CEO Spotlight: Adam Andreassen discusses FCS and #MORE

Join us for a captivating conversation with Adam Andreassen, PsyD, the new CEO of Family & Children’s Services (FCS) in Tulsa, OK. 

As we delve into Adam's journey within behavioral healthcare, gain insights into the personal motivations that fuel his dedication to transforming the lives of those in need. 

Explore how FCS, a Certified Community Behavioral Health Center (CCBHC), goes beyond mental health care, integrating physical health coordination and robust social services through #MORE core pillars of client care: swift and convenient access, robust prevention, steadfast stability, and an unwavering commitment to inclusivity. 

These principles have been interwoven into FCS's foundation for over a century, representing an enduring commitment to a client’s well-being.

Don't miss this enlightening episode.
 
 

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Thank you once again for accompanying us on the journey. Until next time!

Transcript

Dee: 0:00

Hello, and welcome to OK State of Mind, a podcast by Family Children's Services based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This podcast seeks to satisfy inquisitive minds, eager to delve into the realm of mental health and overall well being. Join us on a journey to gain insights into the intricacies of the human psyche, drawing inspiration from stories of resilience and hope. Moreover, we'll unravel the fascinating science, the invisibilia that underpins our behaviors, shedding light on the whys behind our behavior and overall mental health. Our goal is to empower, educate, and inspire you with actionable insights that you can immediately use in pursuing your own mental well being. This is a very special episode today, featuring an insightful conversation with a distinguished guest, Dr.. Adam Andreassen, the newly appointed CEO of Family Children's Services. Dr. Andreassen assumed his role as CEO on December 1st, 2022, bringing with him a wealth of experience and expertise in the field of behavioral health care. Prior to joining Family Children's Services, he was the Chief Operating Officer for Brightli, the parent organization of Burrell Behavioral Health, one of the largest nonprofit behavioral healthcare centers in the U.S.. He is also currently the CEO of the National Psychology Training Consortium. With a doctorate in clinical psychology from the School of Professional Psychology at Forrest Institute, Andreasen has been deeply involved in community mental health throughout his career. His journey includes extensive work in virtually every aspect of community mental health, making him a seasoned leader in the field. A staunch advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Dr. Andreasen believes in making these values the core of community mental health mission. Today we'll delve into his vision for Family Children's Services, his experiences in the field, and the importance of accessible behavioral health care for every community. I'm your host Dee Harris and with me today is new CEO of Family Children's Services, Dr. Adam Andreason. Welcome.

Adam: 2:06

Oh, thank you. Good to be here.

Dee: 2:07

We're so glad to have you on OK State of Mind. So let's just dive in. You've had an incredible career in behavioral health. Can you just tell me a little bit about your journey and what drew you to this field and, and where you were? prior to Family Children's.

Adam: 2:22

Sure. So great to be here. Thanks for having me looking forward to this entire visit. And, you know, we kind of joke in behavioral health. I, I went back to school to be a psychologist and, anybody that goes into mental health, you always assume that we probably went there to try to go fix our family. And then you realize it's going to take a little bit longer than just a minute on that. And then you get far enough into school, you say, okay, well, that's not going to work. So maybe I should just. Stay here for a career, and that's what happened with me. Became a psychologist in 2008. Went from that into private practice, did a lot of psychological assessment. So assessment and testing was always my specialty area. But then started growing the practice, and the practice got larger and larger over years. And then I started really enjoying all the variety that would come with it. So I started teaching a little bit on the side started some leadership stuff as our practice grew. Didn't set out to be into the business, if you will, of psychology or behavioral health. It just sort of grew as the practice grew. And then in 2011 I came back to the consortium where I had done my internship and joined the leadership team, became the executive director of what was then the Heart of America Psychology Training Consortium. That grew and I got to the point where we were looking at a multi state ARC including the West Coast, and so we started realizing at that point that Heart of America just wasn't probably anything but an ironic name. So we changed to the National Psychology Training Consortium. We started in Missouri, and then we added a region in Indiana. And then we added a region in the West Coast in the Pacific Northwest, Cascades region. We're in the process of adding a region in Iowa, the Cyhawks region. And so we've continued to grow and we're the largest that I know of, the largest internship program for doctoral psychologists. Other than maybe the VA, which of course is massive and all over the place.

