Sharon Raggio, LMFT, LPC, MBA is President and CEO Mind Springs Health
Check out her LinkedIn profile HERE.
Which segment of the industry are you currently involved?
Mind Springs Health is the leading provider of mental health and addiction treatment on the western slope of Colorado and lives out its mission of providing recovery and resiliency to people, families, and communities through its excellent continuum of behavioral health care services – from mobile crisis response to 12 outpatient offices to West Springs Hospital, the only psychiatric hospital between Denver and Salt Lake City. We are pleased to be in over 100 schools as well as in locations with over 100 different partners. We believe it is critical to our mission that we offer our services where people are, as that is a secret sauce ingredient to engagement and change.
How many years have you been in the Medicaid industry?
We have been in the Medicaid business since our inception in 1972! Personally I have worked in Community Mental Health for over 40 years….yes…. I started when I was 12!
What is your focus/passion? (Industry related or not)
I personally love what Community Mental Health offers! It is a sacred honor to be a partner in creating change in an individual, family, or community. There is nothing that fills my heart like Community Mental Health! The best news is that people can and do recover! I am very pleased that we are starting to recognize the co-morbidity between physical & mental health and excited to be at whole-person planning tables.
What is the top item on your “bucket list?”
Absolutely going to Italy! I had the good fortune of living in Europe for many years as a young adult and now I’d love to go back with my family. The Italian culture is unique!
What do you enjoy doing most with your personal time?
Beside travel, which expands me as a person, I love to walk with our two standard poodles, Timbuktu and Corrina. We live in western CO and have rich outdoor beauty to explore. I also love to read good mystery books.
Who is your favorite historical figure and why?
Marie Curie, a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and only woman to win it twice, and the only person to win it in two different scientific fields. She was also the first woman professor at the University of Paris. Some of her more famous quotes include “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.” And when questioned about being a woman with a family & working in science she replied “Well, it has not been easy”.
What is your favorite junk food?
It has to be vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup on a very hot day! Nothing quite like that sensation of cold ice cream, hot chocolate souse, and a hot day! YUM!
Of what accomplishment are you most proud?
We recently were honored to receive the IHI Sherman Award for Patient Engagement. Our amazing staff developed “Rapid Recovery Clinics” for people with depression and the model allows patients to choose when they want to be seen, how often, and who they want to see of their treatment team. The results are amazing, with 68% of people moving into a recovery phase from depression in only 6 weeks! That means people are doing well, our clinical staff know they made a difference, and our offices can serve more people in need! A triple win!
For what one thing do you wish you could get a mulligan?
I have come to understand that relationships are what are important in life. My do-over would involve absolutely involve healing a relationship. It is important to be quick to recognize when I make a mistake or push too hard on a relationship. Forgiveness goes along with this concept.
What are the top 1-3 issues that you think will be important in Medicaid during the next 6 months?
I think state governments struggle with how to fund and pay providers for Medicaid. While there are many ideas about value-based payments, there is a grand experiment occurring with how to make that actionable and what the valued outcomes should be. Additionally, specific to the world of behavioral health, we have a crisis-level shortage of providers. Funding prevention and resiliency-building programs is a policy I hope States will shift towards in the near future.
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Know someone in the space who’s doing great work and is an all around interesting person?
Send a note to clay@mostlymedicaid.com to nominate them for the next round of Medicaid Industry Who’s Who Interviews