Head Inside Mental Health
Todd Weatherly, Therapeutic Consultant and behavioral health expert hosts #Head-Inside Mental Health featuring conversations about mental health and substance use treatment with experts from across the country sharing their thoughts and insights on the world of behavioral health care.
Head Inside Mental Health
A Deep Dive Into Consultant-Program Relationships
Navigating the complex world of private behavioral health treatment can feel like traversing an unfamiliar landscape without a map. For families facing mental health crises, the stakes couldn't be higher—yet the path forward often remains frustratingly unclear.
Enter the therapeutic consultant: a specialized professional whose role extends far beyond simple referrals. In this illuminating conversation, Todd Weatherly unpacks the critical relationship between therapy consultants and treatment programs, revealing how this partnership dramatically impacts client outcomes.
What makes therapeutic consultants different from other referral sources? Unlike therapists or doctors who occasionally recommend programs, consultants make it their business to visit dozens—sometimes hundreds—of facilities annually. They gain firsthand knowledge about treatment approaches, specialties, and environments that can't be gleaned from websites or brochures. This comprehensive understanding allows them to match clients with complex needs to programs truly equipped to address their specific conditions.
Want to learn more about working effectively with therapeutic consultants? Join Todd Weatherly in this exploration of how these specialized professionals can enhance program success and support a family's recovery journey.
So welcome to Working with Therapy Consultants. A guide for programs. As most of you know me, my name is Todd Weatherly. I'm with Stucker's Virgil Stucker. Some of you know Virgil and some of you don't. Virgil retired a few years ago, but in some circles, certainly in the middle of the treatment world, virgil's pretty well known. So before I get to practice Virgil, the world, we're just pretty well known, so we've learned his practice. He's been a friend of mine for many years. He's also a founding board member of the NCAA, so he was also able to give me some feedback on a thing about this.
Speaker 1:Let's see so that's me. It's a big set up. My entry into private bay behavioral health had been. My first job in behavioral health was out of college in 1994 in a place called Three Springs. I was a field guy, outdoor, wilderness treatment for the UK youth. That was my first foray into the world of treatment. My second foray would be into the world of private pay treatment and that was when I met Virgil and he had me become the was ultimately the managing director for their urban campus, the campus in Willis-Spring, and then they have one that's in downtown Asheville, which is where I'm from.
Speaker 1:Primary mental health 36 beds in one campus, 12 or 24 beds in another campus, a lot of transitional living and multiple amounts of care. So Richard was the executive director director and he said here, these are the licenses you have. I can state these licenses are new programming life. So he also took me to my first IECA conference and introduced me to my first therapy consultant and the journey was started. So I've done several things since then, a lot of it on the program side, and then I've been a consultant now for seven or eight years and this generation five years, partner in management, one and a half.
Speaker 1:I told him he had to mention me and Virgil, of course, is our retired president of Americans, but, at any rate, why are we here? I mentioned Virgil because I did call him. A lot of this started by asking hey, shouldn't you be the only one who provides information for a presentation about their consultants? What are other consultants have to say? So I put that email out there to the TCA and I got a lot of feedback. I got a lot of people who were like this, that and the other, and I tried to incorporate that information as much as possible.
Speaker 1:Some of you were in Yadda when I gave what is ultimately a version of this presentation and I gave it to Virgil and I was like Virgil, this needs to be something different. It needs to be something that can be reputable, that the TC will be proud of. And what am I missing? And he goes Todd, you've got a lot of information here and I really like the fact that you're embarking on this endeavor and sharing these things. But one question I have for you is are you angry? And I said well, you know, a lot of the feedback I got was not just information, but some of it was loaded with people having experiences with programs that were less than what I did and I said you're right. The second question was is that what you want to do? Is that where you want to start this conversation? Is that going to be effective? And I said no, no, it isn't. No, it is effective, because why did I do this presentation in the first place? I did it because I don't think that we're talking about it. I think that we talk a lot amongst one another.
