December 2019- Erik Ulrich, LCSW, Clinical Director & Interim Director of Social Services and Mental Health for Little Flower Children & Family Services received the CEO Innovation Award due to his ongoing dedication to the mental health needs of the RTC residents. Erik began at Little Flower in 2003 as a Therapeutic Foster Boarding Home (TFBH) behavior specialist and then a caseworker. After leaving the organization for a short while, he returned in 2016 as a therapist. Promoted to clinical director in 2017, Erik maintains an extensive on-call schedule to ensure that all psychiatric emergencies are addressed with care and sensitivity.
Erik was instrumental in the successful launch and implementation of Children and Family Treatment and Support Services (CFTSS), working hand in hand with the services team in Hauppauge to ensure that eligible RTC residents receive the services that they are entitled to. Erik worked closely with the IT team so that the internal Electronic Health Record system is user friendly for the therapists and within Medicaid guidelines.
He was also vital with transitioning therapists under his supervision from a loosely structured process for seeing children, to a structured, profitable billable unit model as per the new Other Licensed Practitioner (OLP) billing guidelines. Little Flower started providing 3 CFTSS services in January 2019 – OLP, Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR) and Community Psychiatric Supports (CPST). Erik provides and supervises all OLP at the RTC, which includes assessment and treatment planning to identify strengths and abilities; individual, family or group therapies to address behavior at home and school, better relationships, and more effective communication; and crisis intervention activities to address acute distress and associated behaviors if a child/youth is experiencing distress due to an unplanned crisis.
Erik has also collaborated with other Little Flower CFTSS leadership to implement and integrate CPST and PSR into existing RTC programs, which supports children and caregivers in achieving stability and functional improvement in daily living, personal recovery or resilience, family and interpersonal relationships in school and community integration.
Due to Erik’s efforts, the overall number of hospitalizations and critical incidents has declined. We also saw a decrease in non-suicidal self-injury and assaults against staff. Additionally, Little Flower was ranked #1 in the state for paid CFTSS claims, which helps sustain the high-quality trauma informed services. Congratulations Erik, on this well-deserved award!
