Latest news with #Greenwell
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Report: Oklahoma mental health agency facing nearly $30 million budget hole
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – An initial financial report called for by Oklahoma's governor says the state's mental health agency faces numerous errors and a nearly $30 million budget shortfall. In early May, Governor Kevin Stitt announced a series of steps to stabilize the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services amid ongoing issues with public confidence, transparency and financial and operational mismanagement. Governor Stitt shared the first step would be bringing in an independent financial expert to 'take temporary control of the department's finances.' A news release said that individual would assess the agency's financial shortfall to give the legislature an accurate and credible supplemental budget request. Financial experts dig into Dept. of Mental Health's money woes; still no exact number on shortfall The Governor's office shared Monday that he has received a report pertaining to that step. Stitt appointed accountant David Greenwell to prepare the report. It first starts off by recognizing at $29.9 million dollar supplemental funding need for the agency, an amount that has been up in the air the past few weeks amid tense hearings at the state capitol. In the report, Greenwell says there is a reasonable margin of error and that needs may vary due to changes in service levels or 'unforeseen costs.' The report doesn't say how the agency ended up in the budget hole, adding no audit or review services were done. The review goes on to recommend a little over four dozen changes Greenwell says the agency should implement over the next year and a half to protect its billing patients and integrity. Key recommendations include hiring a new Chief Financial Officer and Internal Auditor, upgrading outdated accounting systems and expanding training. Greenwell said in a statement he didn't believe anything about the department was 'permanently broken.' He said that adjustments should help the agency be able to 'get back to the business of caring for the most vulnerable Oklahomans.' Agency Commissioner Allie Friesen has not sat down for an interview with News 4 but shared her own statement on the audit: 'Since joining ODMHSAS, I've been clear that I want to ensure this department is in the best position possible to care for those who need our services most. I'm grateful to Governor Sitt, David Greenwell, and the team at OMES for their assistance in this matter. We are going to come out stronger on the other side.' Allie Friesen, Oklahoma Department of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services Commissioner Governor Stitt stood by Friesen's leadership in a statement of his own Monday, despite calls for her resignation: 'No one signs up for a job like this thinking they'll have to take on decades of financial mismanagement. Commissioner Friesen has navigated this challenge admirably and has kept me and my team informed every step of the way. Oklahomans will be better off now that we have a handle on this department.' Governor Kevin Stitt You can read the full report here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Oklahoma mental health agency must mitigate risks to patients as deficit grows to $30M
Oklahoma Department of Mental Health Commissioner Allie Friesen speaks to news reporters after a Contingency Review Board meeting Oct. 8, 2024, at the state Capitol. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY — The state's mental health agency faces billing errors, fraud and information technology vulnerabilities in delivering services, an initial financial examination found. Over the next 18 months, the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services must implement dozens of changes to protect its patients and billing integrity, the review said. The agency must also prioritize hiring a chief financial officer and internal auditor with deep public sector experience, according to the initial findings released by David Greenwell. Greenwell, a certified public accountant, was retained by Gov. Kevin Stitt to oversee the department's finances and examine the reasons for the financial disarray plaguing the agency that has resulted in contracts being cut or canceled and concerns that the agency can't afford to pay 2,000 employees. Greenwell's findings also show that the agency now needs nearly $30 million in emergency funding from the Legislature to pay its bills. That's about $2.6 million more than had been previously projected last week by Greenwell and Aaron Morris, state's chief financial officer. In the report first released Monday by Stitt, Greenwell wrote Thursday that he'd reached his latest estimate by examining the agency's actual expenditures and revenues through May 11, and his number 'reflects a best-effort projection' using historical data and trend analysis. But he said he's also made 52 recommendations that the agency must take to mitigate risks. Key priorities include updating the agency's ethical code, adopting modern accounting systems and standardizing reimbursement processes. 'These changes will improve patient care by ensuring funds are used effectively, aligning with Oklahoma's mental health priorities,' Greenwell wrote. He said the agency must strengthen its internal controls over financial reporting. His recommendations anticipate 'improving accuracy, compliance, and accountability in managing mental health services across state-owned and private facilities.' Implementation should be phased in over 18 months with some goals quickly achievable, including enhanced training to create a culture of ethical conduct and accountability, he said. Greenwell said in a statement that nothing about the mental health department 'is permanently broken,' and by making 'intentional adjustments to procedures,' the agency will get back to business. Stitt said that the report 'is the signal for a new beginning for the department.' 'No one signs up for a job like this thinking they'll have to take on decades of financial mismanagement. Commissioner (Allie) Friesen has navigated this challenge admirably and has kept me and my team informed every step of the way,' he said in a statement. 'Oklahomans will be better off now that we have a handle on this department.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Associated Press
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Garth Greenwell's ‘Small Rain' wins PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction
NEW YORK (AP) — Garth Greenwell's 'Small Rain,' in which a poet falls ill and confronts mortality, the meaning of art and the failures of health care, won the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction on Monday. 'Garth Greenwell has wrought a narrative of illness and identity in visceral detail, conveyed with a precision of language that steals the breath,' the judges' citation reads in part. Greenwell's award includes a $15,000 cash prize. Finalists, each of whom receive $5,000, include 'Pemi Aguda for 'Ghostroots,' Susan Muaddi Darraj for 'Behind You Is the Sea,' Percival Everett for 'James' and Danzy Senna for 'Colored Television.' Previous winners include Philip Roth, Ann Patchett and Yiyun Li. The awards were established in 1981. They are named for the late Nobel laureate William Faulkner.
