Henry Och is the chief operating officer for the Partnership for Successful Living. The organization banners several partnership member agencies in Nashua, such as Harbor Homes, Keystone Hall, Healthy at Home and the Southern New Hampshire HIV/AIDS Task Force. (Sunday Telegraph photo by GEORGE PELLETIER)

NASHUA – For Henry Och, the chief operating officer of the Partnership for Successful Living, coming into the organization during a pandemic was trying.

The organization banners several partnership member agencies in Nashua, such as Harbor Homes, Keystone Hall, Healthy at Home and the Southern New Hampshire HIV/AIDS Task Force.

Och arrived roughly three months ago and said it was the right time to join the agency.

“It’s been really great to see how the many programs have come together to support each other in an effort to provide any needed services to our patients and clients,” he said. “It has been the best way to get to know the organization and the people and the patients.”

Prior to joining the partnership, Och worked at Lowell Community Health Center, where a few years ago, there was a measles event.

“Ultimately, I was in emergency management,” he stated. “We refer to that as ‘incident commander,’ who is the person designated to be in charge of coordinating the response efforts. So, I had a point of reference.”

When COVID-19 hit, Och said he was able to work with teams within the agency to ensure that the response was carried out as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Och explained the evolution of the Partnership organization.

“Harbor Homes was established approximately 40 years ago,” he said. “And throughout that time, it grew in size, and it added programs underneath the Harbor Homes banner. Harbor Homes established the partnership in 2009, and members of that partnership include the Southern New Hampshire HIV/AIDS Task Force, Healthy at Home and Keystone Hall, which is a residential addiction treatment center.”

Och’s responsibility is to support those teams and leading many of the programs in collaboration with the leadership teams.

“That includes the housing programs, supportive housing solutions, working closely with Wendy LeBlanc in supporting the HIV/Task Force as well as some other traditional operational functions like I.T. and human resources.”

With COVID-19, the many agencies have been put to a new test for which Och said the staff was prepared.

“I’ll talk to that through two lenses,” he explained. “The first of which, is the work force lens. The staff, who are here across all the programs, have a strong core in service. They’ve joined the organization because they want to help others.”

Och added that as the pandemic took hold, natural instincts of staff members kicked in – despite the pressure or anxiety.

“That was amazing to see,” he said. “However, because of the pandemic, it has also impacted their lives. So, we have folks who have kids in school, who might be required to work from home some days but still have to come into the office. We have individuals whose partners might have lost their job, so that creates some stress but they’re still coming into the office and then there is fear of being exposed to the virus.’

From the client lens, Och said the clients have adapted well under the circumstances.

“I’ll give you an example,” he said. “One of the things that we have to closely look at were the social distancing guidelines. As a result of that and general risk mitigation, we implemented Tele-Health services very quickly. Literally, within days.”

Tele-Health was something that previously, the partnering agencies did not conduct, out of lack of necessity.

“What would otherwise take a year to implement,” Och said, “we did in just days. That’s a testament to the flexibility and agility of the team. And the clients really appreciated that because they understood that we were doing this because we were continuing to provide services for them while protecting them.”

At this time, the Partnership has several hundred primary care and behavioral health visits conducted weekly on a Tele-Health basis. In fact, Wendy’s team was the first within the organization to experiment with group sessions, so we were excited to see that.”

Considering the stress of the pandemic on the different agencies, Och most transitions have been fluid in procedure.

“The organization has many diverse programs,” he noted. “And they all have different challenges. So, as a case in point, the clinic historically has seen somewhere in the area of 400-500 patients a week and there’s also a pharmacy at the clinic, at 45 High St.”

Och said the in and out of patients every day created a unique challenge in terms of safely managing the flow of traffic.

“We had to ensure that we had the appropriate amount of PPE for the staff and for the patients as they’re within the facility,” he said. “We have other programs which are outreach based — linking our homeless population with housing, for example. So, we have to go out to them and meet them where they are.”

That, Och said, presents some different sets of challenges. As do the residential sites, where who comes and goes can’t necessarily be controlled.

“We have to educate our residents,” he continued, “in letting them know that these are the measures that you need to take.”

There are also a number of programs that deal with the veteran population, providing services to roughly 450 at-risk veterans in Greater Nashua. That’s in collaboration with many partners, including the Veteran’s Administration.

As for the homeless population in Nashua, Och said that they have been working toward a goal to end homelessness and specifically, chronic homelessness for a number of years.

“The Partnership, several years ago, was able to effectively end chronic homelessness within the veteran community,” he said. “We hope that the particular model will be expanded throughout the state to end veteran homelessness across New Hampshire.”

Och said, “we’re not there yet but we were successful in addressing that here in Nashua.”

Currently, in conjunction with many community partners, including the City of Nashua, the Partnership hopes to end chronic homelessness for those individuals in the Greater Nashua area. The numbers for chronically homeless fluctuates, as people enter or leave the community or get into housing programs; as of last week, Och said that number is at 50.

He added that there is optimism that number will become lesser and lesser.

“I can offer a couple of things,” he said. “The agencies that have been working to fight homelessness throughout the City of Nashua, really have continued with their programming. The Soup Kitchen, for example, continues to engage and provide services to the homeless population. So, the commitment has not waned.”

To make a donation to the Partnership for Successful Living specifically, please contact

Brian Tragliaferro, director of development at b.tagliaferro@nhpartnership.org.  For donations to the Nashua Community, please contact the United Way.

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