Building a Community for Behavioral Health Transformation with Solome Tibebu, Founder and CEO of Behavioral Health Tech

[00:00:01] This podcast is produced by Outcomes Rocket, your healthcare exclusive digital marketing agency. Outcomes Rocket exists to help healthcare organizations like yours to maximize their impact and accelerate growth. Visit outcomesrocket.com or text us at 312-224-9945.

[00:00:25] Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Expanding Access Podcast. We hope you've been enjoying these episodes that were recorded straight at the BHT Conference. Today, I have a very special guest, which I would say needs no introduction. Her name is Solome Tibebu.

[00:00:53] She's a behavioral health strategist and founder and CEO of Behavioral Health Tech, the largest community dedicated to advancing access to mental health and substance use services through technology, health equity, and innovation. Solome, so glad you could do this with us. Thank you so much, Saul. I'm so excited to be here and have just been blown away by our guests and excited to be one of them. Yeah, you know what?

[00:01:21] I love the work that you do and that this community is all about. I was touched by so many people on the podcast, but also the conference. To kick things off, Solome, tell us a little bit about you. What inspires your work in mental health? Yeah, and thank you for that. So I come into this space as not a technologist or a clinician, but somebody with lived experience.

[00:01:47] I struggled a lot with anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder as an adolescent. In fact, it took four different tries at different providers, which thankfully my family even had the resources to pursue to ultimately get that diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder. And you can imagine just the challenges of navigating to get to that point.

[00:02:15] But then eventually I was able to experience the power of evidence-based treatments specifically for conditions that were personalized just for me. And it was around this time that I thought, why can't all teens everywhere get access to this kind of support? At the same time, I was seeking out information online. That psychoeducation, as cliche as it is, knowledge really is power.

[00:02:44] That helped me a lot. And again, it's like, why can't other teens just like me be able to access this kind of information? I felt like I was completely alone in these bizarre intrusive thoughts and fears that I had when, in fact, this is actually a very common condition. And so it was around that time when I was 16, I started a blog focused for teens by teens, specifically around anxiety and OCD.

[00:03:12] And that was the beginning of my career in mental health technology and innovation. I love that. Well, first of all, thanks for being brave and sharing your experience. A lot of us feel that way. We feel like we're the only ones with the challenge, with the struggle.

[00:03:29] It takes those brave individuals and leaders that put themselves out there, like Solomay, like the many speakers that you're going to hear on this podcast, to make us feel that we're not alone. And so, Solomay, you've done a beautiful job of creating this very curated community. How did behavioral health tech get started? And why did you decide to do it? Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it was just at the beginning of the pandemic.

[00:03:59] At the time, I was running a philanthropic fund focused on youth mental health. It was called the Upswing Fund for Adolescent Mental Health, supported by Pivotal Ventures, which is Melinda Frenchgate's personal investment company. And we were funding nonprofits nationwide. And quickly, it was becoming apparent that we needed more care for more people, even more than we needed before.

[00:04:25] And that digital and virtual care was clearly going to play a huge role. And I had already been talking about mental health technology through my newsletter.

[00:04:39] And it just became apparent that there needed to be a space for the various stakeholders to quickly convene and talk about best practices in their regions or in their practices of how they could get care, mental health, substance use care, and more to individuals scalably, effectively, and so on.

[00:05:04] And so that's when I thought, wow, there should be a virtual convening focused solely on behavioral health innovation and technologies all about expanding access. And so we started virtual first. We've had a virtual event annually for three years until we finally went in person last year convening health plans, employers, providers of all sizes, individuals with live experience, startups, investors, policy managers,

[00:05:34] and more. I love it, Solomay. And one of the things that being at the event this year, we had the chance to chat with people that have been with you since the virtual days to today. And the group just keeps growing. Several people told me, wow, I remember last year, the conference was half the size. Now they're taking up two buildings and next year they're going to San Diego. How do you feel about where this is going? Yeah, the growth has been surprising probably to me most of all.

[00:06:04] But I think it's a good sign that providers, payers, innovators, they want to connect. They want to share best practices so they can bring them to their regions and their partnerships. And yeah, I'm excited and thrilled that our team can help facilitate these kinds of conversations that just need to happen more than ever. Yeah, that's so great. And they definitely do. So there's so much happening.