Speaker 1:One problem that both consultants, programs and every professional I've ever met in the student has is that we have a tendency to believe that everybody knows what we're talking about. We have a tendency to think that what I know to be true is the same thing that you know to be true. We never really take the time because we're moving so quickly and we're dealing with people who are in crisis and we've got to serve this family and everything's going so fast to really lay it down in each state, and what we do is we run into it more often than not by making mistakes and then correcting them and being like, hey, let's do this this way all the time. So the reason why I started this conversation was one to share information. Two, to start a conversation about how we work together, that is consultancy preference, programs about how we work together. That is consultancy preference and progress. And then, finally, because no one is the source of all good ideas, to think of creative ways to work together and effectively achieve better outcomes and be certain and we all want that, though our hands are not always at it, we can't always be thinking that question every day today, but we should have the question living inside us all the time. So the people that we serve, they're our shared clients. It is an uncertain world. They're terrified. Sometimes we are too, and if we pull together better, we have brighter futures. That's what I think.
Speaker 1:So what makes us different? What's different between, say, a therapist that sends you to somebody and a therapeutic consultant? Why do people want therapeutic consultants? How do you work with them? What issues come up with consultants? I think I can put answers to some of these questions. Put it out there.
Speaker 1:The thing that a therapeutic consultant does differently than everybody else is that we are way more involved. Typically, you've got a few consultants. You've got a few maybe doctors out there, the occasional therapist out there, sometimes programs that are helping and want to track the process to a certain extent, but in the end they live in their own offices and they're serving their clients out and they don't have the same amount of time. We're one of the few people that are out there in terms of professionals. Our job is dedicated to managing the process for them, to watching them, and so you know all these other potential referents that you have.
Speaker 1:They are not consultants and there are a lot of things that they don't do that we do. What are the ethics involved? What's money got to do with it? I made a big point about this in the last presentation. I'll say this specifically. Made a big point about this in the last presentation. I'll say this specifically I know that there are many places that I work with to place the clients that I serve, and for me to go to that place and get treatment would be a strain and some of it would be positive. I don't have the financial resources to afford some of the places that.
Speaker 2:I would afford to Next slide.
Speaker 1:I would be able to get to a good one. It would be a big strain on me as a family and I would want to try to use my insurance and try to navigate it as best I could, and I would probably hire a consultant because I would become a president. If it was one of my children, it would be one of my great brothers. I would want something with some clear perspective. One of my children in the world, like my mother, is. I want something with some clear perspective. How many people here in the worlds that you live in, in Canada and so on, know a network of people who can afford anywhere from $20,000 to $30,000 to $40,000 to $50,000, $60,000, $70,000, $80,000, $40,000, $100,000 a month for care and maybe a half million dollars a year by the time they get government? If you don't have a network of those people, you may not be an effective person to rely on for a purpose.
Speaker 1:We have a network of people that we're connected to after many years of getting into the world Families that we know, doctors that we know a network of people. We bring money to the table. We bring people that can afford your services to the table, and that's part of what our importance is. But it's also these people who are spending this money. They want it to work. They'd like to not spend it again. They'd like not to repeat the half a million dollar year they had last year. They'd like to find resources, have them work and get to some conclusion if they can, and so engaging a consultant who does this job well can issue some level of guarantee no guarantees, but can issue some level of guarantee that that process is going to work. Come on in, folks.
Speaker 5:Sorry, we're tied down down the rest of our time.
Speaker 1:Don't be shy. If I were you, I would be showing up a little later. Everybody. Come in, there's plenty of room. There's chairs over here. Come on in the door, don't be shy. Don't be shy, okay.
Speaker 1:So what I have here is this actually lives. You can't read it. You can always get it. The TCA created this. What is a therapy for the constrictional consultant? I cleared it up a little bit.
Speaker 1:We're creating all professionals from various walks. They are Viz, case managers, masters in counseling, masters in mental health. They are all kinds of credentialed individuals that found their way to becoming consultants. They've seen the world and now especially their PCM member. They've traveled and visited programs that have networked with professionals. The cool thing about that is that we get to see all the cool stuff that ever happens in treatment. What is the coolest, neatest thing that's being explored, played with, what's working? What program, design or model is out there? What new therapeutic approach is being used and having a lot of success with this specific kind of client? We get to see a lot of good stuff.
Speaker 1:We provide short and long-term guidance for families that are seeking to navigate this process of treatment, and they've got a long road ahead of them. We help them navigate that road. We work with therapeutic consultants I'm going to spend some time on this later but we work with all ages and all kinds of clients with different kinds of conditions and help them navigate levels of care and all the various things that go through a treatment process. Later on I'll talk about this a little bit. But programs focused on, say, b&g, we are trying to look, look the entire alphabet what we bring to the table, or at least we do our best.
