- PNC is proud to support "Business Forward" where local leaders discuss the challenges and opportunities and how we do business in Central Illinois.

(bright music) (gentle upbeat music) - Welcome to "Business Forward".

I am your host, Matt George.

Joining me tonight, Mary Sparks Thompson.

Mary is the president of Trillium Place, which was formally Unity Place.

But Trillium Place now is affiliated with Carle.

So that's a lot right there.

Welcome, Mary.

- Thank you.

Nice to be here.

- Yeah., it's interesting, you don't know this, but my mom is 76 years old, an RN, retired RN.

She was an RN for Carle for many, many years in Danville.

And then I have two daughters born at Carle and Champaign, so I'm very familiar with Carle.

- That's wonderful.

- Isn't that kind of cool?

- That's great.

- So let's start off with you.

I've known you for a couple years, matter of fact, I don't even think you had moved here yet.

I was with Dr. Nepp, who's one of my all time favorite guys, and we're sitting in his office and I met you and really just kind of talking about the vision of what Trillium Place now is going to look like and really the needs of behavioral health in really this country, but really in central Illinois in the state.

- Yes, I am so excited to be here in the central Illinois community.

It's really been a soft landing from Iowa.

Really what is really unique about this community is I believe the awareness, the understanding, and the support of the community to work with mental illness, substance abuse, and all the issues that we're challenged within that area.

It's just wonderful to see.

- So when you look at Trillium Place and you're presenting to a group of, let's say, maybe even donors or anybody really, how do you describe what you do?

- So that's a great question, and I always start out, my elevator pitch is we have four levels of care.

Inpatient care, which is traditional hospital-based services.

We have residential care, so that's facilities and locations at our people's residential homes and they receive varying amounts of support.

Then we have our outpatient services, which are more of our traditional outpatient clinics where you would receive psychotherapy, medication management.

Then we have a large category of services called our community-based services.

And those range from our ACT program, which is our Assertive Community Treatment program for our very serious and persistently mentally ill population all the way through to some of the work we're doing in area schools in terms of supporting our youth.

So four levels of care, 39 programs, and over 600 staff.

It's a lot.

It's a lot.

It is so exciting, it's so exciting.

- Well let's go to ACT for a second.

Explain what that means.

- So the ACT program is a model, and I would have to check the literature to see what the actual inception data of the ACT program was.

But it's really designed for folks who have the most involved mental illness conditions, typically schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, high end, very high need folks.

And the goal behind the Assertive Community Treatment model is it's described as a hospital without walls.

So really what you have is a multidisciplinary team led by a physician, nurses, social workers, and then community health outreach workers.

And really the program is tailored to be very individualized to each person's care and treatment needs.

And they can range, typically we see clients several times a week ideally daily just to do a check-in, have you taken your medication?

Are there any needs that have come up for you in your living circumstances?

Have you had a recent life stressor?

And then we swoop in and help with some support with the goal being, it's not quite hospital level of care in the community, but emulating towards that.

And it's really an interesting program.

And there's different, most states fund ACT programs, but it's a really great way to really try to help the folks who have the most involvement with their mental illness to maintain as much independence as they possibly can.

- And we need it.

- Absolutely we do.

- You know, what you were just describing, and for our viewers, a lot of times you hear different terms, but it just kind of rolls right through your head and you have no clue what it means.

But what I would say to that is there's just a continuum of care.

It's almost like this person helps this person to get to the next level, and then they find whatever that diagnosis is, and I think you hear that term a lot, but just there's a good example of what that means.

- I think that's the advantage of Trillium Place is we have those four levels of care.

So the goal is to have people transition no matter how they enter our system of care that they would be able to move through those systems of care with whatever their needs are at that time.

So for some people it's, I need to go and see a therapist for a short time.

I've had a life stressor that's really challenged me, and I may need even some medication to help support that all the way to our clients who may need to be hospitalized for a short time to deal with a very intense crisis or a life-threatening element of their mental illness.

So the uniqueness about Trillium is that our goal and our work really is geared towards meeting those individuals where they are and making sure that we wrap care around them wherever they are in their journey to wellness.

- Yeah, and I think the other thing too is this isn't a one size program fits all type thing.

Every person's an individualized program.

So you actually, this is all well said, because you were taking my next question, by the way.