Dee: 4:13

Yeah, I'm not real familiar with the consortium. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

Adam: 4:18

Sure. So the consortium is a non profit. So the National Psychology Training Consortium really started in the early 2000s as a non profit to help build out in rural and underserved areas access to care through workforce development. And so there was a big Department of Labor grant it got its start there, and it just grew and grew and grew from there to the point that now there's 60 to 75 psychology interns all across the United States every year that will land at these various agencies, some of them community mental health centers, private practices, federally qualified health centers, hospitals, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, and so on. And we help support their training. We help to support the agency as they bring in trainees and integrate them into the system so it's a meaningful part of the culture. And so it has really, really grown. For example, in Missouri where it started. There's approximately 1, 500 psychologists in Missouri and about 150 of those are graduates of the consortium. So we would estimate that in, in that state we're supplying about 10 percent of the psychologists for the whole state. We've had some similar success in Indiana now and Cascades in both Washington State and Oregon. And we're looking at the same thing in Iowa. Certainly would love to explore that someday in Oklahoma. I think there's already a lot of people I've talked to in the state that would be interested in something like this. Simultaneously, it's a different hat. It's a different hat than Family Children's. And so, it's a...

Dee: 5:48

yeah, I love that you're still involved in that even though, you know, you're CEO now of Family Children's and you're CEO of the consortium, correct?

Adam: 5:54

I, I do both and the the board at Family Children's felt like this was a real value add so they were open to me keeping both hats but it is definitely the back burner hat and definitely a separate thing than Family Children's, which is where I'm really excited to be and to pick up.

Dee: 6:09

Yeah, we're thrilled to have you here. And You know, the workforce development piece of all of this is so critical. I mean, you hear everywhere, all over the news, how there aren't enough providers and we're in a mental health crisis and, and so I'm, guessing that this has really helped inform not only your perspective, but the way that you manage a process.

Adam: 6:28

So we are in a workforce crisis. This workforce crisis is not just in Tulsa, it's not just in Oklahoma. It's nationwide and really worldwide, and, and this has come from a number of different angles. The first is, you know, we, we talk a lot about mental health stigma, and stigma's still there. Stigma is this idea that you maybe should be embarrassed or that something's wrong if you get mental health services. And that thought process, that essentially if you get mental health, something's wrong, if you get mental health support, something's wrong, that's something that's gone away, and we've done a good job in society, certainly social media, while it's had a lot of negative effects, even on mental health, one of the upsides of social media is that, is it creates more openness around things like vulnerability and mental health needs. So what we've seen is a nationwide decrease in stigma. But what that does is it opens up the door for more and more people to be willing to think about receiving care. And they don't just now seek care when something is wrong. They might seek care because they're looking for someone to talk to. They want to talk to about, should I take this new job? Should I move? How do I work through these relational things? And so all of those things have really increased demand. And that demand for care then comes with a need to have more providers. Well, then think about leading into 2020, stigma is decreasing.

Dee: 7:50

Yeah, I was gonna ask about the COVID factor because it seemed to really knock the edge off of mental health stigma.

Adam: 7:56

It did because everybody now, of course, everybody is distressed and anxious and overwhelmed. So everybody's willing to get care and services, we were able to immediately break down barriers in lots of states that had previously not been broken down and that was telehealth was now normal. In fact, there's a lot of people that always prefer telehealth to in person but systems hadn't always built the infrastructure to be able to do that. I know the agency I was at in Missouri, we, we had to track down 300 laptops almost overnight while everybody else in the country was looking for laptops just so we could see people. And so that demand, it really shone a light on access, and it was at the same time that funding was finally coming into states to really scale up care and to do a lot more. But what you have now is this a ha moment that the entire world is ha having at the same time that the average age of a psychologist is about 55 years old.

Dee: 8:53

Oh, wow.

Adam: 8:54

So we don't have enough people in the workforce.

Dee: 8:56

Yeah.

Adam: 8:56

And so that's really created opportunities to grow. opportunities to get more creative about how we are efficient with care but it's also really opened the door to lots of partnerships with schools and with consortiums and with outreaching to people in communities that maybe don't often enter the field. For example There's lots of data out there about the lack of ethnic diversity among our providers. And that's not just here in Tulsa, that's everywhere. And so we really need to be doing a better job of enticing a very diverse population to enter the field as providers. And I think we can do a lot of that at Family Children's through programs that will really entice. our own workforce to go back to school and help support them in that as they go back to school, as we build partnerships with schools, and then as we get them launched into their career as they progress through wherever they want to go in their field.

