About Page

Mission

Our mission is to build a healthy, equitable community in Tompkins County by addressing the root causes of health disparities and integrating mental, physical and environmental health.

Vision

We envision a future where every person in Tompkins County can achieve wellness.

Intent

An integrated and empowered team, advancing a collaborative effort to promote prevention and equitably improve individual and population health.

Culture. Align the organization around our shared Mission and Values-Based Culture to create an empowered, engaged, and cohesive team.

Integration. Merge the department structures to become one organization and increase our ability to better serve our clients and community.

Services. Coordinate our services and capabilities to support the whole person and integrate prevention techniques to holistically improve health outcomes.

Community. Strengthen the collaborative effort within Tompkins County to equitably impact individual and population health.

Data. Review and establish effective data collection to measure programmatic, organizational and county progress against our priorities.

Strategic Plan 2024-2026

Learning

Because we value learning…

• We respectfully and constructively speak up and share our ideas. We encourage others to do the same.
• We listen when others speak and seek to understand their unique perspective. We respect differing ideas with an open mind to find the best outcomes.
• We take risks, try new ways of working, and we use mistakes as learning opportunities.

Innovation

Because we value innovation…

• We encourage creativity and welcome alternative points of view to create a safe space for innovation.
• We take initiative and actively participate in finding solutions to improve our workplace.
• We seek out opportunities to expand our impact and improve health outcomes for our clients and community.

Collaboration

Because we value collaboration…

• We seek out and explore opportunities to work with others, including internal co-workers and external stakeholders.
• We draw on the experience and expertise within our organization and break down organizational silos to provide the best services to our clients and community.
• We thoughtfully and intentionally share information or expertise to have the biggest impact across our organization and community.
• We work with existing and new partners to engage populations we have difficulty reaching.

Compassion

Because we value compassion…

• We are compassionate and embrace diversity of lived experiences with an open-mind and without judgment.
• We treat each other, our clients, and community members with dignity and respect.
• We prioritize the safety of colleagues, clients and our community members.
• We are responsible and accountable for our own self-care so that we are ready and able to care for others. We are supportive of each other.

Integrity

Because we value integrity…

• We give our best, strive for excellence, and assume the best of others.
• We are dependable and keep our commitments to each other and the community.

Jennie Sutcliffe, Commissioner of Whole Health

Harmony Ayers-Friedlander, Deputy Commissioner of Mental Health

Brenda Grinnell Crosby Deputy Public Health Director

Jeremy Porter Director, Operational Support Services

Open a PDF version of the Org Chart(PDF, 106KB) (11x17)

Brenda Grinnell Crosby Deputy Public Health Director

Public Health is organized into three divisions:

• Division of Family and Child Health: houses programs that directly serve individuals and families, with a focus on supporting the health of pregnant people, infants, and children under five.
• Community Health Division: focuses on promoting health at the population level through community health education, health resource navigation, and disease surveillance and prevention programs.
• Environmental Health Division: continues to protect, preserve, and promote community health by ensuring safe air, water, food, and living spaces through permitting, inspection, and education.

Harmony Ayers-Friedlander Deputy Commissioner of Mental Health

Mental Health has two divisions:

• Mental Health Clinic: provides services to all those who live, work, or go to school in Tompkins County. The clinical treatment team works with each client to develop their own plan to address their needs and uses evidence-based treatment methods to help them achieve their goals. Treatment may include individual, couples, family or group therapy modalities as well as medication support.
• Personalized Recovery Oriented Services (PROS): a comprehensive recovery-oriented program for adults with severe mental illness. The main goal of the program is to help people work on all aspects of their life — social, work, education, housing, finding purpose — when mental health or substance use creates barriers.

Jeremy Porter Director Operational Support Services

TCWH-wide services are organized by three categories, each readily available to all programs across the Department:

• Office of Communications and Engagement: Reporting to the Commissioner, the OCE develops communications that connect with Tompkins County communities and partner organizations, and ensures that community engagement and community health planning inform the work of teams across the department.
• Operational Support Services: The Billing and Administrative Support teams came together under OSS to provide centralized backbone support with increased capacity to meet the administrative needs of service divisions.
• Quality Improvement and Data Analytics: Housed within Operational Support Services, Quality Assurance and Improvement (QAI) has expanded the scope of their data work and become Quality Improvement and Data Analytics which compiles, analyzes, and shares data from both MHS and PHS enabling us to make equitable, data-informed decisions.
• Administration/Finance and Human Resources: *

Mental Health Services

201 East Green St.
Ithaca, NY 14850

Parking

Parking is available in the
Cayuga St./ Green St. Garage
235 S. Cayuga St.
Ithaca, NY 14850

• Map of Parking for 201 East Green St.(PDF, 743KB)
• Google Maps - Parking for 201 East Green St.

Public Health Services, Mental Health Satellite Clinic

55 Brown Rd.
Ithaca, NY 14850

Parking

Plenty of on-site parking.

TCAT Bus

Route 32 stops right at our front door (M–F only)

Complete TCAT Route Map

Task Force Report Recommendations on Leadership

Review Of The Tompkins County Mental Health And Public Health Leadership Models 2019(PDF, 1MB) (Open and download the PDF)

The year 2019 marked the fourth year of a shared leadership model for the Tompkins County Mental Health and Public Health Departments. As stated in the December 2015 resolution which created this structure, County Administration was charged with reviewing the opportunities and challenges of the structure and providing a recommendation to the Legislature by the end of 2019 regarding how the departments should function in the future. Three of the seven Resolves are as follows:

"RESOLVED, on recommendation of the Budget, Capital, and Personnel Committees, That this Legislature authorizes the County Administrator to implement a plan for the responsibilities of the Public Health Director to be expanded to include the responsibilities heretofore granted to the Commissioner of Mental Health for the period December 1, 2015, through December 31, 2018, plus such additional time in 2019 as the Legislature deems necessary to evaluate the performance of the combined department head model, determine whether that model shall continue, consider other organizational alternatives, and accommodate any organizational transition required by the Legislature’s decision,

“RESOLVED, further, That beginning in early 2019, Tompkins County will conduct a 360 degree style performance review of the current arrangement to evaluate how well the interim administrative solution is working from the perspective of staff, boards, community members, and other stakeholders;

"RESOLVED, further, That in the same time period, Tompkins County will form a task force to examine the operations and consider the future directions of both the Health and Mental Health Departments, to include consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of an administrative partial or full merger, identification of the various aspects of their operations and any functions that might be combined, and any lessons that can be learned from other counties that have merged these particular functions;”