Sites Professionals

Author: Sites Professionals

  • Flexibility Gets Top Talent

    Flexibility Gets Top Talent

    With clients waiting for medication services, are agencies being flexible enough to attract and retain top psychiatrists?

    Telepsychiatry is one of the most sought-after perks for practitioners. With it, agencies can deliver medication services regardless of location and with greater adaptability to their scheduling needs. The myth is that clients don’t like it, the truth is that it opens the door to many more practitioners better-matched to your client population and increases access to psychiatric care. Similarly, many agencies would prefer to work with bilingual psychiatrists. I get it, but while waiting for the perfect match, look into implementing translation services. It is often more cost effective and it opens the door to really terrific and skilled practitioners.

    Yes, there is a shortage of available psychiatrists but are you sure that’s why you’re having a hard time filling your psychiatric positions?

  • Sites Professionals is Different

    Sites Professionals is Different

    How we are Different

    There are many varieties of staffing, recruitment and locum tenens businesses out there. Most of these businesses take advantage of inefficiencies in the market by casting a wide net and failing to sufficiently vet and match mental health agencies and practitioners. They also provide little to no additional support during the placement.

    Sites Professionals puts a tremendous effort into matching qualified candidates to excellent agencies. We work in partnership with practitioners and the medication support team for the duration of placements.

    Partnering with Us

    Think of Sites Professionals as augmenting your psychiatric practice. By working with us on a placement, you also get all the added value we provide. Finding and matching individuals to agencies is just the beginning. Before the a placement begins, we will have met with the leadership team at the agency, conducted full credentialing and provided malpractice insurance for the practitioner, and assisted with setup including telepsychiatry and EHR training.

    Once a placement has begun we continue to provide technical support as needed, handle time cards and billing, and remain responsive and engaged. Should you need it, we are also available to help your medication team with best practices, feedback on policies and procedures, staffing configuration and more.

  • Telepsychiatry in Community Mental Health

    Telepsychiatry in Community Mental Health

    The people in greatest need and those most able to help are not frequently neighbors. In a sprawling and traffic-plagued region like California, it can be especially difficult to assemble a team of psychiatric practitioners. Long commutes are often a barrier to otherwise qualified and well-matched individuals. There are ways around this. One of those ways is to use telepsychiatry.

    With a little creativity and technical know-how, telepsychiatry can be incorporated into just about any community mental health practice. It can be deployed full time or may be used to supplement in-person coverage. For example, with medication follow-up appointments. Locations can get certified, practitioners can be trained. If you are having trouble getting psychiatric care for your clients, why not give telepsychiatry a try?

  • FAQ Videos, Jobs and More

    FAQ Videos, Jobs and More

    Hello there! We haven’t updated our news feed in a while because we’ve been busy adding a new Jobs Page with current listings and putting together a video series for our Practitioner and Agency FAQ pages. Check them out when you get a chance. Don’t forget to connect with us on LinkedIn. Cheers!

  • Winning your Psychiatric Placement

    Winning your Psychiatric Placement

    In this video we offer some thoughts and pointers for navigating paperwork and building a great support team in community-based mental health care.

  • Why do we do it?

    Why do we do it?

    We, Nancy and Jeff, have been involved in community based mental health care in Southern California for over 15 years. Our careers followed a path familiar to many in the industry. With bachelor’s degrees in psychology we began as front line staff in a residential treatment setting for juveniles. We both worked our way up to leadership positions, earning master’s degrees along the way. Jeff earned a master’s in business administration and ventured into entrepreneurship. Nancy earned a master’s in clinical psychology and became a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and continued to practice as her career advanced.

    Our motivation for launching Sites Professionals is the same motivation that has kept us in the industry since the beginning. We do it for the clients. From our first experiences working to improve the lives of the underserved we understood the need for qualified professionals to commit to the helping field. We know firsthand the challenges and rewards of this work. As our careers have developed we have committed to directing our abilities for the greatest impact on those that need it most. That’s why we do it.

  • Change pt 2: Psychiatric Practitioners

    Change pt 2: Psychiatric Practitioners

    There are three components to being customer oriented, and each must be attended to. They are: Who are your customers? What do they need? What are your distinctive competencies capable of servicing those needs?

    In the case of most psychiatric practitioners, ‘customers’ includes patients, mental health treatment agencies, and the public or private sources of funding; each of these with distinct and changing needs.

    This creates a moving target for practitioners looking for new opportunities. Furthermore, the experience and education that comprise a practitioner’s distinctive competencies represent a significant investment and are not easily adapted to drastic change in the industry.

    Do your homework and diversify.

    In the short to medium-term, the best way to find a stable and fulfilling position in a community mental health setting is to do your homework. Agencies typically post open positions based on population served and credentials required but you can dig deeper. Ask them questions about their contracts and sources of funding. Ask where they see themselves growing and about the professional interests and expertise of senior managers. Get to know their treatment philosophies and how they foster collaboration and effective utilization of treatment teams. The answers to these questions will give you a more complete picture of what it would be like to join them. This approach has been useful to us too, and only scratches the surface on what is involved in a great placement.