Because you go in and you have four different pockets of services.

And you could sit here and you could be part of this pocket over here, but also need some help over here.

And that was my whole point is you really don't know until the pros, the professionals step in and help you with your, I guess, medical pathway, so to speak.

Something I love to talk about and I'm a big backer of is the Young Minds Project.

So if you haven't heard of it, shame on you because this is going to actually change the way behavioral health and mental health is looked at in all of Illinois and maybe even the country.

Am I right?

- That's our goal.

Our goal really is to be a national model.

I think some of the assets and the resources we have in Central Illinois position us nicely to achieve that goal.

One is a community support.

I've been involved in de novo projects in other communities and I would say that hands down, Peoria has been the most welcoming.

Every time I talk about Young Minds, people, they open up, their faces light up.

They're like "we need this so much.

We're so happy that you're doing this work".

There's a benefit to the community as well even if you're not attached to the service in any way by the purchase of Heddington Oaks and repurposing that facility for such a wonderful project.

So the West Peoria neighborhood, I have to give a shout out to them, they've been just absolutely amazing and wonderful to work with.

So we're very excited about that.

Really what we'll do with that project is basically double the number of hospital beds that we have to serve children.

It'll be a facility designed just for children.

There's a lot that goes into that design and development of the facility.

Some of the key features we have are outdoor space, indoor space for a gymnasium.

We have art therapy, we'll have spiritual rooms, green space, it's gonna be fabulous.

And then beyond that will be our programming and how we approach care.

The the philosophy that we're still working on in developing but really is to have those inpatient units be like a home base.

And then the treatment is provided off unit, attempting to emulate a normal routine for a child and try to normalize and really have a little bit different approach to how we actually deliver that care.

And we also have the goal of expanding our outpatient offerings to include a partial hospitalization or an intensive outpatient program.

And that's kind of a mouthful.

But basically those programs are for kiddos who may need a little bit more support than just an office visit once a week to see a therapist or the doctor.

But their symptoms are a little bit needing a little bit more attention than that but they don't necessarily need to be hospitalized, or someone's coming, just discharging from the hospital.

But we wanna make sure that all of their symptoms are well-managed and they're well-suited to succeed and fully transition into their community life at home.

- Yeah, when we first met, I was running Children's Home and there was always, in our area as a whole state, a lack of beds.

And basically what that means to the person who's not knowledgeable in this area is there's a lot of kids that need treatment and there's no beds to be able, there's no rooms for these kids.

There's no help.

And so I continue to stay on this authority.

It's the residential and community authority for the state and the governors.

And I was on a call just yesterday and talking about the lack of beds.

And I chimed in and I said "what's amazing about it is we've been talking about this now for as long as I can remember".

And the first thing that popped in my head knowing that I was going to be speaking to you today was that this is going to start filling the gaps.

So there's a lot of people who will sit here, and I'm just gonna give my opinion on something because I think it's important for people to know that the Heddington Oaks project, people will sit there and maybe try to find and poke holes in it.

But let me just say this, the facility itself, when it's all said and done, will actually be beneficial and trickle down to things that the average person will never know.

They will never know.

And so when you take the footprint of that area and you put this Young Minds project in there along with all the other collaborative efforts in town, it is going to be mind blowing of what potentially.

And you get a front row pilot seat to this.

- It's so exciting.

It's really an honor.

It's such an honor to be involved in the project.

And it's just an honor and a privilege.

I think the other thing I would say is that I'm really proud of the organization that I work for because we're leaning into this problem.

And I think healthcare is a challenged industry right now.

It just is.

And yet we continue to say we're gonna embrace this community need, we're going to lean into this problem and do our best to meet the need.

So it's a wonderful, exciting opportunity.

- And when this all started, I know previous CEO Debbie Simon who was a great, great person, and she had some great vision in helping the kids and our community.

And then when Dr. Keith Nepp stepped in as CEO, he's even taking those reins and saying "you know what, let's take it to a whole nother level too".

And that's exactly what Debbie would've wanted.

But you've got someone who I'm gonna say is probably one of the better CEOs in the country guiding this.

And then again, you get to have a front row seat because he can kick open some doors.

And what you said earlier about Peoria is interesting because as a fundraiser in my past positions, I do see that about Peoria.

But it's also Bloomington, Galesburg.

