UTICA — Upstate Caring Partners (UCP) has gone through several changes in recent years, from a change in leadership to its change to the Upstate Caring Partners name earlier this year. The new name reflects the growing role the organization plays in caring for the community it serves. The agency began in 1950, started by […]
UTICA — Upstate Caring Partners (UCP) has gone through several changes in recent years, from a change in leadership to its change to the Upstate Caring Partners name earlier this year. The new name reflects the growing role the organization plays in caring for the community it serves.
The agency began in 1950, started by a group of grandparents and parents whose children had cerebral palsy. Then known as United Cerebral Palsy, the organization initially served seven children from the basement of Kernan Elementary School in Utica. Around 2010, the agency changed its name to Upstate Cerebral Palsy. Louis Tehan joined the organization in 1979 and led as its CEO until he retired in 2018.
Today, the nonprofit’s scope goes well beyond just serving those with cerebral palsy. UCP says it is now a leader in special education, residential and community services, as well as a provider of behavioral-health services to people in the Mohawk Valley and beyond.
“Our name had become a misnomer,” UCP Executive Director Geno DeCondo says. The agency’s services have grown and diversified so much that it was a disservice to have cerebral palsy in the name. The former name ignored the services UCP provides in the areas of substance-abuse and mental-health treatment, as well as its work with autism patients. In fact, he says, autism is now the leading diagnosis the agency sees.
That’s why the nonprofit started off this year with the new name. “The caring partners piece really resonated with us as it’s really what we see our role as,” DeCondo says.
UCP is also changing more than just its name, he notes. It’s working hard on implementing a new clinical model in its educational, residential, and community programs in an effort to achieve better outcomes for the people it serves.
“We went out and consulted with some of what we consider the best experts in the field,” DeCondo says, and developed a model that works to understand physical health and how it impacts behavioral health.
Previously, a lot of time was spent managing behavior and just trying to get through the behavior, he says. “We said, ‘There’s got to be more here.’”
Under the new model, understanding physical-health factors that lead to behavioral-health issues has made a huge difference. For many of UCP’s clients, things such as an inability to communicate or chronic pain influence behavior. Mitigating those factors often results in a rapid improvement in behavior, and that’s where the magic happens, DeCondo says. “This puts people in a position where they can build skills and learn,” he adds.
The change has had such positive results that UCP hired a doctorate-level researcher to collect and share data with other organizations to help them.
The new model has also attracted some top-notch talent to UCP, which has gone from having just one or two behavioral analysts to now boasting about 20.
UCP is also expanding and improving its behavioral-health model, primarily through its new Giotto Center Community Health and Behavioral Services facility. The agency celebrated the grand opening in May.
The new center is the culmination of three years of work, says Jenni Barlow-Gagnon, EVP of behavioral health services at UCP. Previously, services were provided at three separate locations, which created barriers for those seeking help.
The new 17,000-square-foot space brings behavioral services together under one roof at 1002 Oswego St. in Utica. Not only is the new location conveniently located along public transit routes, but it’s also right next door to Upstate Family Health Center, a longtime partner of UCP, to provide primary and pharmacy care.
UCP provides a wide array of additional services including early intervention, pre-school, the Tradewinds Education Center for students ages 5 to 21 with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, residential programs for those unable to live at home, respite/self-direction/community/day habilitation programs to provide relief to caregivers, employment/vocational services, and the Technology Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities assistive-technology program.
With an annual budget of nearly $110 million, Upstate Caring Partners operates 74 locations and serves more than 7,000 individuals annually with a staff of more than 1,600 employees.