Dee: 9:54

So, you've had just a plethora of diverse experiences in the field. What other roles have you held?

Adam: 10:00

I just love that you used the word plethora in a sentence, and now I'm thinking about three amigos I can't even remember. You know, I, I've done a lot, and I, some of that is that life takes you on interesting journeys. And some of that is because I love variety. But community mental health has become one of those common threads for everything I've done. You know, I started out in private practice, wasn't doing much with community mental health, but then did a lot through the consortium, started to get to know other community mental health centers, serving them, supporting them, and so on. And then about six years ago late 2017, 2017 former colleague and teacher of mine, psychologist himself, C. J. Davis he moved back from Indiana to Missouri, to Springfield, Missouri to become the CEO of Burrell Center. And Burrell Center is a community mental health center, not unlike Family Children's. It was about 1, 200 employees when he got there. And similarly to what was happening in Oklahoma, in Missouri in, in mid 2017, 2017, There was the beginning of what was called a pilot for the CCBHC mental health program.

Dee: 11:04

Yeah, tell our listeners what that stands for.

Adam: 11:06

So CCBHC is Certified Community Behavioral Health Center. Now, here's what it is. If you look back through the history of community mental health, community mental health goes all the way back to the JFK administration, and it really was about supporting those who have severe or persistent mental illness. And who might otherwise need to be in a hospital, institutionalized, in insane asylums, and so on. So that funding, and that process where the federal government helps states to use that funding away from hospital systems and institutionalization to community support. Well, that starts in the 60s and from the 60s until around 2017 was mostly unchanged program. And that unchanged program was one that has a lot of upside to it. But there was this growing awareness that we really need to do a better job of emphasizing, for example, quality outcomes over quantity. We need the funding to reflect the ability to serve in a broad way where you can give people whatever they need Instead of just okay. Now you've done a therapy appointment. So we're going to bill for that now You're going to do a psychiatry point. We're going to bill for that.

Dee: 12:14

It's real siloed.

Adam: 12:15

It really was siloed It was also something that rewarded lots of quantity and it also the old school system it really rewarded quantity without the outcomes necessary. So, continuing to serve somebody was kind of where the carrot was. Now, in the new system, the CCBHC system, we still serve people as long as they need it, but what we do is we get all of those services that they need, and we provide all that they need, and whether that is a psychiatric encounter, whether that is an encounter with their caseworker who might help them get somewhere to an appointment, or whether that's with a therapist or any of those other things, we do that full wraparound care, and then what happens is that the agency is reimbursed for what they do and for the outcomes that they get. So, essentially, it reworks things to be more rewarding to making people better and helping them recover. Now, that system came to Missouri and Oklahoma as two of eight states that were selected after a national competition to be one of the first eight demonstration states of this new model. This new model came from this remarkable partnership between SAMHSA, a federal agency that oversees a lot of this, and a Republican and a Democrat. The Republican was Senator Roy Blunt from Missouri, and the Democrat was Stabenow, I think from Michigan. I should have looked it up because I was just in an interview last week and didn't remember either, but I think she's from Michigan. And, and sorry, Ms. Stabenow, if I got that wrong. But that really speaks to the power of mental health, how much it's been destigmatized even at the national level. that a Republican and Democrat came together and said we really need this program.

Dee: 14:00

Well, what I love about the CCBHC model is the whole person piece. I mean, it's not just about mental health care, it's about your physical health care and your well being and your life choices and making better choices. So you were one of the first demonstration sites in Missouri.

Adam: 14:14

So we were one of the first demonstration sites of Missouri. And so I joined at Burrell Center. And similar to what happened with many other systems in Oklahoma. We grew really, really fast, and so like, within three or four years, we had probably added four or five hundred employees our revenue and our budget and our services had all almost doubled. And then as often happens, we started growing in ways where other systems saw what we were doing and wanted to join with us.

Dee: 14:41

Yeah, Family Children's became a CCBHC in October of 21. So, we were three years behind Missouri.