It's really Central Illinois in general.

Very, very sweet when it comes to the empathy towards giving to what's needed.

- The generosity and the gratitude of the community for the work that we're doing is just, it's inspiring.

I feel a responsibility to do the best we can out of gratitude for that support that we have here locally.

And standing on the shoulders of Debbie and Keith in terms of the work that we're doing and the vision that they have and the compassion that they have is just another source of inspiration for all of us in this project.

- And you've got Mike Eunice with the foundation and he's sitting there, he knows how to do a few things too.

You know what also too is I got to tour Heddington Oaks a couple years ago when this project was coming, was maybe even just at the beginnings.

And no one even knew what they were talking about.

But as I was touring it, I thought, "man, there's gonna have to be a lot of work done".

But I think that was refreshing to hear that you don't want to take that traditional mental health unit thought process.

Like you think of cold and gray and just, those are just analogies, but that's what you think.

Everything you talked about from the green space to the gyms, to chefs cooking, all those different things, they all add to the process.

- What's really unique is that it's a very child-centric facility, so we can just do everything that would be pleasing and soothing to a child and to their families to welcome them into the space and to really provide that healing touch.

- And the reason why I mentioned Bloomington and Galesburg and other places is as you think about it, this isn't just for Peoria.

- No, no.

- And that's a misconception, there's gonna be some out-of-town families that are coming in and utilizing this facility, again, which we need in this state.

- We do.

- I love it.

I love it.

And there's a lot of kids too.

Like we had some kids, there's Asperger's and there's all these other types of diagnoses that who's gonna treat these kids?

And so let me ask you something.

It always bothers me and I already know the answer, but I just gotta keep asking it is, are we still struggling with getting psychiatrists and RNs and people in these positions?

We need people to understand if you live in Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, you wanna migrate out, come to Peoria, because we've got a facility for you.

- So I have some good news to share that we've got.

And really, here's the approach that I've used with several candidates that we've had present themselves with interest in our community.

I've said "if you want a big city, if you want Chicago, if you want St. Louis, you want Indianapolis, you probably shouldn't look at Peoria.

But if you want a mid-size city with a great quality of life, low cost of living, all of the things that we all appreciate living here, this is your place".

The other thing that's been really exciting is that we have been able to recruit some of our residents from our psychiatry residency practices.

So one that's graduating this year is going to join the University of Illinois College of Medicine here in Peoria on our psychiatry team.

We have one of our other physicians from that same class who will be taking over our geriatric psychiatry unit audit proctor.

We have a third year resident that is also committed once she graduates the following year.

And we're in negotiations with two other physicians from that, they're what we would call our third year resident.

So we're starting to see a turn in that tide of the residents being interested in staying here locally, which is so exciting.

And I think we're gonna continue to build a positive momentum there.

- If you think about it too, it's a marketing and branding ploy too, right?

It's almost like the stories need to be told because you actually, Dr. Shanderson, she runs the college and she's sitting there and you have all of these people going through all of these great curriculums and classes, but how do we keep them in Peoria?

- So we have, we're working right now on fine-tuning our recruitment plan, and that involves a real close collaboration with Dr. Shanderson.

She and I have been working really closely together on RNs and CNAs and all of the healthcare professionals.

Then we're looking at all the local community colleges and colleges to make sure that we're in front of those graduating classes.

We're offering them internships and meeting with Bradley next week to strengthen that relationship.

There's just a general knowledge, of course, that locally we need this talent and we're gonna have to continue to be very aggressive, remove as many barriers as possible.

Really one of the things that we've been really focused on as an organization is how can we take that, for example, a CNA that's graduating, how can we encourage that person maybe to get their licensed practical nurse onto their RN, maybe even an advanced practitioner or a physician.

How can we take people, that Bachelor's level psychology or social work student, give them an internship, support them through their educational process?

So we're really looking at ways to attract talent at whatever entry point they make into our system and then create that environment where we support their career, support their overall life, their wellbeing, all their career aspirations that we can attend to.

And when you look at Trillium Place and the span of services we have and the range, it's a great place to land.

And that's actually been a draw for some of our psychiatry residents and psychiatry recruits.

