60 Years of Community Health: What Aspire Indiana Built and Why It Works | Dianna Huddleston

[0:00]  Many of our communities don't even have public transportation. And so I might have a ride to the doctor's office, but now how am I going to get to the pharmacy? Well, I don't have to worry about that anymore. It's a barrier buster. [music] Uh because the pharmacy is now inside the doctor's office. The second piece for me is that pharmacist becomes a part of your treatment team. They're going to the same staff meetings. They're in the same medical record. They're part of the morning huddles discussing who's coming in for the day. Uh, and you get a really great service and a relationship with that pharmacist that you're not going to get at a large chain pharmacy where they don't know you. They you hand them a script, they [music] fill it for you, do you have any questions? But they're not really connected to your treatment. Um, [music] and that makes a big difference for the people that we serve. Welcome back to another episode here on the Horn and Hustle podcast. My next guest, Diana, is in the house. Miss Diana, what organization do you represent and what is your title?

[1:22]  Thank you so much for having me. My name is Diana Huddleston. I serve as the vice president of community partnerships for Aspire Indiana Health.

[1:31]  Love that. And how long have you been doing this?

[1:33]  I um have been with Aspire for 12 years. I've been in my current role for almost two now.

[1:40]  Two. Listen, very um I would say one of those lanes that you're in is it's all about passion and purpose. Where did that all resonate from? Where was that all started?

[1:50]  That passion and purpose. What you do? My mother said I was born a social worker. Uh I uh I have I have always had a passion for others and um making sure that they're seen. I I did go to school um as to become a social worker. I'm a licensed clinical social worker. I I practiced clinically for several years. Um, and I also had a vision for myself that I could in management and in clinical leadership and now in the role that I'm serving now as a community partnership connector um that I could help more people by having a bigger role uh and being able to make sure that voices were heard and that uh and that I could bring voices forward that maybe didn't have an opportunity to speak for themselves or to have the audiences that I could have to be able to make sure that they were heard.

[2:52]  I love that. And and what you mentioned before uh we were talking uh earlier was you don't just serve the child,

[3:00]  right?

[3:00]  That's right.

[3:01]  How early le kind of about systems?

[3:04]  I started out my career um as uh a clinical social worker as a um child and adolescent therapist. And sure, you see kids in your office all day. You're working with them through the things that they're dealing with in their family, school settings. Um, but you don't just serve that child. That child comes with a set of adults. Uh, it come they come with a a set of educators, community folks that are around them. Their faith-based community is surrounding them. And you have to have these connections with everyone. Uh, and you have to be able to serve and have an understanding of where that child's going in the morning. What classroom are they in? Who are they speaking to all day long? Who are they connecting to in the evenings? uh and it it helped me early on in my career and I hope others will hear this is that you may be serving one person that your identified patient client but they come with a whole village of folks that you need to have an understanding about and connection with.

[4:14]  I agree. I agree. um you know I'm in that space of helping others and what I really it is really takes a village

[4:23]  you know I I work with um a high school and yes I get to speak and we're talking to alumni that graduated in the 70s are still giving back you know 10 20 30 years later and has have been because they understand and they still live in the community they understand how important it is right to impact the school and what happens when the school does well and the community does well and the kids start to feel you you know what and it all because everybody was impacted. It wasn't just a student, right? We're we're helping from all levels. Um and then yesterday I remember that uh you know I went through some things in my life and I felt school for me was that teacher those teachers that see me for who I was

[5:00]  right um not for the person that I was be at that moment. Um so it it definitely everywhere we all have to be a a part of that especially in our young kids' lives you know because it's not about us it's it's about our our young kids. Um, and I like this. I love this. I love this. You're you're you told me this as well. You're clinically trained unicorn is what it was.

[5:22]  I am. I It is an It's an unusual position for me to be in as a licensed clinical social worker, right? Usually you the people that are in my current role, people that I meet are uh business management, right? They have MBAs. They they they've studied marketing. uh and I am different in that while I am a licensed clinical social worker, I think because of all those early experiences I had and understanding that I had to make connections in the community, I got really good at that too. And I think um and that I'm an extrovert. A lot of people in social work are more introverted. They like the one-on-one. Uh I like being out and about. I love a good meeting. Uh, I love being in the community. I wa I love watching the group dynamics. And so then what I can bring is for all those business-minded folks that I might be meeting in the community, I can talk their language. I can make connections with them, but I also help them understand uh that that clinical knowledge of the people that we're serving and how they can help us and and then also bring to life. with those voices and helping the business community understand the people I'm serving are probably your employees. They're your customers. They're the people that you're connecting with in the community. And it it all matters.