Adam: 14:48

And one of the things I love about Family Children's Services is this is a system that for a hundred years has been doing so many of the things that are now mandates of CCBHC. You know, that whole person care, that seeking people out where they are, what they need. This is a system that's done a lot of that for a long time, but finally, both the funding and the structure of the way you do it is supportive of that. And one of the things that's impressive is, two years plus into this new CCBHC model, and Family Children's Services has added about 400 employees as services are shooting through the roof. It is really, really doing a lot and scaling up, and it is like rocket fuel for the growth you want to do, and it's really rolls out lots of access, but again, it comes within that context, like we were talking earlier, where at the same time, Everybody wants and needs more services and so there is a no matter what you do, there's never enough and that's a good thing. But one of the real opportunities we have with Family Children's Services in Tulsa is to be there and to scale up, At a pace that continues to give people confidence that if they reach out for care in that moment, there may be only one window for somebody to say, okay, I'm open to getting care when you get in that crisis. As much as we try to destigmatize, there's some people who will never be open except in a specific moment. ANd when you talk access to care, one of the things that is so fascinating to me is this notion that, you know, step through that door might be step through that door virtually. Mm-Hmm. But it may also be that they don't know. where to call and what to do, and they missed our billboard, or they weren't thinking about it. And so in that moment, access for them, the barrier, might be awareness. And that's one reason that I see over the next year or two, we're gonna be putting a lot more energy. As much as I love our billboards, as much as I love our outreach, we have so much more we can do by just getting the word out. And the, the idea there is not just self promotion, it's that we owe it to a community to raise the awareness to the point that when you're in crisis, you never have to think twice about where to call, what to do, how to get care and ideally, you already even have a relationship with us, but maybe that relationship is you've interacted with us on social media. Maybe that relationship is, You've gone to some community training we offered. Maybe that relationship is that in some way, shape, or form, you know somebody that works here, you're connected, you're in the community. And so when you have that, that point of crisis or that point of need there's already a foundation on which to build as you seek care. And I think the other thing for removing barriers is clearly not everybody has Medicaid, not everybody has insurance. And so how do we make sure that between our partnerships with community foundations with a very, very socially conscious and philanthropic community as well as through grants and through other scholarships, how do we make sure that everybody that needs care has a mechanism of getting that care even if they don't have an ability to pay? Certainly as a community mental health center, we don't turn away anybody for lack of an ability to pay. But that's where those partnerships come in because it still costs something to provide those services and that's something we're very focused on.

Dee: 18:03

Yeah, even if you don't have insurance, you can come to us and we'll help you. I wanted to loop back because we, we just touched a little bit upon, the foundation of Family Children's Services, the bedrock for over a hundred years. We started out as a small family service provider became a mental health provider in the early two thousands. And then of course the CCBHC piece, which we're only a few years into, we're just now scaling up in a way that. Will allow us even to expand services more. Why is that so vital that we have that foundation?

Adam: 18:34

Yeah, so this last week I went and did a meet and greet with Tulsa Area United Way. And it was a, it was a lovely meeting, lovely discussion, but one of the fun things, one of the fun facts that I picked up in that is that a hundred years ago, we were right next door and shared space with Tulsa Area United Way.

Dee: 18:53

Fun fact, 1925, Waite Phillips, who was one of our founders, Waite Phillips as in Philbrook as in Phillips 66 started Family Children's Services as a social, because there was a need socially in the community for a provider, and he also helped, provide the building that United Way was in and we were founded in 1921, but started providing services in 25 in that building with United Way, which was so cool. I just love that part.

Adam: 19:22

And so now I'm learning even more because again, that history, it's just so fascinating. There's, there's always been a thread of people in Tulsa. That are just really, really socially focused on helping those in need, helping those who have been displaced. It was explained to me how in the very beginning there were people who had been displaced maybe by by some of the oil and economy factors. Certainly by all the things that we've wrestled with as a society and in Tulsa with our History of displacing people maybe that don't always have it coming and that those are things That we really need to be part of the solution of whether we were part of the cause or not and in a lot of ways in Tulsa All of those things have come together to be a very socially conscious and supportive and reflective society. So one of the things that was also described to me as I'm learning this history of Family Children's, is the way that Family Children's was really part of the conscious thought process for responding to the economic disparities that were occurring for any number of reasons, both in terms of what was happening with all the diverse populations here and how they were being displaced to some of the things that were occurring as a result of the oil industry and all those things that were all tied together. And so there was all of this money and opportunity in Tulsa. But there was also all of those individuals who maybe weren't always Winning if you will.

