In spite of some financial difficulties, the prognosis for Woodlands Behavioral Healthcare Network remains positive, according to the agency’s leadership.

Woodlands CEO Kathy Emans stopped by last week’s meeting of the Cass County Board of Commissioners to deliver the healthcare network’s fiscal year 2015/2016 annual report to the county leadership. Emans highlighted some of the positive trends she and her staff have witnessed in terms of patients and programs in the past year, as well as some of the troubles the agency has encountered with revenue.

“Overall, I think it has been a positive year,” Emans said. “There have been lots of new programs and some innovations. The staff is having fun trying some new things.”

Chief among these new initiatives was the creation of new businesses operated by participants of the agency’s Community Living Supports programs, which are daytime groups intended to help adults with serious mental illness or developmental disabilities live independently and connect with the community.

One of these businesses is Poppin’ Good Popcorn. Using a machine purchased by the agency, participants sold fresh popcorn to Woodlands employees, and learned in the process how to run a business, purchase products and — most important of which — how to pop popcorn without burning the kernels, Emans said.

“We had interesting fire alarms, and some burnt popcorn,” Emans said. “It was OK. After a while, that smell goes away.”

The venture was so successful that the participants have begun selling their products outside Woodlands facilities, including at the county building, courthouse and sheriff’s office, Emans said.

Another business, 1-2-3 We Create, is staffed by CLS participants who make and sell crafts such as soaps, bracelets, artwork and dice for Yardzee, a take off of the popular game intended for play outdoors, Emans said. The crafters sold their wares last year at the Dowagiac farmer’s market, and intend to return when the market reopens later this year, the CEO said.

“We want to make sure we are providing services that put people out in the community,” she said. “We don’t want them isolated inside a building.”

Woodlands staff also began offering services intended to enhance the physical health of its patients in its mental health and drug recovery programs, Emans said.

The first was connecting patients with a physical trainer, who was able to help six participating people to lose a total of 56 pounds, Emans said. The other was the use of a new care movement system, which, among other benefits, allowed staff to track how often patients refilled their medications.

The agency also continued to offer education services for the greater community, including hosting free mental health first aid courses and mental health training for law enforcement officials. Woodlands also helped organize a summit on opioid abuse in the summer with the CASS Coalition, which received a lot of positive feedback, Emans said.

Woodlands served a total of 1,540 patients last year, an increase of almost 80 from the previous year. The agency served additional children, as well as adults with mental health problems, although it saw a decrease in the number of individuals requesting treatment for substance abuse.

In spite of the growth, the agency had a $72,000 deficit in its general fund. The agency experienced similar deficits in the past, which Emans said is caused by the fact the agency worked with about 40 percent of the funding they had originally projected.

“We have limited and restricted some our services because of those reductions,” she said. “That is the same across the state. Within our eight-county region [in the Southwest Michigan Behavioral Health network], we have all experienced a general fund deficit, some to a much higher extent than us.”

Emans was asked about how far along the agency’s proposed purchase of the current Midwest Energy building in Cassopolis, which the CEO announced to the commissioners in February. Woodlands is looking to buy the building and consolidate all of its operations to the single location once Midwest moves to its new headquarters on Decatur Road.

Emans said the company recently completed its grant application to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in order to fund the purchase, but she had not yet received word if the request was approved.

“It is a very slow, arduous process, but we are excited,” she said.