Question & Answer Interview with WestCare Pacific Islands Sagan Mami Project Coordinator Shirley Untalan

1. What is your mission (goals & objectives) at WestCare?

The WestCare Pacific Islands (WPI) mission is to empower everyone we encounter to engage in a process of healing, growth, and change benefiting self, family, co-workers and communities.

The vision of WPI is to devote our best collective and individual efforts toward, “uplifting the human spirit,” by consistently improving, expanding and strengthening the quality, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of everything we do in building for the future.

Our guiding principles that set the framework for the delivery of behavioral services to individuals, families and communities are Excellence, Dedication, Growth and Ethical behavior (the EDGE).

WPI is a health and human services organization dedicated to excellence through the empowerment of people, families and communities. We create a continuum of culturally competent, client-centered care in the communities we serve that is recognized for clinical excellence, innovation and coordinated access.

2. What specific services does WestCare provide?

Programs of WestCare Pacific Islands:
1. HIV/AIDS and other STD counseling, testing and prevention.
2. Veterans and returning warriors and their family’s referrals.
3. Evening Drop in Center for persons who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness.
4. Work Enrichment Program- on the job training.
5. Enrichment center services for individuals with Severe Mental Illness who are homeless or at risk of being homeless.

WPI has provided training and technical assistance to Sanctuary (a long time island provider), and established a close partnership with other local agencies. Throughout its 39 year history providing human services, WestCare has only entered states, offshore territories or communities and neighborhoods by invitation when there is an extreme need and great support for WestCare to assist local residents and agencies with evidence based practices and programs based on our expertise and experience.

3. Who is your target audience?

1. Persons living with mental illness
2. Persons living with disabilities
3. Veterans
4. Persons suffering from alcohol or drug abuse/addiction
5. Dually diagnosed
6. Homeless or at risk of homelessness
7. Youth
8. Women and Children

4. What are your hours of operation and what is the best way for people to reach you that are interested in assistance?

Our main office is located in Suite 301 of the Hornet Building in Tamuning and is open between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and by appointment.

We can be reached by phone at (671) 472-0218/9, Fax: (671) 472-0217. 

Our helpline is available 24 hours-a day-at: (671) 482-9001.

The Sagan Mami Enrichment Center is operating Monday thru Friday 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

The Sagan Mami Drop-In Center is operational from 4p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Both programs can be contacted at: 472-6264 (396 West O'brien Drive Hagatna Guam 96910)

We can also be found on Facebook/Westcare Pacific Islands and the WestCare Website, www.westcare.com

5. In addition to direct services, what resources does WestCare offer?

We currently have a staff on board who is a Certified Substance Abuse Counselor who is able to conduct initial screenings and is able to make referrals to Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center for further assessments.

WestCare has a host of resources in our training room.  Anyone from the community is welcome to utilize our health related materials, and use the available computers, which have access to the internet. 

Staff in all programs are able to do outreach and education at various community events including: Career Days, Health Fairs, Community Waves, Various Trainings and capacity building.

Additionally, condoms are available free of charge during regular business hours. 

6. Thinking about current events, how do you foresee recent events in your field of work affecting your organization and its work?

WestCare’s HIV/STD testing program has seen drastic cuts to its budget over the past 12 months, as well as, the Department of Public Health, HIV/STD department who provides our agency the testing kits.  As a result, the outreach testing that WestCare was previously providing cannot be conducted in the same capacity. 

Last year WestCare’s Guahan Project administered more than 300 STD tests, which test for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea. It is likely, many of those tested during outreach would otherwise not been tested until serious symptoms occurred, causing potential long-term health and/or reproductive problems. 

The funding cuts pose a reduction in the amount of test kits DPHSS can provide, which is disheartening, as the rate of Chlamydia on Guam remains one of the highest in the U.S. and its territories.

This decrease in testing impacts the community first and cripples the ability to keep our community safe.    

   
7.  Can you discuss your community partnerships and how they contribute to the overall success of WestCare individually?

Partnerships are vital to the success of all WestCare programs. The ideas and concepts for many of our programs are due largely to partnerships in identifying gaps in existing services, which may be out of the purview of other agencies. 

The majority of our consumer base is driven by referrals from other agencies. Those partnerships allow for a greater ability to provide outreach throughout the community that could not solely be organized by our agency alone.   

8. Can you touch on the history of WestCare and how the organization is set up?

WestCare Pacific Islands (WCPI) was established in 2009 as an affiliate of WestCare Foundation, a national behavioral health care and human services organization with nearly 40 years of experience providing social service programs. WestCare provides services and operates programs in fifteen of the United States, and in the offshore territories of the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Pacific Islands.

WPI assists in the spirit of Inafa maolek (to make right) and is committed to identifying areas of need and filling service gaps to reduce health-related disparities in the U.S. Associated Pacific Islands. WPI has direct oversight of federal, state and local grants encompassing prevention and early intervention services, treatment and supportive care to special populations include adolescents at risk for substance abuse, HIV/AIDS and other STDs, the homeless, veterans, and persons currently living with and/or impacted by HIV/AIDS.

Five years before the official incorporation of WestCare in Guam, WestCare Chief Executive Officer and President, Richard Steinberg, was invited by the Executive Director of a local Guam non-profit agency to visit the Islands to view the extensive gap and need for services to vulnerable populations and residents in the area. Sarah Thomas-Nededog, then the Executive Director of Sanctuary, is now the WestCare Pacific Islands Vice President.

9. Any upcoming plans or projects that our island community should be aware of?

Westcare applied for funding with Administration on Children, Youth and Families - Family and Youth Services Bureau to have a Maternity Group Home for teens ages 16-22.

Guam has the highest per capita rate of teenage pregnancy in the whole nation.

We saw a need in the community to have such a service for at-risk or runaway youths who are pregnant or are nursing their children who needed assistance in gaining independence, being self- sufficient, receiving  parenting instruction (including
child development), child care, transportation, family budgeting, nutrition and health services, family planning, comprehensive sex education, and pregnancy prevention services.

10. Lastly, why do you think the work you do is important to our island community and the world at large?

“Uplifting the Human Spirit,” allows the ability to empower each individual, organization and community in which we serve. 

When we are able to empower those we work with, it allows them the ability to continue the empowerment process and pass it on to others, creating a healthier community and healthier world.