Observer
01-04-2025
- Observer
UK Government wouldn't ban phones in schools
SUFFOLK, England — The idea of getting her eldest child a smartphone had long felt inevitable, said Daisy Greenwell. But by early last year, when her daughter was 8 years old, it filled her with dread. When she talked to other parents, 'everyone universally said, 'Yes, it's a nightmare, but you've got no choice,'' recalled Greenwell, 41. She decided to test that. A friend, Clare Fernyhough, had shared her concerns about the addictive qualities of smartphones and the impact of social media on mental health, so they created a WhatsApp group to strategize. Then Greenwell, who lives in rural Suffolk, in the east of England, posted her thoughts on Instagram. 'What if we could switch the social norm so that in our school, our town, our country, it was an odd choice to make to give your child a smartphone at 11,' she wrote. 'What if we could hold off until they're 14, or 16?' She added a link to the WhatsApp group. The post went viral. Within 24 hours, the group was oversubscribed with parents clamoring to join. Today, more than 124,000 parents of children in more than 13,000 British schools have signed a pact created by Smartphone Free Childhood, the charity set up by Greenwell, her husband, Joe Ryrie, and Fernyhough. It reads: 'Acting in the best interests of my child and our community, I will wait until at least the end of Year 9 before getting them a smartphone.' (Year 9 is equivalent to the American eighth grade.) The movement aligns with a broader shift in attitudes in Britain as evidence mounts of the harms posed to developing brains by smartphone addiction and algorithm-powered social media. In one survey last year, the majority of respondents — 69% — felt that social media negatively affected children younger than 15. Nearly half of parents said they struggled to limit the time children spent on phones. Meanwhile, the police and intelligence services have warned of a torrent of extreme and violent content reaching children online, a trend examined in the hit TV show Adolescence, in which a schoolboy is accused of murder after being exposed to online misogyny. It became Britain's most-watched show, and on Monday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with its creators at Downing Street, telling them he had watched it with his son and daughter. But he also said: 'This isn't a challenge politicians can simply legislate for.' Feeling an Urgent Need to Act Other governments in Europe have acted to curb children's smartphone use. In February, Denmark announced plans to ban smartphones in schools, while France barred smartphones in elementary schools in 2018. Norway plans to enforce a minimum age on social media. So far, Britain's government has appeared wary of intervening. Josh MacAlister, a Labour lawmaker, attempted to introduce a legal requirement to make all schools in England smartphone-free. But the bill was watered down after the government made clear it would not support a ban, arguing that principals should make the decision. Some parents feel the need to act is urgent, especially as technology companies, including Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and X, formerly Twitter, have ended fact-checking operations, which many experts say will allow misinformation and hate speech to flourish. 'We don't have years for things to change,' said Vicky Allen, 46, a mother from Henfield in southern England. 'It does feel like it needs to be us.' She and a friend, Julia Cassidy, 46, successfully campaigned for their children's elementary school to limit phone use after Cassidy watched a Channel 4 documentary about smartphones in schools and then came across Smartphone Free Childhood. Cassidy was going to give her son a phone when he turned 11, but said, 'I've just done a very big U-turn.' Now, she plans to give him a phone that can be used only for calls and texts. The power of parents collectively delaying smartphones is key, Greenwell said, because it insulates children from peer pressure. 'This problem isn't that complicated,' she said. 'If you have other people around you who are also doing the same thing, it's amazingly, beautifully simple.' 'Most people just want to keep their children safe' On a recent Friday morning, dozens of parents gathered in the auditorium of Colindale Primary School in north London for a presentation by Nova Eden, a regional leader for Smartphone Free Childhood. She described startling data — that the average 12-year-old in Britain spends 21 hours a week on a smartphone, for example, and that 76% of 12- to 15-year-olds spend most of their free time on screens. She also talked about emerging research on the effect of smartphone use. Eden cited studies showing rates of anxiety, depression, and self-harm among teenagers spiking dramatically since social media was introduced. 