North Star Conversations Transcript: The First Call—Matching Families With the Right Support | Mind Chicago
David Meyerson explains how Mind Chicago uses the first phone call to truly understand a family’s needs‚ sometimes recommending parent coaching or PCIT instead of traditional child therapy.
Brandon Gimbel (00:00)
One of the things that I think is unique about MIND is that you have so many different entry points. People are calling you for, I imagine, a number of different reasons. And I'm not sure they're necessarily expecting a recommendation ultimately for PCIT or PMT. A lot of times families are coming in with a troubled child and they're saying, "look, my child is acting out, they're behaving in this way and we need to get them help." And so I'm wondering, How does all the communication happen? If they're coming in for treatment for the child, how do they end up getting a recommendation for parent coaching or parent training?
David Meyerson (00:38)
Like you said, people call in for any number of reasons and often are calling for a service that they think that they are supposed to get or were referred for, but not necessarily knowing all of the services that we provide or if the service that they're calling for actually aligns with what their concern is, the problem they're having or the questions that they have about their child. Our first touch point is questions to get a sense of why are you calling? How can we help? And for us to determine, okay, is what they're asking for aligned with what they need? I might say: "Here's three options that I think any reasonable person might take. One might be doing an evaluation, but it can also make sense to go to a psychiatrist right away. Talk about ADHD. And with therapy, I think you bring up a good question. A lot of people aren't calling in thinking about parent coaching or PCIT specifically. Most people have never heard of PCIT or PMT. So part of the conversation is talking with families of, "How old is your child and what is the questions or needs that you have?" And then we say, "For the concerns you're having, the most effective way that we can be helpful is by working more directly with parents. And here are some of the ways in which we do that. Doing one-on-one therapy might not get you where you want to go."