Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon DeVilbiss. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Shannon DeVilbiss grew up in North Dallas. Upon graduation from Texas Tech University, as many young adults do, she dabbled in a few different professional arenas (including broadcast journalism – but that was pre-internet, so you won’t dig up any b-roll on her). Connections made during these early career years led her to business development and marketing for a treatment center that provides care for female adolescents and adults that struggle with co-occurring disorders such as anxiety, depression, self-harm, substance use, and trauma.
Shannon’s passion for facilitating connection in the community and support for patients and families blossomed while working for this facility. She was instrumental in gaining awareness and introducing the program to clinicians in the community, supporting families in making difficult treatment choices for their loved ones, offering guidance during their treatment, and providing transition resources. The knowledge she gained led her to begin the DFW Chapter International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (iaedp) to offer education and certification to clinicians that work with this diagnosis.
Shannon soon realized that as patients and families survey all the options for treatment in the mental health industry, the knowledge and ability to navigate decisions are incredibly difficult. There are hundreds of options, facilities, and treatment plans. And, often when a family is facing life-changing decisions, it is at a critical point in that loved one’s life where time is of the essence.
This led her to start Personalized Family Solutions. Her clients contact her for a variety of reasons: needing a different school setting, receiving a new diagnosis and the uncertainty on how to implement support, families who are watching their loved one’s struggle with substance use, school refusal, aggression, suicide attempts, young adult failure-to-launch, autism, or attachment/adoption. Shannon serves these families as a “matchmaker” to find the right school, healthcare provider, treatment option, etc. Shannon is fantastic at holding hope as they journey together through the uncertainty of the next steps. Her years of expertise and research enables her to design a process unique to each family/client’s needs and situation where she serves as a resource expert, case manager, advocate, crisis interventionist, and education provider.
Over the last eight years, Shannon has helped more than 400 families and traveled to more than 300 schools and programs across the United States to ensure that she is knowledgeable about the advice and recommendations made.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As you might imagine, working in the mental health industry can be very rewarding but also incredibly difficult. One of the most challenging parts of the job is being introduced to so many families and clients who are struggling in so many different aspects. It can be overwhelming to watch a child or loved one suffer, to feel helpless or confused about how to proceed with various opinions and internet searches. The increased exposure and light on mental health over the last few years is wonderful, yet many parents and caregivers do not know that consultants are available to make the process more efficient. When clients do find us, they are grateful to have the option to more easily maneuver through the decision making, giving them hope of brighter days ahead.
When deciding how to pay for treatment, families may need assistance on how to best utilize their insurance and resources or overcome financial barriers. Some may have even experienced treatment failures, so they have a lack of trust. We appreciate the opportunity to help work through skepticism and other barriers to find the option that works best for them.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
There are several advantages to working with Personalized Family Solutions as your therapeutic and educational consultant. We research and visit with doctors and mental health providers as well as treatment facilities and schools in Dallas Fort Worth, and across the country. We walk on campus, engage with staff, view the amenities, and even sit in the dirt around a campfire or participate in animal therapy sessions to gain the full experience around the caliber of any program. We are able to chat with participants about their experience, as well as former clients and families, to gain a thorough understanding of the quality of a resource and the profile of the client that they best serve. Our team holds memberships across several industry organizations to collaborate and network and stay fully immersed and apprised of the latest trends.
The level of education offered to every family sets our business apart. We share the continuum of resources, allowing families to understand all that is available to them, what might or might not make sense, so that they can feel empowered to make the right decision for their loved one.
We believe that availability and prompt communication is imperative in building trust and sustaining a comforting relationship that guides individualized academic and therapeutic placement decisions. Our variety of services gives families the ability to engage in what fits the need, whether that is hourly work to an in-depth concierge platform.
Our clients gain confidence knowing that we engage in thorough, thoughtful, and when needed, quick research that consists of a combination of conversations with parents, students, professionals, family or friends, grades, testing, evaluations, videos, etc.
At the beginning of this year, Shannon merged with her business partner, Kelly Miller, to offer even more value to our families, along with Aaron Aldridge who supports families across the US, providing guidance including but not limited to:
Local school placement
Local outpatient programs
Placement in higher levels of care: Residential treatment centers, short-term interventions, wilderness therapy, therapeutic boarding schools, diagnostic assessment centers, or young adult life skills programs
Crisis support
Case management
Neurodiverse/Atypical post-graduate programs
Boarding schools
Mentor/Coaching professionals
ADHD/Social skills/Executive functioning individual and group therapy
Summer camps
Testing/evaluation professionals
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Prior to Covid-19, the US struggled with a mental health crisis. Since the pandemic, this crisis has escalated. The pandemic provided ample time to isolate, spend more time on devices, disrupt sleep patterns, and change eating habits. This disruption and isolation led to underachievement, defiance, anxiety, depression, social struggles, withdrawal, school refusal, substance use, and more. Many of those struggling associate the pandemic as traumatic, leaving them with an absent core identity, little ability to handle distress, limited healthy coping skills, and an uncertainty in their self-worth. The families we work with need assistance in decision-making, minimize maladaptive behaviors, feelings of hopelessness, and a lack of resilience. Parents seem desperate for answers and paralyzed in how to access help. Through industry organizations, conferences, webinars, and research articles, staying up-to-speed on trends and best practices we are best prepared to help families navigate these waters.
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