North Central Health Care and Staff Recognized at United Way Annual Luncheon
The North Central Health Care team attended the Annual United Way of Marathon County luncheon on Wednesday, January 23rd. NCHC received several awards of recognition including the Circle of Excellence: Partner Award and the Shining Star Award. The Partner Award goes to organizations that donate between $10,000 and $25,000 in the annual Workplace Giving campaign. This is a direct reflection of the generosity of all of our NCHC employees who make a difference to many local community efforts with their donation each and every day. The Shining Star Award was awarded to NCHC is recognition of our commitment and leadership to improve Marathon County. NCHC was recognized for campaign growth, participation growth, per capita gift amount, leadership giving participation, corporate gift and volunteerism. NCHC was recognized along with just 5 other local organizations for our efforts to support the United Way.
In addition to those awards, specific individuals at NCHC received accolades for their contributions. Jessica Meadows was recognized with the Campaigner of the Year. This award recognizes her efforts to promote the United Way and educate people about the programs and services provided while increasing participation and involvement among our staff. Jessica has a willingness to pitch in and help complete campaign-related tasks and has contributed her creativity and original ideas that have resulted in award-winning can sculptures at the United We Can event over the last six years. Congratulations to Jessica for a well-deserved honor. Jessica really leads by example and is a key part of our success in supporting the United Way.
Sue Matis also received an award for her commitment to the United Way and serving 6 years on the United Way Board. Thank you to Sue for her contributions and leadership to the community impact of the United Way.
The Crisis Assessment Response Team (C.A.R.T.) took home the United Way’s Partners in Caring Award. At the 
beginning of 2018 NCHC began a partnership with the Marathon County Sheriff's Office and Wausau Police Department launching C.A.R.T. The initiative pairs a Crisis Professional full-time with a Law Enforcement Officer to provide crisis assessment and response. To say their first year was a resounding success would be a huge understatement. Early indicators suggest that while the number of mental health calls have increased in 2018, the number of mental health calls resulting in hospitalization have significantly declined. This means these resources are effective at doing what we intended them to do: deescalate mental health crisis situations within the community, avoiding unnecessary hospitalization, by deploying a community based crisis response team to meet an individual’s emergent needs.
Congratulations to all those on the NCHC team for their individual and organizational contributions. NCHC is a proud supporter of the United Way of Marathon County and their many initiatives to help those in need in our community.