Dee: 20:48

Yeah,

Adam: 20:48

That's where Family Children's was always there. Now pause for a second with that and then think about the American dream And the ability to pursue happiness and that ability to pursue happiness has a lot to do with what are the things that might be barriers to your life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that you could go after. And so what's interesting is a hundred years ago, Family Children's Services is already oriented toward helping you pursue the American Dream. Or another way of looking at it is, we've got this new term now called Social Determinants of Health or Social Drivers of Health. And it's sort of a repackaged thing from a health and economic standpoint that says, if you have medical issues that keep you out of work, then those medical issues now are barriers. If you have a lack of transportation. That's a barrier. If you have so many people and you're a family provider for many, and maybe you're a single parent, or maybe you both are working two jobs, those are things that are barriers, and so those barriers become social determinants of health that We can make sure that you have a job, and you have access to transportation, and that your economics life is on the upswing, and that your health and well being is on the upswing. All of those things. are things that help your long term health.

Dee: 22:11

Fun fact that was an aha moment for me personally, 20 percent of your well being and your health is contributed to your medical and mental health care. And the rest of it is your environment, your education. where you live, how you eat, all of those things. And it's so interesting to me that we focus as a society so much on just that one little nibble of it, the 20 percent when really, the rest of it. is so vitally important to the well being of an individual.

Adam: 22:43

100%. In fact, I would say that, that 20 percent is probably underestimating. There is a study that a lot of people have heard of now. It used to be kind of a best kept secret. Everybody in behavioral health has heard of it, but sometimes the general public hasn't. It was called the ACES study, Adverse Childhood Experiences study. You can read about it online, and there's all these amazing websites about it, but here's the bottom line. When you look at those early experiences in childhood that can be traumatizing, or distressing, or displacing to people, and then you trace that through a lifetime of outcomes, what you find is this doesn't just affect poor people, this doesn't just affect people without access to services, this runs the gamut, top to bottom, left to right in people's lives, that the number of childhood experiences you've had have a huge correlation. On all these economic indicators yes, it increases your lifetime chances of COPD and depression and what we call deaths of despair. But what it also is, is probably the single biggest determiner of lost time at work and at school. is adverse childhood experiences that, that occur early in life, and then just, like, keep paying us back in the worst way for the rest of our life. Well, it affects individuals, but it also affects our society. And so, again, that's where Family Children's Services comes in. And it's always been part of this mission to help reduce the barriers to access, the barriers to care, to that whole person, best life. And so, about 25 years ago, Family Children's then becomes a mental health Entity be a community mental health center But you've got about 75 years before that where it was doing all of its work without being that mental health center. So now what we are is we're both and I think that the thing that fascinated me so much when I got here is looking at all these things and every single time I'd learn something Family Children's is doing then someone else would say well we're doing more we're doing this and then they say well we're doing this we're doing more we're doing and so like that more And then Dee, you, you pointed out to me that our, even our tagline right now has been about more and, and so that kind of led to a little bit of brainstorming about what we could do with our next awareness campaign.

Dee: 24:54

Yeah. I mean, it is more and, you know, I'm going to, I want to loop back to the ACES because, you know, before I started here, I didn't really quite realize the impact of early childhood trauma. And in Oklahoma, it's such a problem. I mean, one in four kids have four or more adverse childhood experiences, and, you know, early on with our child abuse trauma services and our children's mental health, school based services, office services, in home services, we've always really tried to Stop that problem before it really becomes a major problem, which is also part of this more piece, too. It's preventative. It's stabilization. It's all of those types of things.

Adam: 25:34

Going back to the ACES study, what's fascinating when you look at this data set, which is a massive data set of people over decades, is that humans are resilient, and we can bounce back pretty fast from a lot of things, especially if those things don't persist, and sort of like you know, you have a trauma, but you don't have that trauma repeated over and over. And so what this data set starts to show is that, around three adverse childhood experiences you have a really good shot of fully recovering, but at the point that you go to four and above, and it could be things like a parent or loved one that died, a parent or loved one that was incarcerated, it could Witness to domestic violence it could be, trauma, all sorts of trauma abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, all of those things are all things that at the point that you've had more than four, that's when the data starts to really suggest, it starts to crush the spirit in some ways that make it really hard, not impossible, but really hard to bounce back from. And so, when you talk about prevention, you're not just talking about protecting kids from, strangers or protecting kids from something that may happen. What you're talking about is a whole family approach, because so many of the things that affect kids are a direct result to the context they're in. And so, as we bolster families, as we bolster supports, but as we also do things like reduce hunger. If you can't get food in your belly, then you can't focus on school, and then you're going to miss school, and the whole thing just kind of...

Dee: 27:02

Snowballs.

Adam: 27:03

Yes.