Speaker 1:Sometimes resources are not there or sometimes you have to get a person somewhere and it's going to be very difficult. There are a lot of areas that can get in the way. Condition treatment alignment is what we're down with. This person has this condition, this gender, is this old and they have this family dynamic and they have these five or six different conditional pieces that resulted or are emerging as a result of doing an evaluation.
Speaker 1:And while I thought this program might be a good fit, actually they don't provide any care around this aspect of it. A good example would be if you're trying to place an adolescent who is also a diabetic and want to pump who is also a diabetic and run a pump, you're gonna run into some trouble. You're gonna find a program that will also manage that medical health condition. So, all of a sudden, 10 of your options just walked off the table. Don't get louder all of a sudden. So condition treatment one I do a presentation for lawyers and attorneys, trust officers and care managers in other venues that are not our field, because they have lots of clients who are suffering from mental illness, and I do this presentation where I'm like look, this is just a sample of conditions and this is just a sample of treatments. How many people think they can be successful?
Speaker 1:in picking out one condition and successfully lining it up with the right cure. Most of them don't. They say how do we do that? How do we do that? The other thing that we are trying to guarantee is how to make care. The ASD thing it's a program that's focused on the life of the patient and we're looking at the whole lot of it. Some programs have, you know, a full continuum of care or what looks more or less like a full continuum of care, but this person's still laying at home and they're stuck in their A-type of life or needs a support feature, or needs a doctor or needs something else. We're picking them up in hospitals and we're walking through this process all the way to the point where need something else. We're picking them up in hospitals and walking through this process all the way to the point where they can live the most independent life they can live, depending on age, condition and other things. So early spirit, youth of stay, appropriate level of care, appropriate lengths of support for each and I was going to throw other features in there and also say cost and insurance and all these other pieces that come into the equation For families that we serve.
Speaker 1:If they're watching budget or they've been through it already too many times. Especially if it's something they're trying to navigate, that's unusual. So level of care, condition treatment, alignment and love is the key. We're trying to guarantee that from start to finish, as much as we can. Sometimes it's just too much. What do we want? I'm not looking at the display. What do you consult for? If you were just trying to answer, what do you think consults for? What's that?
Speaker 5:I'm sorry, Just to be helpful and helping you know, it's not very conspicuous.
Speaker 2:I heard something.
Speaker 1:Somebody.
Speaker 2:It's education, education, education. Okay, oh wait, did I miss one? Acrobatics.
Speaker 1:Acrobatics Great practice.
Speaker 2:You have to be a good avocator.
Speaker 1:Good avocator, you need to be validated. You need to be validated. Would you please make a good job of this. You know, I think we want a lot of the same things. That's the cool thing about it. We want our client to make progress, gain insight and to lead better off the lead than the human.
Speaker 1:For the family to feel like it was worth engaging our services. Grateful family is one of the best ones and it keeps on giving. There's some families that refer to you. There's some families that will give you a reference. Those are the families that have something valuable in the process.
Speaker 3:I think that you've seen that when families still find it's worth engaging our services, when you do your job right, when you show up and you communicate Even that kid, when that human didn't get the outcome the family wanted to work, you wanted to work. I think when we do our jobs right, we are worth. It didn't get the outcome the family wanted or you wanted in your heart. I think when we do our jobs right, we are worth it.
Speaker 1:And they can clearly see it.
Speaker 1:You know we did enough communication that these other things are possible. That's something that we want to see communications going on. The programs need to be on their game. So do the thing that we do and do it well and make sure that we're kept abreast of the process so we can support them. I'll say one what are we looking for? We want to know what other people are saying about us and we do talk to each other. That's the benefit of never, because I mean I as a consultant, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm up there in terms of the number of programs that I visit per year. There are other consultants that visit more than 100,000 per year. I may visit 50 to 60 programs in a year. We've been doing that for almost a decade. I was a consultant. I was just visiting programs in general. I know hundreds of programs. This one houses. I can't pull it all out of my head. I have an extensive list and I still. I went to this week, this week and probably I don't know 75% of the programs.
