Latest / Becker's Healthcare Behavioral Health / Redefining Mental Health: Building a Smarter, Stronger and Scalable Ecosystem of Care

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Redefining Mental Health: Building a Smarter, Stronger and Scalable Ecosystem of Care · Becker's Healthcare Behavioral Health

• 0:00
  Hi, everyone. This is Lucas Voss with Becker's
• 0:02
  Healthcare. Thanks so much for tuning in to
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  the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. It's great to
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  have you. Today, we're going to talk about
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  redefining
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  mental health, building a smarter, stronger, and scalable
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  ecosystem
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  of care.
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  A quick disclaimer for our audience here. This
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  podcast discusses mental health issues and suicide. If
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  you or someone you know has suicidal thoughts
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  or is experiencing a mental health crisis, please
• 0:25
  contact emergency services or dial or text 988
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  to reach the suicide and crisis
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  lifeline.
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  With that in mind, joining me for today's
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  discussion is doctor Fasil Tai. Doctor Tai, so
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  great to have you. Thanks for being here
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  today.
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  Good to be here. Yeah. It's it's great
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  to have you. I wanna hear a little
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  bit about yourself. You certainly have
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  quite quite the work history, lots of great
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  experiences.
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  Can you just introduce yourself to our audience
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  and and share a little bit about your
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  work in health care?
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  Yes. So,
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  appreciate being here, Lucas. And so
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  my time has been spent, obviously, going through
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  med school, going through psychiatry residency, and and
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  sort of working
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  a whole lot since my residency,
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  moonlighting at tons of hospitals,
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  multiple states during my training. And then after
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  that, probably working at a 100 plus hospitals
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  across my career in most different settings you
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  can imagine,
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  from inpatient care to outpatient care to
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  impact teams to community mental health centers to
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  consult services in a hospital to prisons, jails,
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  all kinds of stuff out there. And so
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  I've had a very wide experience in terms
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  of understanding and and observing and treating mental
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  health patients.
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  And I think that's why it's so great
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  to have you on because, again, I love
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  all of the different viewpoints that you bring
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  to the table for this conversation, and we'll
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  touch on those here in a little bit
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  as well. But you also bring a a
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  very interesting perspective that sort of sits at
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  the intersection of clinical services
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  in technology. That's what you're focused on, reimagining
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  mental health care through both clinical services and
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  technology.
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  I'd love to kick us off with you
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  just talking about what are some of those
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  challenges in today's mental health landscape that really
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  inspired you to take that dual approach,
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  and why did this become sort of your
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  north star, right, so to speak, that that
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  guides you?
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  Yes.
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  So I I think part of it
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  stems from my
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  background
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  and and sort of my journey through medical
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  school. Mhmm. When I was
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  applying for med schools,
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  interestingly,
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  I ended up through discussing with some friends
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  that ended up in The Caribbeans actually for
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  medical school. Oh, wow. And it's interesting. When
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  you go to The Caribbeans for medical school,
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  your journey is sort of nontraditional.
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  You spend about fourteen months
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  over there doing your basic education, and then
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  you spend about two and a half years
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  in The US
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  doing clinical
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  work. And when you are
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  when you are coming from there in terms
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  of your schooling and you're doing your rotations
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  with US
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  hospitals,
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  you're not always guaranteed spots depending on
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  the quality of training you wanna have. And
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  I really wanted to be able to get
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  the best,
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  rotations that I could get in any hospital
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  that was a teaching hospital, that was a
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  top 100 hospital. And so I ended up
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  actually moving around for almost every rotation. Every
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  four weeks to six weeks, I would go
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  to a different hospital,
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  a different ecosystem, a different health care system.
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  Interestingly, by the time I was in my
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  fourth year and close to finishing up, I
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  had been to 18 different health systems,
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  18 different
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  EHRs,
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  eight 18 different technologies, and really had to
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  learn and adapt
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  into those extremely quickly.
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  And so it gave me a unique skill
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  set of understanding
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  how
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  technology
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  was affecting all of these health systems. Right?
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  The good and the bad. What what I
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  could take away from it. What I could
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  leave on the table.
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  In my fourth year of medical school and
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  throughout my medical school, I was planning to
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  go into radiology.
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  Fourth year of my medical school, I decided
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  as I was going through those rotations is
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  that, man, I don't see myself being in
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  a dark room for the next thirty years
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  of my life.
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  I was also interviewing for radiology residency, and
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  I was talking to a lot of people
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  at that time. And this was 2013, 2014
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  cycle.
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  And, you know, the the topic of AI
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  had already started to emerge in that space.
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  And my Yes. Ultimate fear was, well, am
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  I not gonna have a job in ten
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  to fifteen years? Is it all gonna get
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  automated?
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  You know? And so I I was fearful
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  to some extent.
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  And so I started having second second thoughts
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  about radiology. I had always loved psychiatry.
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  I had I had always been intrigued by
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  the subject,
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  by the human mind.
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  I decided, you know what? I would be
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  happier after talking to tons of people in
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  both spaces. I would be happier being in
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  psychiatry.
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  I also felt like psychiatry,
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  there was a lot more to be done.
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  I felt like it was the wild west
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  in mental health. It was it was like
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  a stepchild of mental health. No one really
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  put a lot of thought and effort to
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  it. And this is pre COVID before mental
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  health became really big deal in the country.
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  Right? But, you know, prior to that, there
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  is not a lot of talk on how
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  to fix the system. I mean, we,
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  you know, are a bit less mature than
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  most other sciences of medicine. And so, really,
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  it was much more intriguing in terms of
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  being a much more open space in in
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  in developing and deploying something. And so fast
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  forward, I go into my psychiatry residency at
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  the University of Iowa.
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  Amazing program.
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  While in my residency, I was one of
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  those people that just
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  could work,
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  and wanted to just get the exposure and
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  experience, and I started moonlighting. So in in
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  residency, you can moonlight,
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  which means you work outside of your residency
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  getting experience and really working as a psychiatrist
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  outside of a training institute, and and it
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  gives you much more perspective and experience prior
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  to you actually coming out of residency
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  and then being fully alone in in the
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  workspace. Right? And so I was working
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  at seven to eight different hospitals during my
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  residency. I had gotten other state licenses, and
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  so I was driving around.
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  I was doing a lot of
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  work in prisons, in health systems across that
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  Midwest region,
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  got to see a lot of pathology.
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  One of the key things that I realized
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  going through all that experience is that
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  you can't connect and nor can you fix
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  the mental health system today unless there's technology
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  that's actually doing
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  a lot of the automation and a lot
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  of the heavy lifting.
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  Yeah. Yeah. That I'd I'd I'd love to
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  touch on this a little bit more because,
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  again, like, you you have such a unique
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  experience in that you're go Hawkeyes. You're keenly
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  aware with what rural America is facing, having
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  spent time in the Midwest and in Iowa.
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  And I was just wondering if you could
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  go a little bit more detail into how
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  you're leveraging that tech specifically
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  to for those at risk populations. Right? And
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  also that rural piece to it and and
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  what that experience sort of Yes. How you've
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  worked that and and how much of a
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  difference it really makes.
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  Yes. So during residency, I started actually
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  building this technology.
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  Came back to Houston,
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  in 2019.
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  2020 started my clinic. '21
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  deployed that EHR in the clinic. I had
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  a few people consult and look at that
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  and said, you know, your your EHR is
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  more advanced
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  than what we've seen at this level of
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  stage. You should invest more dollars into it.
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  At that point is when we started to
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  scale this practice
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  and went from from one location to now
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  70 plus locations across the country. But,
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  really, the technology piece is so critical to
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  this because
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  my argument is that in order to provide
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  good care and because of the lack of
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  resources,
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  a lot of stuff needs to get automated
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  so we have technology that's enabling better care
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  for Mhmm. For our patients. Right? I mean,
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  it's no different to me than than a
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  pilot,
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  and an autopilot system in a plane. Right?
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  The pilot has training, but the autopilot certainly
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  makes it safer. It doesn't mean you can
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  pull the pilot out of the out of
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  the cockpit, but you need the autopilot
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  to consistently
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  drive safety in that space.
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  Health care is no different. Right? Where the
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  chance of error has to be almost zero,
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  we have to have technology that is thinking
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  ahead, that is enabling our clinicians to be
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  able to provide better care,
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  and this is how the idea bore out.
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  Because of my experience, I
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  understood technology a little bit better. And now
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  over the past, you know, six, seven years,
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  obviously, I've been immersed with it, building this
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  this technology. And and I think that's truly
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  even when you look at a lot of
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  other mental health companies, we have spent a
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  lot of time
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  building this technology that is population health, looking
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  at data, looking at what patients are doing,
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  what's working, which clinicians are are improving patient
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  symptoms, which clinicians are causing patients to get
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  admitted, or which ones are preventing admission. And
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  so really looking at outcome data and and
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  predictive AI
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  is what we're building here at Psych Plus.
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  And I love that you earlier in our
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  conversation, you mentioned, right, in the beginning, you
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  were kinda AI was emerging, and you thought,
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  hey. Am I gonna be the one that's
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  that's gonna be replaced here? Right? It's that.
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  But, yeah, as you've mentioned, it's that combination
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  of human and technology that really makes a
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  difference for for patients, which is which is
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  so key, and I'm so glad that you
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  mentioned that. I do wanna look ahead a
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  little bit on this. Right? We we have
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  data that, you know, provides and says that,
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  you know, we feel pretty good. US Americans
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  feel we feel pretty good about our mental
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  health,
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  but suicide remains a leading cause of death,
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  for for Americans.
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  One of your key goals is reducing suicide
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  rates and and minimizing disability for mental illness.
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  That's that's really one of your one of
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  your core goals.