    Thinking longer-term, we recommend diversification. Look for opportunities to service different populations in different treatment settings. This can be done in part-time or short-term placements, or by jumping feet first into something new. The experience you gain will be both fulfilling and valuable. Related to diversification is the strength of your peer group. Building a professional network of practitioners will keep you connected and informed in an ever-changing industry. Taking these steps will put you in the driver’s seat and prepared to adapt.

  • Change and Being Customer Oriented

    Change and Being Customer Oriented

    The pace of change in the field of mental health can be disorienting. It is an industry tied closely to the whims of public policy makers and influenced by public perceptions.

    Reimbursement rates fluctuate. Rules for access to care are continually tweaked and amended. News of epidemics, such as homelessness and opioid addiction, spur public action that bring both opportunities and challenges to mental health care providers.

    Change is to be expected in any industry. When it occurs, it becomes clear that some businesses have better positioned themselves than others to deal with it. But how? Is it luck? Probably not.

    ‘Adaptability’ is the easy answer to how some businesses successfully deal with change. But what does that look like in a non-profit mental health services agency or in a practitioner?

    For this post we are looking at agencies. Business schools teach the concept of having a “Customer-Oriented” business model. This is in contrast to the “Product-Oriented” approach in which a business focuses on the goods and services it provides today in order to find ways to improve them. The product approach plans only for a future in which the business’ services remain relevant. This is a fine strategy for an unchanging industry. Of course, all industries change.

    Instead, by building your business around the needs of customers you are better positioned to weather periods of change. You gain a clearer view of the value you are providing to your clients. You are focused on delivering what they need, so you are the first to know when those needs start to change. Refining your business with this in mind requires dedicating time and money to analyzing the work you do and how it might change with the needs of your customers over time. This is a structural challenge that requires buy-in at all levels of your organization. Front line staff are your eyes and ears, and must communicate client feedback to managers. They must also be prepared to routinely adapt to changes in procedure. Management must attend to training employees for change, while they keep an eye on the big picture.

    For mental health service providers it boils down to maintaining a balanced team of prescribers and support staff, and being prepared to rebalance and retrain your team on a regular basis. Maximizing the value of your team allows your agency to thrive while providing the best quality of care to your clients. It isn’t rocket science, but it can be daunting. We can help.

  • Placement Service for Prescribers

    Placement Service for Prescribers

    Sites Professionals simplifies the process of matching and placing you with local agencies, so that you can have an impact in the areas of greatest need. The advantages of working with us include finding flexible assignments in the areas of focus that most interest you.

    We know that you can provide the best care to patients when the work is closely aligned with your passion and you are not overly burdened by the administrative processes that come along with it.

    Working with Sites Professionals, whether to work a couple days a week or to find a new full-time position, gives you the benefit of 24/7 support from a team with expertise in the laws and processes of mental health. You set your rates, hours and availability. Let us take care of the rest.

  • Thoughts on Burnout

    Thoughts on Burnout


    There’s much discussion these days about burnout, particularly among physicians and psychiatrists. Medscape and the American Psychiatric Association recently published and discussed a survey indicating 40% of MDs are experiencing some level of burnout.

    It’s safe to say that this problem is not limited to doctors. It’s common for people at all levels in the field of mental health to have had feelings of burnout from time to time.

    The complexities of the helping field only complicate a profession that requires you to be emotionally present on a daily basis. The challenges of bureaucracy and paperwork only make matters worse.

    Self-care and maintaining a healthy work culture with empathy are essential to alleviating burnout in your team.

    Helping you manage bureaucracy and paperwork is our small contribution to alleviating this problem.

  • Are We Middlemen?

    Are We Middlemen?

    No. Sites Professionals performs or enhances work essential to a functional psychiatric services program. We personally recruit and place psychiatrists and other practitioners with mental health providers. Sites Professionals remains committed to the successful deployment of practitioners by making sure they are prepared, and have the knowledge and passion for community-based mental health. We provide hands-on support for the duration of our placements. We are focused on California, where we know what it takes to run a psychiatric services program effectively, and where we can have routine in-person meetings and introductions with our clients.

    For agencies, our work enhances the capabilities of your existing team without having to undergo the expensive process of developing them internally. For practitioners and agencies, our first class customer service, experience, and network, provide flexibility and confidence that our matches are a success for all parties. Let us do the leg work for you.

    Our mission is in the support of building resilience in the lives of children, youth and families. The service and dedication we provide you is our methodology.

  • The Complete Package for Agencies

    The Complete Package for Agencies

    Working with Sites Professionals to staff and support your organization’s psychiatric services has benefits beyond just the recruitment and placement of practitioners. We help provide insight into the best way to build and utilize your medication support team for better client care and efficient billing and reimbursement. That is why we get to know you with in-person meetings and frequent contact. We are big believers in the value of community-based care, and buying into your mission allows us to find terrific matches for your staffing needs.