Hey everyone,
I began this journey as a consultant working within the Alliance a little over 2 years ago. Every day I feel like a student who asks myself, "where do we want to see the direction of this business go?" Honestly, I still don’t have a straightforward answer.
In such a short space of time, I have learnt more from our clients than taught; I will be the first to admit that.
Similarly, the world of mental health continually evolves and the need to reshape and adjust as practitioners is always something that requires adaptation.
We do see our clients (the practitioner) as needing to change their primary focus to achieve sustainable growth and this creates a feeling like you’re on a never-ending merry-go-round: (recruitment-referrals-processes-clinical governance-self care-repeat).
This has led me and my team to continually challenge each other as students and consultants to reshape our business. We try to encourage those we speak with about continuing the development of needing to stay at the forefront of our industry and open oneself to any opportunities that arise.
This student-like approach has taught us to listen more than talk and to discuss more than instruct. This process alone teaches us the most valuable asset we document: knowledge. Real industry experience.
Our industry is growing by the minute and this has also changed the way we express and communicate sensitive information. Language matters – you won’t hear using the words –‘KPI, retention, cancellation policy’ just to name a few.
Personally, I have been in touch with many practice owners as well as psychologists over the past 15 years and I'm still gaining an understanding of how and why you work the way you do. Every practice and practitioner are situated somewhere in the journey of change and evolvement. The cycle begins with the practitioner having an idea of change that they’ve been thinking about for the last decade which they haven't had either the time or the formula to roll the out the concept.
We believe all learnings and knowledge through our journey should be shared with every one and this is why we have created a community in which we want to share with you.
Within this community, we’ve created an interface in which practice owners, contractors, and solo-practitioners can obtain information around all facets of best practice within private practice. Think Wikipedia for private practices. All of this knowledge is helping to drive the needed change in our industry.
One tool that we love is our private practice stress test.
The stress test is simple, it’s a multiple-choice - yes/no, 1-5 low/high, which you fill out, submit and you're provided with ideas on ways to elevate your practice.
The tool has been created to help better understand how your practice is placed against your peers, to obtain the ‘best practice’ label as well as make you question what you truly know about what you’ve built within your business and where you may have “stressors”.
Stay curious as we aren’t directly asking you to answer anything too invasive, but the questions will provoke you to think laterally.
What we ask of you is simple, complete and register. What does this actually mean for you? Real usable information that provides you with the how-to. The knowledge you can implement. Enjoy!