[6:55]  Yeah. And Aspire serving 40,000 clients, I believe you you mentioned last time.

[7:00]  Yes. Everything from behavioral health to employment, which makes it a different model. Like how does this model work and why does it work? Um, I think it it works really well for us. We have um two really large designations. We have other designations, but the first two are that we are a federally qualified health care center, which means we can be your doctor. We can be your primary care. We can now offer you some specialty services. We can offer pharmacy. Uh, and that's not all you need. So, we are also a community mental health center where we can be your therapist. Uh we can uh work with you if you need psychotropic medications to help manage some of the mental health issues that you're dealing with. Uh we can be your care coordinators. We can be your life skills instructor. Uh we can help you with housing. We can be your landlord. We we can help make sure that you are connected to entitlements that you might be eligible for. Um we can be your employment coach. We can help you with a resume. We can walk alongside you as you're making that first step into getting back into employment. And we can help you make sure that you are able to have the employment at the highest level of which your recovery can tolerate. Um so many people that we work with are undermployed and we want to help them continue to be successful and grow in their employment uh journey. Uh and all of that works by us seeing you as a whole person. Uh so I I love our model and our mission of meeting you where you are but also seeing you as a whole person. And it's not just that you're a diagnosis um or that you have this medical condition. You have those things while you're a community member, an employee. Uh trying to raise your own family and making sure that we can meet you there um really makes a difference.

[9:18]  You said undermployed for those that may like what does she mean Diana but by unemployed? So undermployed may mean that I actually have two years of college, maybe I have an associates degree and I'm working in fast food. Um because that's where I could get in um because of maybe the recovery that I'm going through, the mental health issues that I've been dealing with. Uh, and so what I want you to do is be able to maintain that employment and at the same time we're going to work with you to make sure that if you have an associates degree um, in business or marketing uh, or a medical assistant, I'm going to help you work towards getting experience and getting employed in that way, too. Um, the other thing that can happen is that people find part-time jobs when they're really able to work a full-time job. So, let's work towards what can we do to make sure that we get you into a full-time employment situation.

[10:20]  Yeah. No, it makes a lot of sense. And with so many different lanes that you guys are offering as well, 40,000 people that you times that by maybe two, three, you're really serving a a lot of individuals. How do you communicate some of these things? Do you ever feel like there's a lack of maybe communication in in someone saying, "Hey, you're here for this, but we actually have, you know, all these different umbrellas." Yeah, it starts really for us with our same day access. We really try to have this notion of no wrong door. So, just come see us, right? We're going to talk with you. We're going to learn about you. We're going to do what we call an initial assessment and we're going to outline for you what with your support what we think is going to be beneficial for you and where you'd like to start. uh and then we can start to offer those services and uh you know somebody may come to our door and they're like I need housing. I need someplace to live for my family. You know we're struggling and so that's where we start. It doesn't mean that I also don't want to take your blood pressure and I want to make sure that you're physically okay. Um, it doesn't mean that eventually I also want to connect you to a therapist to work on maybe some trauma that I'm recognizing that you're experiencing. Uh, and but I'm going to start. You want housing. Let's start there. Right? You're looking to try to have somebody help you get back into employment. Okay, let's start there. But while our team is working with you and doing that piece, we're also helping to guide you and offer other services that we can provide as well. One of the services that you were really excited about u mentioning the last time that we spoke the first time we spoke actually was about um embedding that that pharmacy within the clinics like what kind of impact does that make on the client and does the outcome and the trust like there's so many different factors that that happen just

[12:17]  I think that's one of our our newest endeavors is that we we've recently opened two of our ownies right inside our clinic um for us it made a lot of sense to own and operate our ownies. We were able to work with a really great partner to help us do that. Uh but those are Aspirearmacies right inside our clinic. So you walk into our clinic, you're in the waiting room, there's the pharmacy window. So a couple of things. Um transportation is always an issue. Many of our communities don't even have public transportation. And so I might have a ride to the doctor's office, but now how am I going to get to the pharmacy? Well, I don't have to worry about that anymore. It's a barrier buster uh because the pharmacy is now inside the doctor's office. The second piece for me is that pharmacist becomes a part of your treatment team. They're going to the same staff meetings. They're in the same medical record. They're part of the morning huddles discussing who's coming in for the day. uh and you get a really great service and a relationship with that pharmacist that you're not going to get at a large chain pharmacy where they don't know you. They you hand them a script, they fill it for you, do you have any questions, but they're not really connected to your treatment. Um and that makes a big difference for the people that we serve. It also allows us because of our designations that I mentioned um to be able to offer some discounted uh pharmacy costs through some federal programs that we are able to connect with um and then to pass those on to folks. We're also able to offer free courier service. So I we've had our couriers meet you in a parking lot, meet you at your office, um meet you at your home to make sure that you get your meds on time.

