This page provides important insights for all who may be considering a career with SunCloud Health.
Listen to one of our doctors tell you why she chose psychiatry in medical school. Her answer says a lot about “who we are”.
We are seeking to set the new standard for first in class care of these deadly disease sets in an outpatient setting unlike any other. Our approach is integrated, holistic and evidence-based where we offer services at multiple levels across the continuum of care and we do not track people based on their symptoms. With Dr. Kim Dennis as our active leader, we really do have the ability, the experience and the interest in treating the more complex co-occurring eating and substance use disorders that many either can’t treat, don’t want to treat or just miss because they specialize in just one symptom. We try not to focus too hard on answering the question of, “Why the (self-destructive) behavior?”, but rather we focus intently and deliberately on getting to the bottom of, “Why the pain?”. Our employees are encouraged and expected to play an integral role in our success. We have an open-door policy and are eager to find a leader who can challenge the way we think while helping us accomplish our goals.
Sonja Negrean, RN, BS, SCRN, the Director of Compliance and Nursing, discusses the role and opportunities of nurses at SunCloud Health.
Dr. Kim Dennis, Co-Founder and Medical Director at SunCloud Health, discusses how we support our treatment team, with on-going training that supports the implementation of the integrated model and embraces professional development.
Dr. Alexander Chevalier explains how SunCloud Health is a great provider to work for as a physician and how it differs from other treatment providers.
HEALTHY WORK ENVIRONMENTS AND THE VALUE OF TEAMWORK IN MENTAL HEALTH AND ADDICTION TREATMENT
Building a quality team and a safe and vibrant culture for the work team to operate in is critical to the success of any organization. A high functioning team can deliver optimal value to its customers, its investors and itself in ways disparate individuals simply cannot. The basis for creating a high functioning team is ensuring that each individual team member’s values align with those of the organization. Team members must be trained and properly selected for the responsibilities to which they are assigned, and the organization’s culture must be one that creates a sense of safety and presents opportunities for growth and learning.
Building a high functioning team and a safe and supportive culture in mental health and addiction treatment is not just preferred; it is imperative. The work done in this field, when it is done the right way, takes a special type of person operating within a collaborative team in a safe and nurturing work environment. Not everyone can sit with a patient as they process early childhood trauma, describe an obsession with ending their own life or listen as a patient describes the deep rooted pain they feel which only finds relief when the patient uses drugs, self- injures or purges. Working patients through this kind of pain can be incredibly rewarding when things go well, and it is also extremely taxing on the soul for the therapist or doctor doing the work, regardless of the outcome. Being able to turn to key team members for support or advice on how to handle life or death situations in this environment is key. Feeling safe to productively share one’s own feelings when doing this work is essential. Being able to avoid the pitfall of trauma reenactments and addressing the parallel processing that happens every day in treatment is vital. Without all of this, quality of care suffers, lives are unnecessarily lost and staff members burn out rapidly.
A large majority of patients who struggle with these issues come from family systems of abuse, neglect, and outright dysfunction. They enter treatment without any sense of what it means to be a part of a unit that is safe and with healthy and appropriate boundaries, direct and honest communication, and the skills needed to work through challenges with other human beings. The concept of real trust is foreign to them. Rather, they have come to believe the only thing they can trust is knowing that they cannot trust anyone, including themselves.
Much of effective treatment focuses on addressing these core deficiencies through staff members modeling healthy behaviors in an environment built on all of the healthy principles our patients need in order to live healthy and abundant lives. When our patients see us living healthy and abundant lives in a healthy and safe work environment, they begin to see that these things are possible for them. This plain and simply cannot be done without a high functioning treatment team operating in a healthy culture.
It is easy to rapidly throw bodies at “therapeutic” positions in order to meet the ever-growing demand for mental health and addiction treatment. In today’s challenging job market where demand far outweighs high quality supply of treatment professionals, it is indeed tempting to do so. Building the right team and a health culture, on the other hand, is far more challenging. It takes time, energy and resources. Doing so, however, is paramount to ensuring that patients receive the best possible care experience when they do show up for help.
Being an integral member of any team can be incredibly satisfying. Companies who value teamwork and healthy cultures generally perform far better than those who do not in the long run. Treatment centers are no exception. Patients who receive care at these treatment centers might not know it but the care they receive is far better when these principles are at the forefront of the organizations value agenda. Treatment centers should ensure these principles remain in-tact regardless of today’s hiring environment and treatment professionals should make sure to look for this when considering where they might want to work.
Our care model is based entirely around our patients’ conditions, where we recognize that every patient is different and it is the whole person and their families that we are seeking to treat, and not just their symptoms. We pride ourselves on being measured by the value we create for our patients and the way we deliver our care. On behalf of our patients we seek a collaborative and mutually beneficial relationship with all the people who play a role in the recovery process to include our patients, their families, their primary care doctors and their current (or future) therapists, and third party or other payers. We seek to be one of the pioneers at the forefront of providing a value based care delivery and reimbursement system in behavioral health.
We believe our patients want better health, not necessarily more treatment. They want collaboration, they want to be informed, they want transparency and they want to get and stay healthy. We believe we can achieve all of this at SCH, and we are doing so today.
Dr. Marcia Nickow, PSY.D., CADC, CGP, Organizational and Senior Clinical Adviser at SunCloud Health, answers the question, what do you as a leader at SCH look for when interviewing therapist candidates?
Things we know that are important to all of our employees, and things we support:
