the Postal Service, they were in the mailbox this morning and were likely there when the Wednesday commentary was written as well. With the “company” van in high demand by other family members, the mail unfortunately doesn’t get checked every day. And since other steps in the process of obtaining these records had either been handled or verified through emails, I had assumed the same would be true if and when the minutes were released.

In his position of Crossroads Executive Director, I’m sure Swann has his share of detractors and supporters as well. But since my interaction with him has focused only on obtaining the Crossroads minutes, I ultimately have only praise for the way in which it was handled. He promptly responded to the original request for minutes, asked his Board to consider putting future minutes online, which it did, and now as I know in hindsight, quickly reconsidered how best to meet the request once he received my objections.

David Cornwell
Executive Director
North Carolina Mental Hope

 

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