Walls That Talk

The Jackie Nitschke Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin provides both residential and outpatient substance abuse treatment to the residents of Brown County and the surrounding area, and also offers a treatment program to inmates at the Brown County Jail. The Center provides free outpatient treatment to drunk drivers with multiple convictions during the time they are enrolled in the Huber jail program. It also provides free aftercare for all of its clients. Because of its small size, the Jackie Nitschke Center is able to implement changes rapidly. They are also willing to take risks and try new things. The changes may not work every time, but like the Little Engine Who Could, the Jackie Nitschke center keeps trying, and with their determination, have met with many successes.

The Jackie Nitschke Center of Green Bay, Wisconsin is working to create excellent communications within their organization while their change team focuses on decreasing the time that clients wait to get into treatment. Their change team has been working to keep all staff and Board members aware of their change efforts and enthusiastic about their goals and progress.

To document their progress in reducing wait times, the team collects data on the time from each client's first call to the agency to that client's admission into treatment. The team then uses the data to create graphs of the client wait times each week, and the agency's progress toward their goal of reducing this time. These graphs are posted on the walls of the main office for all staff to see, and are updated each week. Each month these graphs are taken to the Board meeting, where they are passed around while the team gives a brief summary of the month's progress in the reduction of wait times for treatment. This system is keeping the staff and the Board aware of and invested in the changes being made at the Jackie Nitschke Center. This ongoing communication keeps everyone in the agency updated and gets them excited about their progress.