Today we’d like to introduce you to Madeleine Y. Gomez, Ph.D.
PsycHealth was founded in 1989 by Dr. Madeleine Y. Gomez. At the time, Dr. Gomez was a newly minted clinical psychologist from Northwestern University Medical School and had her sights on leadership in warmer climates. She was moonlighting for Chicago HMO, one of the original health maintenance organizations and was asked to submit a proposal for running their mental health services. She was known as a tireless worker with clinical compassion that drew her to always accepting the most complex cases including those with violence and abuse issues. Through the therapeutic relationships Dr. Gomez formed with those under her care, health, healing and wellness soon followed. As such, her experience and commitment to people and non-violence positioned her uniquely for Chicago HMO’s members. As she had recently completed a paper that paralleled the proposal question, she submitted an 80 page document that detailed her vision of a mental health system that would place the member as the most important part of the treatment team.
Times were different back then and while the medical director shared that her proposal was by far the best, there were concerns that she was young and female. Dr. Gomez noted that both these assertions were unquestionably correct and accepted that the mental health services management would be awarded to her and two other vendors. Within a matter of a few short years, the other vendors eliminated themselves, leaving Dr. Gomez and PsycHealth with responsibility for all of the members. PsycHealth initially started in the basement of Dr. Gomez’s home with one Mac for operational data and then shortly thereafter, one assistant was added with a total of two Macs.
PsycHealth has grown since that time and has been responsible for over 300,000 lives. During challenging times, the organization has shrunk. Being nimble and responsive are both necessary for surviving as an independent organization. Additionally, PsycHealth has always kept pace with what Dr. Gomez calls the “big boys” – the huge corporate player who dominate the field of healthcare.
Throughout her career, Dr. Gomez and PsycHealth have been positioned against all forms of violence and abuse.
Dr. Gomez’ beliefs, now supported by the literature and research, are reflected in PsycHealth’s mission which underline that mental health and even physical health are damaged by abuse and violence. PsycHealth continues to do pro bono work in the area of violence reduction especially corporal punishment and Dr. Gomez cheerfully reports that, “When I started doing presentations in the community about raising kids with positive parenting and no hitting, I often encountered hostile audiences who were not open to that message much less the possibility of a violence-free home. Now, decades later, 42 countries have abolished corporal punishment of children. Sadly, the United States is not one of them.” Dr. Gomez continues, “If we are ever to have a more peaceful world, it will need to begin in the home.”
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The field of mental health or behavioral health as it now more commonly called is never easy. On most days, working with and connecting the members to the best and most appropriate services is the most fulfilling part of the work. Interfacing with the ever-increasing set of rules, regulations, expectations, statistics and reporting seems to add new challenges each year. The interface of finances as related to services continues as additional hurdles. It remains essential to remember that funds are finite and that these monies must use and stretched to provide the members with the tools to support their health, wellness and stabilization. Behavioral health services can take time but should not necessarily take forever. Members should be empowered through compassion and with insight and techniques that can be used across a life span for optimal health, adaptation and surviving the inevitable and often unpredictable crises that arise for individuals.
Perhaps the greatest challenge exists in continuing as an independent and minority-women owned and certified business. As the field continues with larger and larger conglomerates with subsidiaries, PsycHealth remains committed to its independent status while parallels the refusal to look at humans as strictly walking dollar signs. Effective services support that members improve which in turn positively impacts families, communities and society. Dr. Gomez believes that as an organization increases in size, the atmosphere can change which then reduces compassion as well as efficiencies.
In ongoing attempts to ever improve, PsycHealth has risen to the challenges of accreditation and has achieved both URAC and NCQA behavioral health accreditation.
Please tell us about PsycHealth.
Dr. Gomez is a licensed, bilingual, bicultural clinical psychologist with specialties in abuse and violence, children and families, Latino and minority issues and sex therapy.
As the President of PsycHealth, I am proudest of my team. We are a multi-lingual, multi-cultural team with expertise in care coordination, complex care and substance abuse. Each day, the PsycHealth team does the extraordinary in connecting people with services with compassion and speedy responsivity. They not only serve the members, they live the mission in each interaction and in their personal lives as well. This can especially be seen in how each individual that joins the PsycHealth team continues to develop themselves professionally and educationally. To watch people grow and invest in themselves as they are awarded advanced degrees and experience provides a sense of fulfillment for both the individual as well as the team as they model to others what it is like to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. PsycHealth strives to be as committed to the members as well as to each person on the team.
As an independent minority and woman’s operated business, we’ve had to be twice as good and twice as fast at half the price to counter the reality that big businesses like to do business with big business.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
One of the areas that has impacted PsycHealth has been corporate take-overs of the companies for whom we were providing services. Upon the buy-out, the new corporation would have one of their own companies assume the work we were doing.
While this may make good business sense, this disrupted care for members which as related impacted their progress and stability. In a world with such turn-over, it would be ideal to have a stable behavioral health team over the long term. However, this has not been the case. While a short-term fix for PsycHealth as a business, contracting could have been written with longer and no-cut terms (except for gross violations). Is big business the best vehicle to connect with individuals around their mental health issues?
Contact Info:
- Website: www.psychealthltd.com
- Phone: 800-753-5456
- Email: mgomez@psychealthltd.com
Image Credit:
Dr. Madeleine Y. Gomez
Dr. Madeleine Y. Gomez with support team Judy Brown, former COO of Chicago HMO (right) Olga Padilla, RN, Executive Director, Independent Health Resources (left) and husband Javier at PsycHealth, ltd.’s 25th Anniversary Party in 2014.
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