[14:19]  Wow.

[14:19]  And that makes a huge difference to our patients.

[14:23]  100%. How many locations do you guys have currently?

[14:26]  Um currently, uh we serve six counties in central Indiana. We have eight clinics. Um, two of our clinics have pharmacy, but anyone in any of our offices, we can connect to our pharmacist and then we can deliver those meds to you.

[14:45]  Wow. Wow. Um, how many years have you been now with Aspire? I think you

[14:48]  I've been with Aspire. It'll be 12 years in April.

[14:51]  So, you must have seen a lot of growth. I mean, even to the pharmacy, like that's a huge impact for the community.

[14:56]  Right. When I came to Aspire, we were not a federally qualified healthcare center. So, we were a a traditional community mental health center and we had very large housing and employment programs uh that were terrific. But what we saw, what was lacking is our patients needed medical care. They needed that continuity. They needed that integrated model. And so, we worked really hard to get that designation. Um, and then to to open those clinics, we're on our seventh, eighth year now of of being a federally qualified healthc care lookalike. And um, and to have that integration um, and if you've ever had the experience of trying to have two of your doctors have a conversation with each other, it's not easy. But again, they're in the same space, they share the same medical record, they're going to the same staff meetings, you get better care.

[16:04]  Yeah.

[16:04]  I mean, for real, like it's a team effort, right? Like when you talk about two different doctors that are now on the same team, of course, it becomes a little difficult, but you're telling me we're all on the same team. We all have the same mission. I can imagine like I just love hearing that. Like I can imagine everything's there as you mentioned. Every one I don't have to go to another place. I could just go one place, get my my prescriptions, saving gas money, saving time. Oh, man. Saving a headache.

[16:28]  That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

[16:31]  And and you kind of mentioned um you know, really the need still of the community. The community is in a tough time as well when it comes to just funding, right? Are you guys being affected by that or have you guys there's some organizations that said you know we're not affected because we weren't always focused on these certain type of grants? Um but where you guys standing in in this kind of

[16:55]  it's it is difficult times for sure. I think that we've done a good job in positioning ourselves in that we are very diverse. We do have a very robust grant team. They're writing many grants a month. Um, we have local, state, federal, but because of our designations, we're also able to uh get some federal funding, state funding, local, county funding. Uh, and then, uh, because we can take all insuranceances including Medicaid, Medicare, we can bill for some of the services, uh, but we also don't turn anyone away, right? And so that's when those that other funding, those grants come into place because if you came in our doors and you had no ability to pay, we're going to work with you. We're going to figure it out. Um, and we're going to work have you work with navigators to see what entitlements you might be eligible for, but we're going to serve you. And that's how that comes. Now, it's great that we're diversified and we've seen some federal funding dry up. We've seen federal funding be cut one day and then reopen the next day this year. Um we we've seen um the states take uh a step back so they can re-evaluate where they want to go. And of course that affects us and we have to strategically as leadership make really strong decisions to continue to make ourselves be able to serve our community. and and we've made some good decisions so that we um have we have not stopped any programming. We're continuing to serve. We're continuing to grow, but we have to be really smart about it.

[18:44]  Yeah. I I honestly, and tell me if I'm kind of losing it here, the pandemic made us think differently, right? Made us really pivot and shift. And I think we're in a space as well where we come out this stronger because we have to pivot and shift, right? As you mentioned, we got to get strategic as leaders. We got to really, you know, put on our our our big boy and girl pants on and say, "Hey, we got to do this for us

[19:11]  for for our community." Am I am I missing something here? Are we not going to come out of this thing?

[19:15]  No, I think you're absolutely right. I think as horrible as the pandemic was, there were some really great lessons that came out of it and the way that we all think and that we do our work um really changed. Uh for example, Aspire um has really been technology forward thinking for a really long time. We had the ability to do virtual visits. We had the ability to connect from any device anywhere at any time, right? And to be able to have our patients connect. Before the pandemic, we were probably doing about five virtual visits a week, our systemwide.