Speaker 1:There were programs I've never heard of, I've never seen, I've never met, so there's no way I can know all the programs. It's great to have the network of professionals. If you have someone who can be a transport, if you have somebody who can feed the gap here, I'm just going to reach out and I've got a very comprehensive network of people that can provide me with resources. We're live. They scrutinize them in ways that I would as well, scrutinize them in ways that I would as well. And when they tell me, yeah, tom, you know that program actually worked and they were pretty good, we should feel confident in referring to them and starting a relationship for them. And that's a really comforting thing to have. You know we're paying attention to places to stay, lots of care, how many A&E you had and for what reason. The flow of the admission process. How easy it was for me to do this. How long does it take? Resident patient, suite sponsor. Who's the person that you really like, john? Who's the person that really gets your program and does really well? Because if I can, the closer I can land the better. That's all I'm going to do.
Speaker 1:Since you're a real youth, you know, are you skewing young? Are you skewing old? Are you skewing a lot of people, a lot of young ladies with blue lines and a lot of sweet Many. Can you do Clinical model? What is your specialty? What? What theories, what modalities do you do? I know you don't do everything, what do you really like, or whatever, all that stuff, because it's going to tell us a story that it doesn't tell others and I, I give you this piece of feedback, which is for many programs. You know we'll go to a tour and even you know, even on this trip I've done a couple and I walk in and somebody who doesn't know what a consult is starts giving us a spiel and it's like I don't even know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:It's like I know what a therapist does and I know all of these activities. What I really want to ask you is this Usually, I'm a human. I shouldn't let Joe and I have a past party.
Speaker 1:What is your private bank office? What is your insurance? What insurance do you never pay? What is your billing? What is your like all of these pieces so I can know what's going to cost the family and I can accurately and reliably give them that information. Because, despite whether they've got the resources or not, I can promise you they want to build their insurance, they want to cost this little segment of your cost. They want all of these things regardless. Discharge and transition planning. Listen to me and.
Speaker 1:I think the other consultants have written. But we hear, we often hear when we go to a discharge plan or go to somebody who's doing this final piece or case management piece, and I know for a fact it's hard for a person who works in a program or serves in some way that causes them to have to sit in office. They've only worked for one program, one person to know to sit in office. They've only worked for one program, one person to know what's out there, and that means they're using the Google Console. Maybe they know some programs that they referred to before. Maybe they know a couple of programs that are local to the area and they know that they've had good results. Maybe they've got four or five programs that are in their pocket that they can get some reliable traction with in terms of doing referral. Maybe it's a lateral, maybe it's a step down, but for either the discharge planner or even the PD rep because they're not going to the programs and seeing what we see, they're there for different purposes For any of these people to know what a consultant does when it comes to transitional placement, it would be impossible. So the difference between shooting and clothing is you don't get out of your office or out of your town to come visit all of these places, talk to the clothing brand, see what it is and how it should cause everything else.
Speaker 1:I have an experience with a client everybody at the zoo who do you love arta, arta? Okay, I have some artists the american residential treatment association. They are an association that's basically comprised of programs that are driving all TCs therapy, community therapy, community style programs. A lot of them are working in farms, things like that. So I had a client once and in order to do planning the day, they did it they're not finding me after the fact but in order for this program to give this person resources and choices for their transition, they just gave them the hard-to-pay insurance, which is twice as much as a lot of programs, which is way too much information, especially for somebody who's currently in treatment process, and they came up with several options.
Speaker 1:They came back and when I got involved, it's like well, this person thinks that these programs would be the program. It's like. Well, first of all, they're under guardianship and there's a rule up for this program. In addition to that, this program costs $80,000 a month and they cannot afford that. And I just walked down and eliminated their five program lists because I didn't know, because they didn't invest in it.
Speaker 2:I used a website and I handed it to the client and I just picked things that looked good. It looked great.
Speaker 1:So I'm not saying it's not great. So the discharge and planning process is something that is near and dear to our hearts, and part of this presentation talks about how we like to collaborate with you and get better results. We need as good a mentor for the one over here.
Speaker 1:If I refer to a program and that experience doesn't go well, I would like an asshole and the family would randomly let me know. They would let me know they're upset with the program coming in front. But they're also upset with me because I did something I'm supposed to know what I'm doing and it didn't work.
Speaker 2:And now it's haunting, vivid and they're very upset in general, so it's not always worth it. It's not always worth it.
Speaker 1:So it's a little bit about I'm sorry, it's a little bit about what we want, probably really good communication. Those are all the areas where communication can either work well or break down, because all of this stuff that programs do or that are component to what they do, maybe you have your medical on site, maybe you're having to collaborate with a doc outside of the program, maybe you have a full continuum of care, maybe you've got three or four superlatives you're working with and that's your network Psychiatry. Let me start Business development. You guys are out there. You're out there doing things, you're talking to people, you're seeing stuff. It's great.