Dee: 27:04

Speaking to the resilience piece of it with benevolence and with therapy, these can be overcome so that when that person becomes an adult, they don't have the, I'm going to say plethora again, plethora of problems. Anyway.

Adam: 27:19

Extra points for Plethora.

Dee: 27:21

Thank you. I think I may try to throw it in here and there throughout the entire interview.

Adam: 27:24

So Dee, you've been asking me lots of questions, but do I get to ask questions because I got one for you.

Dee: 27:28

If I say no, is that bad?

Adam: 27:30

No. Well, that was a, yeah, that's another question.

Dee: 27:33

Of course. Okay.

Adam: 27:33

So, so. You know, you and I have had some conversations, and I noticed on the billboard, Family Children's mental health, and more, and so as we've tossed back and forth. Maybe you could preview just a little bit our next awareness campaign and how we're going to really be focusing on more.

Dee: 27:47

Oh, yeah. Of course. Hope Starts Here is our current campaign. And actually what I love about that phrase is it was said by a client when I was interviewing clients a couple years ago when we first became a CCBHC. And it was such a beautiful sentiment. It really honed in on, how important hope is as a morsel to get you going. Of course, you have to do the hard work It was a perfect way to illustrate that, but, one thing about Family Children's is we're so much more than just mental health. Mental health and more came out of that piece of it. It's 80 percent of it, it's, it's such a critical piece of somebody's overall well being, but once again, most people just focus on, mental health care, physical health care. And so we are going to pop out the more, more deeply, and talking more about how we. Do prevention. Our pharmacy does a lot of really amazing work keeping people stable. So stabilization, advocacy. We do so much advocacy for our clients in the schools, in the court system, just all across the board to make sure that they are well represented and that they can move their lives forward. And, there's other things as well. But that's the focus here just to get that awareness out.

Adam: 29:02

And one of the things that I love about Tulsa and love about Family Children's is this is a collaborative city. This is a city that is very connected to each other and we talk about more. I think one of the things that we also love about this idea of really building awareness and getting the attention of the community in a different way is that more is not just about more services. It's also about more partnerships. It's also about that we've always been an outward facing organization. It's been such a thrill for me in the last month and a half since I've been here to really meet as many people as possible to have so many wonderful conversations with stakeholders and leaders throughout the system and throughout the city of Tulsa. It's just been amazing to meet so many different people. And as I meet those people, what I find is that there's virtually nowhere that we couldn't be and couldn't be doing more together. And I think that that's another thing that I just love is it, it's a nice tagline, but it's a tagline that really means something. And that something is we can do more together and how we partner and how we interact and how we build this web of support for a community. I think that's really, really fascinating.

Dee: 30:13

Yeah, and piggybacking off of that, the partnership aspect of what we do, whether it is in Tulsa Police Department or fire through our co responder model, being in the 911 center. the library, Salvation Army, I mean, I can go on and on is so tied into not only more, but more access, eliminating barriers, providing more in prevention, stability, advocacy, so forth, so...

Adam: 30:37

So great point. Buildings matter, but they're not everything. And so we are in the, in the spirit of buildings matter, you have to have somewhere for people to come. You need plACES for your staff to land. You need access points and so both an East Tulsa and a North Tulsa, we're looking at some expansions and those expansions I think are really exciting. We really want to be there. This other piece of this access to care removing every barrier means that, you know, some people don't have bandwidth where they can just get online and do a virtual encounter. And some people don't even have a private room for that. But other people don't have ability to transport themselves and so one of the big aspects of access that I would talk about here is that buildings are only part of the equation. And I think that our future selves are much more mobile and out there than we are tied and tethered to buildings. And that's one thing that I find really exciting is that we've got good buildings and we're going to keep adding to those buildings and those presences, but the other thing we're going to be doing is Is, you know, there's some new vans that we're work we're working on and looking at.

Dee: 31:41

Such an exciting development.

Adam: 31:42

And those vans are again traveling clinics, if you will. And we're gonna be doing really growing our workforce in schools and doing more and more with the young kids.

Dee: 31:53

Prevention.

Adam: 31:54

No doubt, prevention, and I mentioned another interview last week, but it's about six years on average from the time that someone first identifies a problem in a youngster. and their first encounter with care. And we just can't be in a scenario where, like, like I said before, if it was cancer or a broken leg, you wouldn't say, can you walk on that leg for six years before you get care. So we've got to do a lot more of that. But I would also say, being wherever people are and being engaged with them wherever they are, that's part of more as well. That we want buildings, buildings matter, but buildings are a start. They're the floor, the minimum you can do. And from there, we need to just keep building and growing and being embedded everywhere with everyone, wherever they need us.