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  What are some of those innovations and shifts
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  in care delivery
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  you think are really capable of changing those
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  outcomes? And here comes the important part, changing
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  those outcomes at scale.
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  So this is a very interesting topic and
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  one that I'm very passionate about. So
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  I'm a big believer that suicide is one
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  of the most preventable causes of death, not
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  just in The US, but the whole world.
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  It is is it's a fascinating subject.
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  Why it is such an epidemic,
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  I don't fully
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  understand
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  why we haven't done a whole lot about
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  it. I don't fully understand. I think we
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  as a community need to do more.
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  At Psych Plus, when I started my practice,
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  I was a firm believer in being all
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  inclusive. And so from day one, we've taken
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  every single insurance
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  out there, Medicare, Medicaid.
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  It doesn't matter what the insurance is willing
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  to pay us as providers.
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  If there's a funding source to some level,
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  we're willing to take that patient. In fact,
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  in some communities, we've even gotten grant funding
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  to take patients that have no insurance. And
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  so, really, the goal has been to become
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  an all inclusive platform. But
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  outside of that also, we have decided to
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  build an infrastructure that allows us to give
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  same day psychiatry and therapy appointments
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  across the country and
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  walk in appointments at our in person clinics
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  Monday to Friday. Because my philosophy is, you
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  know, when patients are having
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  suicidal thoughts or thoughts of wanting to hurt
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  themselves,
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  it's not like stroke that it happens
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  in within a second. Right? It's brewing.
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  It's slowly brewing over the next twenty four,
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  forty eight hours, and you do have an
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  opportunity to actually prevent that patient from going
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  ahead with it. And that's my number one
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  increasing access, giving them the opportunity to actually
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  talk to someone that understands mental health and
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  is able to assist them in getting them
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  treated with those symptoms. And so
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  improving that access. Right? The problem is today
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  that when you try to go get a
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  mental health appointment, you're waiting for four, six,
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  eight weeks sometimes,
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  and that's too late. Right? Like, if you're
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  having suicidal thoughts, you can't wait that long.
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  You may be able to wait an hour,
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  maybe four hours, but not four weeks. And
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  so, really, what we have tried to do
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  is any market that we go into, we
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  try to partner with as many insurances as
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  possible as are letting us partner with them,
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  and we open our doors. And we say,
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  you know what? If you need help, please
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  walk in, and we will assist you. And
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  so it's sort of a population health
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  slash,
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  you know, mental health company that's looking to
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  improve
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  the care across the system. Right? And our
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  mission is that, to me, success is that
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  we enter a market. Psycplus enters a market,
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  and three years from then, we look at
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  the suicide data, and it shows a twenty
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  to thirty percent reduction in suicide. That, to
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  me, would be success for this company.
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  Yeah. And it comes back to, again, what
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  you've mentioned earlier to equity and access. Right?
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  Being able to improve those two things for
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  all Americans,
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  not just select groups, but everybody
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  having that access to the help that they
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  need, which is is so key.
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  Doctor Tai, thanks so much for your time
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  and insights today. I I wanna open the
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  floor to you here.
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  Anything else that you wanna mention to our
• 13:29
  audience that we didn't touch on? Anything you'd
• 13:31
  like to share?
• 13:32
  Yes. I I think one of the key
• 13:35
  differentiators
• 13:36
  about Psych Plus is reimagining the space. And
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  so we have been working with a lot
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  of payers and a lot of different health
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  systems to build
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  a model of psychiatry that is
• 13:48
  not strictly on a fee for service model,
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  but more on a value based model. Because
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  I think the current model that exists
• 13:56
  is not going to help us solve the
• 13:58
  problem that we're facing today and is not
• 14:01
  the ideal solution ten years from today. And
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  so our key differentiator has been how do
• 14:06
  we bring resources to communities in a way
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  that has never been done before outside of
• 14:12
  just providing them
• 14:14
  medication and therapy appointments? How do we put
• 14:16
  care coordination in these communities? How do we
• 14:18
  put peer support networks in these communities? How
• 14:21
  do we build alternative housing solutions in these
• 14:24
  communities? Because to me,
• 14:26
  you know, if you can't provide them housing
• 14:28
  and boarding and food,
• 14:31
  the medication is not gonna do a whole
• 14:32
  lot of difference there. Right? And so, really,
• 14:34
  this is a community
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  and a societal problem, and our solution is
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  not just
• 14:40
  treating the medication piece, but also treating the
• 14:42
  whole human being,
• 14:44
  in terms of making sure that their their
• 14:46
  needs are fully met.
• 14:48
  Doctor Tai, I feel like we have to
• 14:50
  have this conversation again at some point in
• 14:52
  time and see where we're at.
• 14:54
  It's it's so great to have you. Thank
• 14:55
  you so much for your time and insights.
• 14:58
  Appreciate it, Lucas. Thank you. We also want
• 15:00
  to thank our podcast sponsor, Psyche. Plus, you
• 15:02
  could tune into more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare
• 15:04
  by visiting our podcast page at beccarshospitalreview.com.