Speaker 1:But I don't like it when there's a divide between the business development person and the person who opened their track. And they've got all these things and they're handing you gifts and everything else, but the experience becomes something quite different across the threshold from the initial meeting.
Speaker 2:It's actually very, very hard.
Speaker 1:I'm really I've been. This is no fun. You can't stop me from doing that. I know I've been a program director and executive director and had shit fall in my lap and I had no control over it, Couldn't unstop it. And why do they have it? For all kinds of reasons. They're also unstoppable. Standard of technical issues hit the records manager, assist the news team, interdepartmental issues. Clinical director does not like the new therapist they hired and they can't fire him from there.
Speaker 1:Their reasonable appearance. Google reviews, vacations and sicknesses and management of the referent Nobody's ever seen that. Road psychiatrists that's my favorite. Insurance and billing issues, licensing issues, medication management all these things, leadership turnover and, of course, corporate Stuff happens Sometimes. We're okay with it happening. Ama, do I own home center? Yeah, absolutely. I wanted them to go to a local shelter and now I'm going to tell their parents not to give them any money or bail out. Maybe they'll get the money, but all of these things have happened to me. I've even been the managing director and the management of the home center. I've been the manager of the home center. I've been the manager of the home center. I've even been the managing director and the management of the leadership level for a program where suicide and death occurred. And I do endure the state review and just the public exposure to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to to.
Speaker 2:That's so bad. Yeah, you can get self-mortem and get a little more Q15s. It's good, it's good, it's good, it's good.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, when it is, it's a true experience. There's no stopping it. Well, the reason suicide happened was the way that no lady decided to commit suicide. She committed it. She meant it Suicide. I ran into first, grew ugly, but he walked into a bathroom at night and I don't need to tell you anymore. He literally ran himself so that no one could find him in time. He meant it.
Speaker 2:There's no stopping it.
Speaker 1:And then we suffer the consequences. As programs, as souls, we have to counsel our families, we have to be the ones who manage the process, and the world is unforgiving. The world is unforgiving. Most of the consultants here have seen some of these things. I could increase this list. That's not what this presentation is about, but these things happen and bad news does not improve with age. So when things happen, we want to know. We want to know. This is quite possibly my favorite slide, and it's one that after I gave it and you're welcome to it we can have this entire presentation.
Speaker 1:We want people to have this information. But can I get an update on my client? Are they? Did they? When? Will they? Have they settling in, signed an ROI, meeting with psychiatrists, seen a therapist? Eating, pooping, showering, medicating, participating? They call their mom. Have they seen the doc? Are they appropriate for your program? Do they have a treatment plan? Are they discharging from the hospital? Are they allowed to return to the program? Are they at your facility? Have they left your facility? Are they returning to your facility? Have they been in a fight? Have they been caught with drugs? Have they been lost? Have they been found and all of these things I can talk to probably everybody here who knows a scenario where something that required an answer in line with this list you didn't get called about.
Speaker 1:They did what? When did you tell the parents? Shit before me. Communication is essential.
Speaker 1:It's kind of striking a balance between working with families, treating their loved one, keeping consultants in the loop. Parents are pushy and anxious and they are troublesome and they don't know and they're a pain in your ass and they're a pain in ours too. But they are also the people that are our clients, their loved ones, and the person they are treating this is their child or their husband or their partner, or their brother or sister, their loved one, the person who's closest to them, the person for whom they've decided to engage in what is not a pleasant process so that their person can get better. We have charge of their lives and they sometimes unreasonably, they want to skid about it and they call us as consultants or you as programmers, because we claim to know what we're doing and when we don't.
Speaker 1:It looks bad. Updates immediately and upon admission once a week or, if anything significantly happens, benching incidents. Step down. When do I want notice about discharge planning? Does anybody know Day nine about discharge planning? Does anybody know? Well, so if you were a 60 to 90 day program, how much lead time do I want?
Speaker 2:Program not consultant.
Speaker 1:Give me an answer. Yes, theoretically, but theoretically they're also going to make I don't know some progress, and other things might reveal themselves. They're going to advise that process. When's the crunch time? Last three to four weeks? Last three to four weeks Excellent. So I really want to start working on this. Last three to four weeks Excellent. So I really want to start working on this. Last three to four weeks, maybe five, so that we can get it lined up. Maybe they go for a visit, Maybe they do an interview.