Dee: 32:35

Yeah. And I'm, I love the way that we've done that. And I'm glad to hear that that's a priority for you because it's critical. COVID made things happen so much faster. It expedited the process of telehealth, for example. I mean, it was just overnight. Family Children's flipped our model, delivered telehealth in 2020, and it was exciting to see that, because people were still getting the care they needed.

Adam: 32:57

It's a great point. And, you know, since COVID that tide has receded a little bit, but it still stayed up. In most systems, more than 50 percent of all behavioral health encounters are still virtual. And that occurs both because of the ability to deliver more care that way, but also because a lot of people prefer a virtual encounter. It feels less pressurizing and anxiety provoking. It's more convenient for them. And so 55 to 65 percent in my experience is about the range I'm seeing for the number of services that occur virtually versus in person.

Dee: 33:30

So you know, it's once again, not only getting the care, but having personalized care, which is another piece of the CCBHC that I think is so vital.

Adam: 33:39

No doubt. So when you talk about personalized care, I want to make sure that we're clear that personalized care is not just accessible. But it also means optimized and specific to you and your needs. And that means we need to understand who you are, where you come from, what your background is, and what the unique intersection of things and identities about you are. That might help us better understand you and we just can't, as an organization or as a society, assume that we automatically understand where everybody's coming from.

Dee: 34:11

You've not been shy about discussing your passion for DEI can you just speak a little bit more about your experience in that area?

Adam: 34:19

Sure, I would love to and I mean that. I would love to. And I also recognize that when you talk DEI, there's a lot of risks. And those risks are they're political. People have a lot of political perspectives. DEI has been very politicized. But the risk is also that we misunderstand each other. The risk is that I say something or that you say something that could be perceived as offensive or insensitive. And I think that nevertheless, we need to talk about this. And the reason we need to talk about this is that DEI is about belonging. DEI is about hospitality. DEI is part of access to care. And so we can't afford to avoid it or ignore it as a core quality of what we embrace. We know the data, we know the data that says that despite all the politics, more than 70 percent of the workforce find an organization that embrACES DEI to be important to them and part of their satisfaction and appreciation. That isn't surprising to me because it's about hospitality. When you go to someone's house, it's one thing for people to just be friendly, but what you really want when you visit someone's house is to feel like they are uniquely welcoming to you.

Dee: 35:35

Yeah, and belonging and feeling comfortable, especially in the realm of, sharing your thoughts and feelings and emotions and struggles.

Adam: 35:44

Absolutely, and one of the things that someone helped me understand some years ago, Is that it's not enough to be generally welcoming as an organization. That is the minimum. start for what we need to become. But what we really need to be is a system that whatever your unique background is, that you feel that we are equipped to understand you. And if there are language barriers, if there are cultural barriers, even if we don't have providers that look or talk like you, those things can all be barriers. Now that doesn't mean across the board we would all be going down a road we wouldn't want to be down if you say, Well, I can only work with people that look or act like me. That's not the vision. But the vision is, what if you need someone that can understand you? What if you need someone that knows where you're coming from? What if there is something about your experience that you feel would be better handled if someone really had that lived experience? And no one questions it when we talk about having peer support for someone in substance use recovery to say, Hey, certainly there's lots of people that might aid you in your journey of recovering from substance use disorder, but one of those people that is really, really vital to have in there is a peer who's lived it. And yet if we're not a system that has people within our system that are both trained and reflect the identity of those that they're serving, Then what we are, is we're still a barrier to care. And that's why I'm so passionate about this.

Dee: 37:14

And, you know, our workforce is actually really reflective of the Tulsa community.

Adam: 37:17

Yeah, I was pleasantly satisfied to see that when we pulled our workforce data, when you go through the various, for example, ethnic populations in our service area, we are pretty reflective. of those populations. And, that doesn't mean we have enough. It means that we have a decent job of representation right now and that we need to do more. And that more is that you're only as good as your next encounter and how well you can serve that next person. And we know that in a growing, And diverse population, we have lots more inroads to make and we need to be ears open as much as mouths open because how we receive feedback and how we grow as a result of that is also going to be part of our equation.