They see the benefit of that comprehensive system of care and the collaboration, even the ability to change focus and practice if they say "oh, I wanna start out on inpatient, but maybe that's not what I thought" or "I started in the community and I wanna transition into an inpatient setting", we can help people kind of navigate those changes in their careers.

The same for our entry level staff.

They may wanna go a clinical path or a leadership path.

We're trying to develop some comprehensive approaches to meet that workforce demand.

- So loved hearing that because a lot of times I had this, I remember this discussion with Dr. Sarah Rush at UICOM years ago.

Someone comes in and let's say they are a CNA and that's their goal, but you have to give that person a path, a dream, a vision to say you can do more.

And maybe they don't want to, but if they do, we're gonna give you that opportunity.

And that's evolved over the past five plus years.

It wasn't typically like that.

- I was talking with some friends the other day about, actually it was a physician recruit that we were doing and we were talking about this recruit's partner and they grew up in Colorado.

And I said "when I graduated as a nurse from Luther College in 1986, I wanted to move to Colorado".

Well believe it or not, I could not get a job as a graduate nurse in 1986 anywhere in Colorado.

It was competitive, so it's just how much the market has changed.

But I think we have had to shift our thinking then over the years as to how do we respond to the changes in our workforce.

And so we're gonna have to continue to evolve that as things change.

- And that's true because I go back to thinking about my mom as a nurse.

I mean, it's, it was very competitive.

And pay was low.

- Yes, and you were glad that you got that graveyard shift job.

- Matter of fact, I'd always say, and this is I guess not probably the right thing to say to somebody that works in the hospital system, but I'd always say the nurses do more than the doctors it seemed like, because my mom was always doing something.

- Well, what the reality is is that everybody has a different role and those nurses have the most time at the bedside, so to speak, they really do.

- So when you think of the Young Minds project, you think of a facility, but it's really, it's the future of our kids.

You hear all the time the kids are our future, the kids are our future.

And people don't even know what that means anymore, but they really are.

And so this gives people an opportunity to get help.

And I'm not saying I know the strategy, but I guess the strategy if I was in Dr. Nepp's position would be we don't want to turn away anybody.

- I think what you touch on is very important because we know children are resilient.

But they're also under a lot of stress these days.

Stresses that we've not seen that we didn't deal with growing up.

So they're under a lot of stress, but they're also very resilient.

But we have to get them services.

We have to reach out to them, be where they are.

We have to support families as well when families are stressed, children are stressed.

So the more we can do and the earlier we can do it, the more benefit to society.

I was thinking about another project I was involved with that included child and adolescent services, and the doctor that I worked with at that time was describing in her certificate of need application a young girl, she was a teenager, I don't remember what age, who was in a rural emergency department for days.

I think she was there for seven days before we could admit her.

And the regression that that young woman had before he was able to treat complicated her course of care, her course of treatment, and actually her long-term outcomes.

So that's where we feel the calling is to intervene as soon as we know what's going on to support parents to know when to reach out for help, all of those things are gonna benefit our whole society.

- I've heard cases in different states and in this state where kids have been in the emergency room three week, four weeks.

- It's really devastating when you hear those statistics.

And a lot of times I won't read the articles in the media because it's so devastating.

- I read them because it ticks me off.

It's really why I was in my career and my job for so long.

I think I told you that when I first met you you have to go into this and there has to be an edge in you where you're sitting here, competitive piece where you go, "I'm going to conquer this for these kids".

Why am I doing what I'm doing?

- Exactly.

That's why we get out of bed every day.

It's what keeps us going.

- You wanna bust through a wall and make sure.

So one last question, Carle.

So when you look at the system, it's based here in Illinois.

That's probably, I'm just predicting the future, really going to help in terms of Trillium place because you're going to be able to sit here and tap if you have to Bloomington and Danville and Champaign, and all these other places where Carle's located, am I right?

- Oh, exactly.

We're so excited about it because we'll be able to expand that continuum of care down the I74 corridor down in the downstate.

The resources that they have and the resources we have will be very complimentary.

It's just, it's so exciting.

And the Carle teams have been just amazing.

- Well I just wanted to tell you, I couldn't wait for you to come on because I love this project, I love what you do.

You have a great team, so keep it up.

Keep me in mind if you ever need anything because I want this community be the best.

Thank you Mary for coming in.

- Thank you Matt.

- I'm Matt George and this is another episode of "Business Forward".

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