[20:00]  Once that pandemic hit, we sent our employees home. We said, "Come to your offices, get all your gear, get yourself set up." that next week we saw 3,000 people virtually, right? And we were able to do that and get people connected and now we continue to work in that hybrid space um because that's what some of our patients need. And it's also allowed us to have to offer things to employees that we couldn't offer before in terms of where you live, how you connect with us, how you can be a part of Aspire, and maybe not even live in the state of Indiana. Um, and I think the same thing is true now. I think you're absolutely right because these are unprecedented times and we're all trying to figure out and learn. I think there'll be more opportunities for partnership. I think there'll be more opportunities for entities to come together and recognize we're stronger together than competing with one another.

[21:04]  Absolutely.

[21:05]  Yeah.

[21:06]  If the Heart and Hustle podcast has ever sparked any idea or made you think differently, do us a favor. Make sure to guys share this, post it on LinkedIn, or even text that nonprofit friend that you just have. Whatever works. This is what keeps the conversation going and allows us to just grow this community together. Seriously, we appreciate you. I agree. Um, you seem so like cool, relaxed, and chill. How are you leading a team when there's all these external pressures, right? The federal policy. We talked about grants, which I think you guys are doing well because not a lot of people have these multiple grant writers. Um, but yeah, I feel like you guys are really shifting in the right direction. How do you stay under pressure? Um well it you have to work at it. I think I'm very lucky to work with a a very missiondriven senior leadership team um executive team and that we all come from a place where we know the most important thing is to continue to serve our communities and the people because they're they're my neighbors. They're my friends. They're my family that we want to continue to be able to serve. And so we just keep trying to figure out how to do that. And then I do think it's about a work life balance and you I think Aspire has done a really nice job of being really clear that while we have really hard jobs, we also have to have work life balance. We have a whole well-being department. They they won three awards last year um for the work that they've done to try to support employees at every level um to to develop that work life balance. We we're a company of helpers and helpers are not always great about helping themselves and taking care of themselves and we really focus on that

[22:59]  and I try to be a model for that uh and making sure that I'm doing what I need to do to take care of myself so that I can always show up with this 110%. And it doesn't work every day, but that's what I go for.

[23:16]  Yeah. We're not perfect. We're not perfect.

[23:18]  That's right. Um h how many how many employees does this organization have? I mean with all these different uh

[23:23]  Yeah, we're just um around 950 I think.

[23:27]  Wow.

[23:28]  Yeah.

[23:28]  Yeah, that's a lot. Where were you when you guys started?

[23:32]  Where was I?

[23:33]  Like number-wise, like how what was the staff number?

[23:35]  Oh, when I started at Aspire, it was around 300 and something. Yeah. So, you've seen a lot of girls. It's it's grown tremendously in this last decade um because of the different designations and because we added some counties um because we really made a strategic point about making sure that we could develop our crisis services, our same day access services um so that when people are ready for help, we're ready to accept you.

[24:05]  Yep. I I ask you, you mentioned that work life balance. Is there anything outside of work that you love to do that maybe the team at Aspire doesn't even know that you do? Like, are we singing? Are we gardening? What are we doing, Diana?

[24:19]  Um, I I love to do arts and crafts. Uh, I am a quilter. I love to quilt. Um, I I love to be outside. I'm a big camper. I love hiking. I love walking. Um, I uh I I love to build a fire in the backyard. [laughter] Okay. You You've been able to do that a lot now with these cold uh days, huh?

[24:43]  Well, it's pretty cold for that. But [laughter] as soon as spring is really here, I'll be getting my fire pit out. [laughter]

[24:51]  Love it. Love it. Yeah. Yeah. My neighbor, he literally just bought a fire pit. I mean, we're in Florida, so it got about 50 degrees. You could do a fire pit in 50 degrees, right?

[24:58]  Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

[25:00]  I smell this fire. I go across. I'm like, "What are you doing?" He's like, "Well, I bought this on marketplace. It could be too long before, you know, I got to just put it up back away." And I'm like, "You're right." And we're just sitting there next to this fire pit like flidians. Like we're just so weird. [laughter] In shorts, by the way, you know?

[25:14]  Right. Right. Yeah. We don't have short weather yet. [laughter]

[25:17]  I love it. Oh, man. You know, it was crazy weather, but now it's it's what is it? 82 degrees and sunny. What is it over there where you guys are?