Speaker 1:There are all the things that you've got to line up and I've got to make sure that the program we're going to has space. There are all kinds of things Communication emails you're fine. Emails are great. Sometimes a phone calls are appropriate. Sometimes the text message is great. Like I love text messages. Me and John have had a little something. If you are in California and you've got an update to give me and it's 8 o'clock at night, please, for the love of God, text me. If it's serious enough, I will call you, but it's like, can't wait till morning. Is it something you just want me to be aware of? Mom and dad might be calling me. Thanks for the heads up. I want to know these things and just be considerate. For our time. I'm going to try to be considerate for yours.
Speaker 1:Protocols A week before discharge to a higher level of care, That'd be great. You don't always get that. Sometimes it's like come get them. They're at the hospital, Jamie knows, come get them. It's nice, because emergency discharges are very difficult. The most noticed are transition any kind, ideally with collaborative transition planning. It's not a complex equation not really, but it requires maintenance and follow-up and everything else All the annoying stuff.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I put this list up before. Did I miss anything? So I put this list up before. Did I miss anything? If you were to, if you see this list of things that programs have to manage, did I miss anything that should be here? Anything, Anyone. Take a look for a second. I hear none. Family oh Good, Thank you. Family does belong here. Assessment, Assessment yeah, Academics, Academics there, they only know you. I might tuck that into program. I might be able to put that into some of these others. These are the big categories.
Speaker 1:Admissions I want it to go smoothly. Medical I want to know what you can do and what you can't do. Business development oh, let's get started about this. I love how you tricked the choice. Stop making them out of plastic.
Speaker 1:I don't need any more damn books. I don't need any books or freaking tablets or any of these things that you're giving Now water bottles, and you feed the crap out of us all the time. I swear to God, I need a break sometimes. We're people, you know like we can go at it for a while and we like touring programs and we want to make sure that we get out there. And when you travel you want to make it worth your dollar, so we want to see as much as we can. But know that I'm also a human being and I have to like sleep and poop and do all the things that people do, and I also have a practice to manage and business and clients to see to. While I'm in the midst of all this, I didn't turn all that off so yes, on that topic come up for me quite often as a program.
Speaker 3:How are programs sponsoring or supporting therapeutic consultants to see?
Speaker 1:the programs. So glad you asked. It's a slide that's going to come up so I will put a pin in that, but we're going to definitely talk about that. Psychiatry psychiatrists are the bane of my day. We're in God. You find a really good one who knows how to communicate, who feels integrated into a program, part of clinical meetings, and they're doing those things. Those are great. You get guys that are clinical meetings and they're doing those things. Those are great. You get guys that are one-offs or they're mavericks or their head's too big to feel like they have to communicate with anybody and they're certainly not willing to talk to a parent or hear from a consultant or make time to be on a phone call or do those things. We run into that a lot more than we should. I want to be able to talk to your psychiatrist. I will be respectful of other times.
Speaker 4:I'm not sure if you want to do this one or maybe somewhere else, but one of the key things I know that we ask as we tour finances is that it tends to be and we hate to ask how much right it feels like we're talking about money, not about the child. But in the end we have to be able to tell the parents here. We have to be able to tell the parents here's the range and know we're in network, we're not in network. Here's where this is. Some people we've seen kind of dance around and we don't want to talk about money. No, we just have to know In the end, where does this just be?
Speaker 4:Up front. It's $80,000 a day. This is what it is. Why would it go there? Right, right. But then we know we have to go back to the pairs and sometimes I'd have them say well, I know, this one's a little bit cheaper than this one, we're going to go this way. But if we at least know up front and they're not playing the insurance game, then you might get this. You might get that. Clarity is the best of finances.
Speaker 1:And finances definitely belongs here. Tally was involved in creating, among others, in creating a format when we were doing virtual tours for the TCA programs, just a presentation that was like outlining the basics. Finances were in there, insurance was in there. There's all these pieces. I'm sure she'd be glad to share it like share the programs, and this is the information we want to know, like clarity is kindness. We want to know like clarity is kind.
Speaker 3:I'm just probably a different slide, but I was curious how many programs of thousands that you know when you meet with the family you're not going to give them 50 programs to call and check out. So what is your basic number of choices I try to give?
