98% Audit Score, 100% Heart: Why Families Choose Mercyland Healthcare

There is a moment that happens almost every day inside Mercyland Healthcare Inc. (MHI). A direct support professional sits down with someone they support, not to manage a case, but to ask a simple question: what do you want your day to look like? Maybe the answer is a trip to the library. Maybe it’s practicing a budgeting skill before payday. Maybe it’s just talking through something that happened last week. That question, asked patiently and answered honestly, is the real work of Mercyland. It is smaller than a mission statement and bigger than a service plan, and it is why families in Washington, DC keep choosing MHI for the people they love.

What the Work Actually Looks Like

Behind every care plan at MHI is a person, and behind every person is a team that shows up. Our direct support professionals help individuals build routines that fit their real lives: getting to a job, managing medications, joining a community event, or simply having someone to talk to who is paying full attention. Our clinical team, our behavioral specialist, and our dietitian work alongside those DSPs so that support is never one size fits all. A person’s strengths guide the plan. Their challenges get real support, not a checklist. And every outcome gets watched closely enough that we know when something is working and when it needs to change.

That is the difference between a service and a relationship. MHI was built to be the latter.

The Team Behind the Work

MHI’s leadership brings decades of hands-on experience across nursing, education, and behavioral health, and each person’s role has a clear purpose in a client’s life.

Joseph Idowu, CEO, is a nurse with over 30 years in healthcare, including 23 years in psychiatric and community health nursing across programs like CPEP in Southeast DC, Innovative Life Solutions, and St. Elizabeths. He sets the clinical direction for MHI, focused on crisis prevention, coordinated care, and structured support for individuals with intensive behavioral and psychiatric needs.

Carla Forbes-Harding, Program Director, holds a Master’s in Healthcare Administration and spent 15+ years as an educator supporting students with IEPs. She oversees MHI’s day-to-day programs and has built key community partnerships across DC, including with local libraries, the DC Chamber of Commerce, and the Linner Foundation. Carla describes her approach as servant leadership: standing alongside the people MHI supports rather than directing from behind a desk. She grounds her work in walking a mile in someone else’s shoes, looking at policies, spaces, and care plans through the eyes of the person receiving support, and asking “How do you want your life to look?” instead of “What service fits you best?” That means honoring choice, dignity, and independence, and listening closely enough to adjust a care routine when a family needs peace of mind during a transition.

Josephine Ching, BSP Developer, brings a background in psychology to MHI’s Behavior Support Plans. She sees behavior as communication rather than something to simply correct, focused on understanding why it happens and what a person may be trying to express. She’s proud of turning that understanding into individualized plans that help people build positive routines, communicate more effectively, and move toward greater independence. For Josephine, the best outcomes come from collaboration, connecting BSPs, direct support professionals, families, and healthcare providers around the same goal so clinical support actually shows up in someone’s everyday life.

Regina Gill, Registered Dietitian, begins every nutrition plan with an individual assessment, checking whether someone is overweight, underweight, or managing a chronic condition like diabetes or heart disease that needs to be addressed through diet. From there, she builds balanced, therapeutic diets around lean proteins, vegetables and fruits, whole grains, dairy, and proper hydration. But a plan only works if the people around someone can carry it out, so Regina puts real weight on educating caregivers, staff, and families. “Education is key,” she says, “because the plan needs to be understood by the people who will help put it into practice every day.” She also works to balance nutrition goals with the cultural food traditions that matter to a household, so healthier habits fit into a person’s life instead of replacing it.

Rooted in the City We Serve

At Mercyland Healthcare Inc. (MHI), we believe being part of the community means being close enough to truly show up when it matters. That is why our Northeast Washington, DC location is so meaningful to us. Nestled within the growing Ivy City/West Virginia Avenue corridor, our office keeps us connected to the neighborhoods, businesses, employment opportunities, and community experiences that are part of everyday life for the people we support. Nearly 80% of the individuals we serve live within 10 miles of our office, allowing us to remain close to the people and families who trust us with their support. For MHI, our location is more than an address. It is a home base from which we can build relationships, respond when needed, create opportunities, and help persons experience greater independence, belonging, and possibility right in their own communities.

Choose Mercyland

Trust has to be earned, not claimed. MHI is certified by DDS, fully audited, and transparent about our outcomes, including a 98 percent score in our 2025 Provider Certification Review. But the proof that matters most to a family is simpler than any audit: we show up, we listen, and we adjust when life changes. That is what you get with every team, every plan, and every person we serve. Choose a provider who shows up. Choose Mercyland.