Dee: 38:03

I love that you said more again because, the more is not only what we're providing, but the more is what we are looking to provide, listening more. Reflecting more, doing more to meet the needs because that's always been our core. It's always been the baseline. It's, something that's valued is to provide more for everybody.

Adam: 38:27

Yeah, and becoming a trauma informed, becoming a diversity, equity, and inclusion infused system is not a point. We don't arrive one day and say, okay, now we're where we need to be. What we do is we recognize that these are qualities and values that we embrace and that we grow and that as culture grows and our understanding of ourselves and each other grows that we continue to evolve within that. And that's really the commitment that I think we need to all be making to each other within society is to say, we have a commitment to grow together, and that means we need to understand each other better, and we need to do the hard work, even if sometimes that hard work includes feedback that we say, hey, look, we, we recognize we have more work to do on this area. And I'll give you an example. While we serve people from all over Tulsa, there are definitely some areas that we need to be adding more of a presence. And as we look across Tulsa and we look at the population and we look at where the need is and we look at those that are saying, Hey look, I think there's gaps. Of course there's gaps because like we talked about at the beginning of the podcast, There is so much finally demand for care that we all have to scale up together. We all have to grow together. And we've grown so rapidly. I love that. And no matter how much we grow, we also know there's more. There's more to do. There's more to be. And we are committed to doing all those things. We're going to do what it takes.

Dee: 39:52

Well, it's really exciting. You've been here, what, a little bit over a month?

Adam: 39:55

A little bit.

Dee: 39:56

Still trying to find your way around the building, I'm sure. And I know you've already met many community partners but what are you looking forward to accomplishing in the, in like your first 90 days,

Adam: 40:07

I mean, 45 days in. And, of course, we built the holidays into that, and there's just such an excitejust a palpable excitement that you feel in the community for all the things that are already happening. And that excitement, I feel like I've joined this amazing song already in progress, and I'm just trying to harmonize a little bit. And so, when I look at what we're trying to do at Family Children's, I see us doing more, but that more may or may not be something wildly different. It might be additive. It might be tweaking our strategic plan a little bit to make sure that we're touching all the bases and that we're scaling up in an order that makes sense for what the community most needs. So I, I think there's a lot of this that, you know, when I came to FCS, one of the things one of the board members said that I think is very true. is that continue to have an evolution, not a revolution. And I think there may be areas where we do need to be revolutionary and really innovative and creative. But for the most part, this is a system that has established itself well over the last hundred years. And that, that evolution means how do we continue to embrace those same qualities, but always doing more.

Dee: 41:19

And the evolution is also meeting the community needs as they evolve as well.

Adam: 41:25

A hundred percent. There's been so many amazing things that are, it's obvious, but others have also told me about Tulsa, and as I'm getting to know Tulsa, This is a city that is very much in the process of becoming, and I think it's been in the process of becoming for more than 100 years, and it continues to be in the process of becoming, and that's the mark of a dynamic and growing. And that dynamic and growing community is going to understand its own needs differently over time. And we need to stay in sync with that.

Dee: 41:53

Absolutely. What a dynamic conversation today. Thank you, Adam, so much. I'm excited to have you on here again if you are willing to join us.

Adam: 42:02

We're doing this every Monday, right?

Dee: 42:03

Oh, yeah. Every Monday with coffee.

Adam: 42:05

Right. Well, thank you so much for having me, Dee. And to everyone who's listening to this, whether you're a member of our community at large or whether you're a member of the FCS community or one of our partners or stakeholders, we truly appreciate you. We want to hear from you and again, reach out, find us on LinkedIn, find us on Facebook, find us on Instagram. We want to have these conversations wherever you are and whatever you need. Please reach out to us and thank you again for the time.

Dee: 42:31

Oh, of course. And we look forward to even more next year. If you found value in what you heard today, there are a few ways you can support and stay connected to us. First, be sure to hit that subscribe button wherever you're listening. Subscribing ensures you never miss an episode and it's absolutely free. It also helps us continue bringing you quality content. Consider leaving us a review. Your reviews not only make our day, but they also help others discover the podcast and join our community. Share this episode with your friends, family, and anyone who might find it interesting. Word of mouth is a powerful way to grow our podcast family, and we truly appreciate your support. We're always eager to hear your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions for future episodes. Visit okstateofmind. com for all of our episodes, and you can also email us at communications@fcsok.org with any episode ideas or questions. We'd love to connect with you and thank you once again for accompanying us on this journey. Until next time.