Happy National Gratitude Month!! - Week 1
Gratitude is more than simply saying “thank you.” Gratitude’s amazing powers can shift us from focusing on the negative to appreciating what is positive in our lives. On a recent cover of O Magazine, a teaser stated, “What If You Thought Differently?”
This year, I have decided to hone my “thinking differently” skills by spending the month of November focusing on cultivating gratitude for all my blessing. Work related blessings are not hard. I am always so grateful to my clients who believe in my work and support me beyond their knowledge. They share their struggles, disappointments, and needs with me in a safe place that enables us all to grow and learn.
Expanding beyond my gratitude for the work I do and looking at the health center program, all I can say is – WOW, what a year it’s been! We’ve navigated two versions of the Compliance Manual, the harsh realities of federal funding procurement, the addition of who knows how many grant conditions, and expanding and integrating substance use programs at record speeds. Oh, and let’s not forget the quarterly webinars and weekly emails from HRSA that are a “DO NOT MISS” on my calendar. The questions are getting harder, and the answers are getting longer… You get the picture. Wow, what a year!
Conversely, HRSA is really stepping up for this expanded compliance requirement. Thank goodness!! Their casual, PIN/PAL oversight of the program all those years prior left many of us pivoting on what we know, what we have heard, and what we can get from a help line. Today, the new HRSA has expanded their resources, they actually answer your email questions (this is new!), and they are mandating their funded associations to support the technical assistance needs of health centers. Specifically, they’ve joined with NACHC to develop the Health Center Resource Clearinghouse website that supports accessing credible online resources.
In light of the new regulations, seems as though everyone has gotten on the training bandwagon – UGH the emails!! On the flip side, I have to say that I learned many powerful tools and insights from the two trainings I attended this year. They also provided me access to highly-trained professionals in the art of reading the United States Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). These trainings were an update on the Compliance Manual offered by the Northwest Regional Primary Care Association, and the Federal Funding Academy offered by Feldesman, Tucker, Leifer, Fidell, LLP. While I am not recommending these trainings over others, I just want to spread the word that they are valuable for the beginner and veteran FQHC’er alike - I logged 17 years last month.
And how about that new Service Area Competition (SAC) requirement that it be 100% compliant or HRSA will only grant a one-year project period? YIKES – what were they thinking!? As my team and I work through our third SAC under the new Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), I am reminded of the lovely ladies I met at the Federal Funding Academy who operate the Head Start and Early Head Start programs. They get it. All of it. Their funding is almost 100% federal and accordingly they have established systems and processes that assure they continue to meet the regulations. I spent my breaks talking with the two Head Start powerhouses who joined my training table to see what they do, how they do it, and how do they feel about all they have to do to remain in compliance, 24/7. Briefly, they have embraced the program and its requirement, they have trained on the program, and they have developed systems that work to support the correct implementation of the requirements throughout the year, and not just before the fateful HRSA review.
I’ll leave you this week with a quote from Oprah to give us a little guidance toward cultivating our gratitude this month: “Being grateful all the time isn’t easy. But it’s when you least feel thankful that you are most in need of what gratitude can give you: perspective. Gratitude can transform any situation. It alters your vibration, moving you from negative energy to positive. It’s the quickest, easiest most powerful way to effect change in your life — this I know for sure.”
Wishing you all a joyous Thanksgiving!
Eileen