What We Are Doing To Support Mental Health Providers

A community of Mental Health Providers

Intro

The ICC was started with a simple goal in mind: support others.

That’s a broad topic, though. What kind of support do people need and how can we support them?

We decided to focus on supporting mental health providers, whether they do therapy, medicine management, or another type of healthcare service. Specifically, our definition of a mental health provider is anyone who provides a service that has a direct or indirect effect on their clients’ mental health.

Who We Help: Mental Health Providers

Different providers have different needs. The needs of a therapist that works at a hospital will be quite different than a coach in private practice.

We decided that we wanted to help the smaller providers: providers in private practice or small group practices (i.e., one location).

Why Small Practices?

Often times, providers get a lot of their needs met when they take jobs. The job is set up to give them an office, have all the administrative policies in place, have admin support staff, handle billing claims, etc.

The trade off is that taking the job can leave providers getting paid much less than their worth, and can lead to situations where providers are asked to work a heavy amount of hours (leading to burn out). Sometimes, the job may make providers do things that aren’t in the best interests of clients as well. This can create tension between the financial needs of the business and the clinical needs of the client.

Private practices or small group practices can offer a lot of benefit in terms of flexibility and financial freedom. These environments can empower providers to get paid what they’re worth, and often have control over their schedules.

However, in those environments more responsibility is placed on the provider. They may have to start to figure out how to market themselves, how to manage business liability, how to account for their finances and more. 

In the worst case scenario, someone starts a private practice or joins a small group practice and doesn’t get the clients they need, forcing them out due to the failure to meet financial goals.

My Own Struggles

This was me! I was at a small group practice in my internship and didn’t get hardly any clients, despite asking for them repeatedly. I often felt that my needs weren’t being taken into consideration.

So, I stepped into private practice after graduate school, hoping to use my skills to run a small business and have financial abundance while controlling my schedule. I failed at first, not drawing in the clients I needed.

So, I had to shut down the private practice and I joined another small group practice. I got a lot of support there, from great clinical supervision, admin/billing support, and friendships/community. However, after 4 months I wasn’t getting the clients I needed to meet my financial needs, thus leading me to have to leave and figure out how to meet my financial needs.

My Motivation 

This all led me to pour my energy into figuring out how to solve these problems for other clinicians. I know that there’s a ton of really great providers out there that have an amazing gift to give their clients. However, providers are often not taught the business skills they need to thrive in these kinds of environments in graduate school. They are left to figure this out on their own, and it can be complicated, boring, and tedious.

I love solving these problems, though! Before my career as a therapist, I was in university studying engineering until my junior year. I have always been a problem solver.

While these problems may be hard and boring to some, the net result of solving them is that providers are empowered to have control over their finances, their time, and how they practice. What could be a greater gift than to have the flexibility to live your life how you want to live it, while having the financial abundance to support yourself, and getting to practice in exactly the way  that you want to practice?

That’s what drives me.

Creating Community Care & Services in Community

So, what is the ICC doing to help?

We started our online community to give a place for providers to connect with one another. This was the first building block.

We also started to host in-person meet-ups in Northern Colorado. This gives people a chance to socialize, build their referral networks, get their name out there, and build community.

Further, we started offering weekly collaborative case consultations to providers of different disciplines. This helps get alternative perspectives on client cases, optimizing client care while giving providers education.

We started a provider directory to give providers a document that they can reference when looking for trusted referrals.

We have been able to offer those resources for free. We benefit from those just like any other member! So, it’s a win-win.

We are looking forward to also using our team to help staff our Ketamine Wellness Retreats. We have been developing programming and materials while collaborating with a local retreat center. We want to give people the opportunity to do their best work and get paid well for it! Plus, this helps move the needle in the conscious transformation of people. We can bring people in who need paradigm change, and support providers in facilitating that.

Looking to the Future: Revolutionizing Healthcare

We are continuing to explore what other offerings we can provide. While we like our free offerings and will continue to offer them for free, we are asking ourselves what other needs we can meet for providers that offer us the opportunity for financial compensation. This will expand the reach of the ICC and help us further our mission.

If you are a mental health provider, we would love it if you would fill out our provider survey to help us understand what providers needs are and how we can help meet them!

Here’s the link: https://forms.gle/MrH82abp3q3egwRKA

Thank you!

Cole Butler

Founder & CEO, ICC PBC