[00:06:30] And this year, on top of it all, you decided to kick off the Expanding Access podcast, which is what we're doing here. What should people expect from this podcast? Yeah. Besides the fact that we wanted to disseminate all of the learnings that were happening on site to folks who couldn't make it and make it available year-round, it's just incredible.

[00:06:55] As you mentioned as we were opening up, the lived experience stories that are pervasive throughout our community, this is what needs to be showcased. And yes, there is a leader of an insurance company that's talking about which digital solutions they want to procure, but they are also parents to teenagers themselves. So these are the kinds of things that I didn't feel like were getting shared as much as I would have liked.

[00:07:24] And so I'm really excited about this platform and our ability to do that. I think it's great. And you guys have heard the stories that we kicked off the podcast with. They're very personal stories. And making sure that you're not feeling alone, the message should be shared. If you're hearing these interviews and something resonates with you, make sure you share them with a loved one. Make sure you share them with a colleague. And by the way, folks, this isn't just it. There's more.

[00:07:53] So, Lame, what other resources and opportunities for learning and engagement do you offer the folks that are starting to find out about you or maybe already know about you but don't know the breadth and depth of your organization? Yeah. And plus one on exactly what you said. Please, if you're in a place to share your lived experience, you have no idea who you might be impacting.

[00:08:18] And so I could not emphasize that as something that folks should do if they are so comfortable. But also for our listeners who are often in a B2B situation, they're evaluating partnerships, that sort of thing. It's important that they hear specifically from people with lived experience because those are the folks that are going to be driving the most successful products and services.

[00:08:43] People with lived experience need to be at the table co-creating and developing the solutions for the communities that many of our stakeholders are looking to impact. So really, it's just good business as well. To your question, throughout the year, we have all sorts of resources for people to continue learning. That includes our weekly newsletter that goes out every Thursday. So definitely subscribe to that.

[00:09:09] And we also have regular webinars where we're bringing different partnerships to light and asking questions of what were successes, failures, learnings. So again, our audience can learn from that and adopt those best practices. One example of some exciting partnerships that we do throughout the year is this one with Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute.

[00:09:35] I'm proud to serve as their senior fellow for digital transformation. And as part of that role, we kicked off a survey at the Behavioral Health Tech Conference recently asking the innovation community, particularly digital mental health founders and entrepreneurs, what are some of the issues that they'd like to present to policymakers?

[00:10:01] And so we're currently reviewing all of those responses to help craft the types of activities that we'll bring to DC. And so these are just examples of ways that we partner with different entities and our audience can contribute and suggest these kinds of partnerships, concepts through our newsletter. I love that, Solomay. What a great example.

[00:10:27] It was a pleasure to have Casey Kelly on the podcast, which, by the way, folks, you're all going to hear from Casey on the podcast. Just an incredible partnership and great to know that these people, these leaders in the industry, these institutions and organizations are literally one listen away. Really appreciate what you're doing with this, Solomay. And by the way, folks, in the show notes, you're going to find all the links to what Solomay is offering, ways to join the newsletter.

[00:10:56] You're not going to want to miss this stuff. It's literally cutting edge. Solomay, as we're wrapping here, what call to action would you want to leave our audience with? And what's the best place they could get in touch with you and the team? Thanks so much, Sol. Well, first and foremost, I'd say save the date for 2025. November 11th through 13th will be in San Diego next year.

[00:11:19] And then in the meantime, subscribe to the newsletter where you can find these kinds of opportunities that I just mentioned, as well as jobs. So we have a pretty robust job board, as well as talent collective for our audience to showcase themselves for our sponsors to recruit from. Stay tuned for upcoming webinars and just excited to have more folks part of our community. It's amazing, Solomay.

[00:11:49] Well, I really want to say thank you for doing what you do to you and your entire team at Behavioral Health Tech. The work that you do is necessary. And for everybody listening, thank you for tuning in. These episodes will be delivered to you every single week. So make sure you check out the show notes. Sign up for that newsletter that Solomay offered up. And thank you all for doing your part for expanding access. Solomay, thanks for being with us. Thanks so much, Sol. I appreciate it so much.

[00:12:29] This podcast is produced by Outcomes Rocket, your healthcare exclusive digital marketing agency. Outcomes Rocket exists to help healthcare organizations like yours to maximize their impact and accelerate growth. Visit outcomesrocket.com or text us at 312-224-9945. Thank you.