'These children are struggling and they need our help,' Eden said. 'I know how hard it is, but we need to be the ones that stand up and say, this is not good for you.' Eden, 44, described struggling to find the right balance for her children, ages 5, 1,0, and 13. She said it was the campaigning of Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly took her own life after viewing suicide-related content on Instagram and other social media sites, that drove her to get involved. Eden had just given her 13-year-old a phone. 'At that time, I was going through this with my child, and seeing the change in him and his friends,' she said. Jane Palmer, the principal of the Colindale school, acknowledged that some parents have been skeptical of limiting smartphone use, or of banning the devices from school entirely, as her school will do beginning in September. Some parents argue the devices can provide social independence and allow them to contact their children in an emergency. Others feel parental controls go far enough in ensuring safety online. But the conversations among parents had begun to make way for change, Palmer said. During the presentation, she described how a former student had died by suicide after being bullied online. 'It can be tricky, and of course not everyone is going to support it,' she said of the ban. 'But at the end of the day, I think most people just want to keep their children safe.' Colindale is in the borough of Barnet, which in February announced plans to become the first borough in Britain to ban smartphones in all its public schools. The initiative will affect some 63,000 children. Eton, one of Britain's most elite private schools, announced last year that new students would be banned from bringing smartphones and would instead be issued with Nokia handsets that can only text and make calls. In Suffolk, the founders of the Smartphone Free Childhood initiative are aware that their success in attracting parents to their cause is partly thanks to social media and messaging apps on which they have spread the word. 'There are loads of positive things about this technology,' Ryrie said. 'We're not trying to say that technology is bad, just that we need to have a conversation as a society about when it's appropriate for children to have unrestricted access to this stuff.' This article originally appeared in
BBC News
18-03-2025
- General
- BBC News
Dog re-homed after spending whole life at rescue centre
A Dutch shepherd dog, who has lived at a rescue centre since she was nine days old, has finally been re-homed. Mia, who is five, has been available for rehoming since November 2022 but - until recently - she was the longest-serving resident at Southridge Animal Centre in Hertfordshire. Now the country's "most unwanted dog" has finally found her forever home, with a North Yorkshire family who live 200 miles away from the rescue centre."I'm so pleased I've been able to give her a happy life and a loving home," says new owner Chris Atwell. "I have no idea why such a special dog was in care for so long, but the way she's settled into home life is amazing." Mia and her mother were rescued by the RSPCA in 2019 in "extremely poor conditions", the charity said. After spending her fifth birthday at the rescue centre last October, and watching 400 dogs re-homed ahead of her over the course of a record 800 days, "it feels like she has been here forever" says Mr Greenwell, of his new canine companion. "Considering she's not spent much time in a home environment, she adapted incredibly well," he adds."She's a very sweet girl and so eager to please - she loves training and keeping her brain busy. She's an incredibly curious dog, always wanting to know where everything is and what's going on."A month on from her arrival, Mia has started going on hikes with Mr Greenwell, including discovering the Yorkshire moorland and, unwittingly, becoming immersed in a peat bog, which led to an introduction to the shower!"Mia is a superb dog and a great companion - she brings a smile to my face every day." Claire Hoffman, behaviour and welfare advisor at RSPCA Southridge, said: "Mia had spent almost her entire life in kennels - 35 years in dog years. "Her long wait was completely heart-breaking - we think she was the RSPCA's longest 'available for rehoming' pet." "But we're all thrilled her story now has a happy ending."Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