Speaker 1:families more than three, four at the most, because it's too much information to process. I had a father two days ago ask me I just want you to give me five programs, the best ones you have, and everything about them. I'm like that's not how this works. I'll give you three and they're going to fall into the parameters that I've already established as the treatment that your person needs. There is a very specific line in my contract that's about limitation and control. Basically it says you don't tell me how to do my job and I had to remind you. Okay, we could spend a fair amount of time, like you know discharge, transition planning, that kind of stuff. We've talked about that already. Clinical. I think I'll say something about this.
Speaker 1:I think that every consultant in this room and every consultant that I know will tell you that every once in a while, the responsibility for training a new therapist falls to us. We are therapeutic professionals. I know many consultants and several in this room, if not all of them, that could run circles around their newest therapist. It doesn't mean they're not going to be a great therapist at some point in time as they proceed in their career. We've got people coming right out of school that never heard of a therapeutic consultant. They're coming in from environments that are not private, pay concierge level environments. They don't know what they're into and they're in over their heads. They're gonna get it.
Speaker 1:You know they're doing the single-spoon thing. Everybody gets to do that. We've all been there at one point in time. But then all of a sudden it's like you need to learn how to communicate. You need to learn how to type up a good note, you need to learn how to not have verbal diarrhea with parents and family. We could go through the long list. I think, if you're a program who does a lot of work with reference, that you want to spend time giving your therapist and your clinical staff a very good orientation around that it's not a bad thing. Before I move on, anything else people want to like question on the report.
Speaker 5:I just as a consultant on the Heart and Vision Trauma Program, just wanted to add, I guess, a really great thing about from a consultant who came over and talked to us and they said that the marketing is like the most forward-facing connection that you'll have with the program, so that as programs, when you set up a tour, it's really important for you know it's like they're out there, they're on the road, they've got this whole itinerary, they're going from program to program Connect, communicate, check in. Hey, todd you on your way this morning. You know our team is really excited to see you, just like really simple things which, surprisingly, like not every program does. And this particular consultant said, like I've been on tours where I showed up and somebody didn't know I was, coming.
Speaker 5:You know, so I'm like you know that's just nuts.
Speaker 5:So that piece of the business development and the marketing like, yes, be an expert on your program, but also like, be professional, like you know, have communication, line of communication open. If you're the person who's like actually managing the tour for, like the five or six other programs, you're the conduit, you know, and so to be constantly checking in and making sure that, like, you're checked in and that everything's going smoothly, but then also the individual programs that you're arranging the tour on their behalf are also doing the same. It is invaluable and I got that feedback and that particular tour didn't hit any bad markers. You've been in the game maybe like a couple of minutes.
Speaker 1:You might know. But yeah, I couldn't agree more and, in truth, the same from us. It's good to. Hey, I'm running late. Hey, I can't make this thing, whatever it was. I 100% goes to dinner on somebody last night and then I apologized in the coffee this morning because I didn't want them to think that they weren't valuable and that they weren't worth my time. It's just things happen and all of a sudden I wasn't able to make that. Communicating with people and making them feel valued. I think everybody should just do that with each other. There's plenty of seats, folks, including some that are stacked in corners, just in case you want, feel free to sit down. Okay, somebody give me a time. Check 301. 301, 45 minutes.
Speaker 3:Okay, somebody give me a time. Check 301.
Speaker 1:301, 45 minutes. So this is just a sample of communication and email I get from LifeSkills. Whatever they do it, it includes all their leadership team, all the team that's doing treatment. It's a good email. That's why I put it up there. I do think the communication from a consultant Excuse me. So yeah, we'll share this with you. And then, finally, how do we stand on top? This is what differentiates us. This is another document created by the PCA. We'll read it to you. You can have that sent to you by any of us, by me.
Speaker 1:How do consultants stay on top? One thing is they have professional memberships. They are a member of organizations where they get supervision. They have a network. They're people. That's a good way to know the consultant is serious about what you do, what their do's. They belong. The other thing they have to do and if they're not doing this, they're not doing the job is copy. They've got to be out there. This is just me at a slew of other programs and recently bought, recently closed. Recently bought, recently closed. Here's Elizabeth up in the corner. Okay, the other thing they do is they also provide.
