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SunCloud Health specializes in treating patients with complex co-occurring disorders and doing so in an individualized way as well as in a way that recognizes and treats the whole person.

What I really like about SunCloud is that we very much treat the entire person if you're struggling with mood if you're struggling with trauma if you're struggling with um addiction and eating disorders and some mix of all of them where you can kind of come in have all of those things addressed on like a really holistic and human level.

Many people that you're treating are experiencing multiple presenting concerns and multiple you know issues that are leading them to seek treatment so we try to see this um see individual as a whole person.

Being placed in sort of an individual track where you have to you're sort of asked to bracket or ignore other things that's not what we do here.

And instead of just saying you know I'm seeing this behavior show up it it's it's asking the person to look into what's contributing to the behaviors.

We want to dig deep. We want to do this work because otherwise it's going to be superficial. If you just work on one thing that's how people relapse we're going to kind of find the person first um and often what's underlying all these other presentations and help you kind of bring them together and not excluding anything about their experience in the context of their treatment.

We um believe that treating a person as a whole person um is what every individual deserves in the treatment program. [Music]

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[Music] We seem to draw um therapists and clinicians and a staff and people who just like really genuinely care like like people who like connecting with other clinicians about checking in and talking about like here's what's going on with the patients that are here and here's what they need and here's what I'm concerned about.

Dr Kim has a knowledge of this work above all else. She notices everything that's going on with each patient that comes through SunCloud and she'll also help to guide the team to make sure each patient is getting exactly the right care that they need.

One of the biggest things about treatment is our ability to collaborate whether that be onsite with our psychiatrist dietitian site director therapist all together and offsite because when we get somebody that walks through our door we're meeting them for the first time um all of our outside providers therapist psychiatrists schools you know anybody like that has a lot of information coming in and that can help support the process.

I think the biggest thing that I want the world to know is the recovery looks different for every person.

My favorite part of my role at SunCloud is being part of a team that's committed to treating eating disorders in a way that's nuanced and um curious and supportive of each individual person's recovery.

And what we want to help people do is to lay a foundation for a sustainable recovery and a sustainable life so that their life isn't consumed with symptoms that brought them here or treatment itself. You know life life gets big when these diseases shrink. [Music]

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[Music] I have particular interest in exploring and looking at how culture and uh issues related to ethnicity or background even impact the way these conditions show up are experienced and manifest in people's lives how then they approach treatment how they look treatment the need for treatment um how it impacts whether they're even going to come through the door for treatment and how it impacts their outcomes and how we then as clinicians uh integrate this way of thinking into approaching our patients you know we we call it individualized care or culturally competent care uh.

When I see my patients I um like to let them know that I have a respect for them because you know they know they have a problem which is a very difficult thing to do and they're um accepting the help they need that's another very difficult thing to do and I usually start with that I have a respect for them Having the courage to address their issues.

I am particularly uh attracted to you know our SunCloud model because I think it is a model that has done a really good job or allowed me to incorporate at that way of thinking into my work particularly because we do um invest a lot in social justice work and anti-racism and just educating ourselves to be more aware uh of how these issues show up in the treatment room um or or in care.

We've had the luxury at SunCloud Health um have patients come in for treatment um and not feel stigmatized not not feel shamed not feel blamed not feel controlled um and to get help for again complex complex disease packages. [Music]

Dr. Stewart discusses the role of family participation, privacy, and an empathic, nonjudgmental approach in treatment and recovery.

Family involvement is required in SunCloud’s teen programs and strongly encouraged for adults.

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[Music] . So often in medicine and in mental health we as physicians or treatment professionals say we know what recovery looks like it looks like this you know it looks like this for all people for anybody who has an eating disorder it looks like this or for anybody who has a substance use disorder it looks like this or for anybody who has PTSD it looks like this and that's just not true it's just not true there's a whole array of um paths to recovery what's recovery and someone's best life is unique to that individual.

And because I got into this um based on my interest in really helping people find lasting change and create sustainable change um this model of uh looking at the whole individual uh instead of looking at the individual through the the lens of just diagnosis.

So taking the individual and saying you know your your eating disorder is very intimately related to your alcohol use disorder that both have uh really really deep uh and tight connections with your trauma uh which is really um what what I think is the central piece to you know a lot of the conditions that our patients come in with.

Disease like this addiction trauma it works like [unclear phrase] right like I'm going to stop drinking and I'm going to start eating I'm gonna stop eating and I'm gonna start sleeping with everybody I'm gonna stop sleeping with everybody I'm gonna gamble my life away I'm gonna spend all my money I'm gonna because the my disease centers in my mind and it doesn't matter what I use I'm always going to find something.

That's what I love about SunCloud too it's like they're not just treating one thing they're not just saying hey you're alcoholic go away no you're an alcoholic maybe you got these other issues how does your life look here what are you doing there you know like what have you struggled with before what are you also struggling with.

And you know how many times do we come and say yeah I don't have any of those problems I don't want to talk about anything else I've just got this I I only drink if you can just get me to stop drinking then you put away the drinking and you feel like all this other stuff is coming up.

Think that the emphasis and the focus on uh rebuilding healthy attachments build in community uh making more connections which is an integral part of the of treatment here is um a strength of the program.

We do not focus solely on mood disorders or solely on substance use disorders or solely on eating disorders or primarily on any one of those three things. We focus primarily on the patient the individual patient and what their complex disease package looks like what their complex package of assets and strengths look like and then build treatment plans to specifically tailor each patient's needs.

Right. And a big part of treatment is not just getting sober and staying sober although that is a big part of treatment it's setting up life to you know thrive and to have something that you're looking forward to as one of my patients said is like making a life worth being sober for. [Music]