[25:25]  Well, um it was we got up to 70 last week, which was crazy in February, but today it's back in the 20s and it is roaring windy out there. Um, it is crazy windy.

[25:39]  Dan, as we start to wrap this up, I I ask this question like Diana when she was getting out of high school to Diana today. Two different people I can imagine, right? Definitely a lot of growth in there. What What do you say to that Diana that was just probably, you know, had this idea of what the world would look like, but now you're really in a place, as you mentioned, where you're impacting lives at not just a community level, but truly at a leadership level. What do you tell that Diana that's probably unsure right now? Um, I I would tell her to don't say no to any opportunities. If you can in any way say yes to an opportunity, say yes because you never know what it's going to lead to next. And every person you meet, every new thing you try adds to who you are and it's going to add to that next opportunity.

[26:34]  All right. So, I got to ask because you said it. So, is there an opportunity that you said yes to that you didn't realize what was on the other side of of that door that you can share? Um I think um I think coming to Aspire like I was really interested in trying to use my skill set uh and take it take it somewhere else like I had been at another entity for 18 years and I want and I obviously grown a a skill set I was on leadership in that organization but I I wondered could I what could I do with what I already know somewhere else and saying yes to Aspire when it was a 300 some person you know community mental health center and now what I've been able to experience and do and the people that I've met the travel that I've been able to do to our nation's capital for Aspire like that would have never happened right and to be able to sit in the rooms that I've been able to sit and and have the conversations. Um, I couldn't have seen that, but I'm so grateful for it.

[27:51]  I love to hear you and just how grateful you are, right, for the opportunity of the company, the organization that you work for. Um, but I can imagine it has to do a lot with the culture has been implemented over the years as well, right? just hearing you, seeing the way that you guys care, the reasons why you guys put so many different things behind um or within one location is because you guys care. Um is that the culture that has been built at Aspire

[28:17]  for those that may want [laughter]

[28:19]  Aspire is celebrating 60 years this year. This is our 60th year anniversary.

[28:24]  Um and I I came at a time where um I've now worked under three uh CEOs. Um the first one was here 40ome years, right? And really led um and did a tremendous job of having that vision and for a vision even past when he would be leaving and then to work under an amazing uh CEO for six year as an interim. I mean, you know, she always knew I won't be here forever, but wanted to lead, had been somebody who started out as a bus driver for Aspire when she was in college and worked her way up to CEO, right? so knew the organization, knew its roots, um and was able to lead in a very compassionate way to now bringing we brought someone in 2 years ago. Um great national international experience in this space um and now seeing the next vision. Um it's it's really been an honor um to see that. And so I can tell you through our 60-year history, that vision and then what it's done to bring in the right folks at executive and senior leadership positions has really made the difference.

[29:50]  Yeah. No, culture is everything and and just hearing how you talk about the organization and and what you guys have done, I can imagine is

[29:58]  culture plays a huge part in Inspire. For those listening who care about community health, where where can they start? Um they can can get they plug in to work like yours?

[30:08]  Absolutely. And because of the diversity of what community health is doing these days, there's a place for almost every profession. Um and uh for you to be able to start at an entry level or where I mean you're an MBA, we need somebody to manage the money, right? uh you're you're a therapist, you're a a a nursing assistant, you're a dental tech, all of those things like uh that's needed in community health. Um so I I would start by understanding who are your community health centers in your community. you know, go to your state websites and check out who are your federally qualified health care providers, who are your community mental health centers, who are your uh CCBHC's in your community. So, uh, and start there because they're they are the people, boots on the ground, serving your communities.

[31:10]  Dana, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for all the info and for sharing so much about Aspire and the work that you do. Where can people find more information? Like what's the website? Are you guys on social? Are you guys active like that? What is your personal LinkedIn? Maybe for those that want to connect with you.

[31:22]  Sure. Um, you can find me on LinkedIn under my name, Diana Huddleston. Um, aspire indiana.org is our website. We are on all the socials. Uh, Insta, uh,

[31:36]  YouTube, Facebook, all of it. All of it. You can find us. Please link. Please learn about us. We would love for you to follow us and learn about us and what we do.

[31:47]  Dana, thank you so much for your time. It's definitely been a pleasure. If you guys are still watching, make sure you guys do like, subscribe, and comment because we're always having conversations like this with great leaders like Diana. My name is Ephrain Diana. We'll see you on the next one. Later. Thank you so much.