Speaker 1:You know, clear communication is important for us to do too. If you don't, if I got a program that doesn't, or a therapist or something that doesn't know. It's just like, hey, this is what we usually want, this, this is how we usually communicate, this is how much, this is the thing, et cetera, et cetera. I try to do this. There are other consultants in the room that are actually far better at it even than I am, and I'm jealous of them. Let's see, we've got, in addition to that, ethics and professionalism, so kind of getting back to this point that we were making ethical contracting and transparency, ethical touring them, what a consultant is and what you should look out for. When they call me and ask, do I get a kickback from programs if I refer, it's like no, no doubt Body brokering. It's illegal, it's unethical. Even if it wasn't illegal, it would still be unethical. Wasn't illegal, it would still be unethical In terms of. So how does that work when programs are having consultants come out and covering some of their expenses? It is viewed as so. Let's take 50, 60 programs. The TCA requires 40. Now that 40, like some of those, can be virtual. Some of them can be revisits. There are some parameters to the 40, but visiting 40 programs, especially if those programs are different parts of the country than where you live, which, if you're a consultant, it's a guarantee.
Speaker 1:You may have a lot of programs where you live, but they are not all of them. You're going to have to go to that coastline, that coastline. I live in North Carolina. This is the West Coast to me Really is. I go to California. Yotta is going to be in San Diego, utah's got more programs and we've raised a place in the freaking country for certain kinds of treatment. I have to go to these places because they're where I'm sending my clients. I go to Texas. There's a lot of treatment in Texas, right.
Speaker 1:So travel costs, hotel hotels cost, rental cars cost. I spend somebody's salary for our team on travel for a year Easily, and so the only way that we can abate that to a certain extent and make it possible for us to do our jobs is for programs to participate in the expense. It's totally okay for you to buy my flight, it's totally okay for you to put me up for the night, but you know we're not asking for money, we're not asking for you to do these things. This needs to be the best way it's done, and Utah probably does this better than anyone is. They have program alliances, a bunch of programs pulled together to invite a group of consultants. It's a measured time frame. The consultants are getting an opportunity to see a lot of programs and the expenses are kept to a minimum because everybody's sharing the expense. School connections, everybody, people who know school connections, school connections are going to cover my stay while I'm there, but I've got to get there. There are lots of programs that will do that. Hey, we'll cover your stay and we're doing these dinners and everything else, but you've got to get there and I think those are parameters, as long as they are reasonable and proven parameters around how you're helping this consultant come and see your program and the write-up about it.
Speaker 1:When you look on the TCA ethical guidelines, it's online and you can look at some of the parameters that we've established around setting up those parameters for remuneration, around visiting and touring the program's in the website. You've got to be active in your organization. You've got to know your ethics and standards and you have to commit to engaging in collaborative work with other consultants and upholding the ethics that you're held to. You can't necessarily know that by looking at the person in your membership, especially online. You may have noticed I've been a member of TCA since 2020. So that's going on five years now. So, at any rate, if a person's been a member of something or a member for a while, that's an indicator. It's not proof, but it's an indicator that they're probably doing the job right. Again, glad to'll share slides with you.
Speaker 1:One of the key and most salient points that I'd like to point out here is that none of us can do just like programmers. No consultant can do everything. One of our ethical guidelines is that you need to stay in your lane. I work with adults. I work primarily with adults. If I don't work with adolescents, I could. I know enough adolescent programs. I'm certainly a tour.
Speaker 1:I started off my career working with adolescents. I know how, but I don't live in the world and I don't know all the information and I don't stay on top of things the way that a true adolescent consultant would. So I leave that to people who do that end of the work. Same is true. We get adolescent consultants that would be like Todd. I got this guy. He called me. He's 56 years old. I have no idea. Could you please talk to his family? We do that. It's one of the benefits of having a strong network, but you've got to find your lane and every lane has some crossover with other lanes, so there's some gray area there, but it's really important that you stay in this one. So if you ever want to have more conversations about this, we can. But we're going to have a panel of consultants come up, which is awesome. I've got some key points, but I'd like to get them up here.
Speaker 1:First, the role of consultant. You know we have a pretty wide perspective on things and we know a lot of programs and we know a lot of stuff and we just try to give that to our families. We try to use it as a medium by which we support programs. But you know, we want to make the experience of working with you as a program or getting to know your program worthwhile. A good consultant will return the favor. The piece I wanted to be here is we are advocates for our clients first and foremost. That also means being an advocate for our program when that's what it takes, because that's sometimes what it takes. We're in this together in the end. We all want it to work. Families don't always understand it, like it or know how it works, but they need you. We all do.