Makenzie Sandler: Navigating the Future of ABA Therapy

In this episode of Tim Talks, Timothy A. Zercher sits down with Makenzie Sandler, Chief Strategy Officer at Bright Achievements, to explore the evolving landscape of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy. With over 10 years of experience in the field, Makenzie shares her insights on how ABA therapy is adapting to meet the needs of families, the challenges of scaling while maintaining clinical quality, and the role of technology in enhancing care. Tune in to hear Makenzie's personal journey into ABA and her vision for its future.

Transcript

00:00
Timothy A. Zercher: All right, well thank you so much for joining us, Mackenzie. We really appreciate having you on today. We appreciate you taking some time out of your busy schedule to share some insights with us.

Makenzie Sandler: Absolutely, excited to be here.

00:08
Timothy A. Zercher: Yeah, absolutely. So I find that almost everyone in behavioral health has a very specific story about why they're in behavioral health. Would you mind sharing yours?

Makenzie Sandler: Sure, absolutely. So I won't start from the very beginning. I'll kind of dive into grad school where I really truly thought I would be a child psychologist. And I was in my master's at Pepperdine getting a clinical psychology degree. And I fell by accident because I had to pay my way through my master's a technician job working direct with families and in clinic and out in the community. ...

01:03
Timothy A. Zercher: That's awesome, that's awesome. I know that that still kind of informs your philosophy in serving in the ABA space, right? Is that you're serving the whole family, not just the student?

Makenzie Sandler: Absolutely, yes, it's always been a value of mine for sure.

01:19
Timothy A. Zercher: Yeah, that's awesome. So what do you see is the biggest barrier for families trying to access ABA therapy today?

Makenzie Sandler: Yeah, great question. I actually just hung up with a family earlier today. I think truly the biggest barrier is a diagnosis. I think an unnecessary diagnosis to access insurance-based services for ABA is one of the biggest barriers because families feel like they're on a wait list just to get a diagnosis...

02:21
Timothy A. Zercher: Absolutely, absolutely. So your team is growing. How do you balance clinical quality with scalability as your organization grows, adds locations, and adds clinicians?

Makenzie Sandler: Yeah, great question. I think there's kind of two pinpoints. One's easy, keeping clinicians in executive roles. I think the clinical piece is always really important as the forefront. But then kind of the harder piece is making sure that decisions are prioritized for families...

03:05
Timothy A. Zercher: Absolutely. What strategies have worked best to keep your team motivated and supported as you grow and as you scale?

Makenzie Sandler: Yeah, absolutely. And I think as one of the executives and leaders and just kind of being part of the team as one of the first employees in North Carolina and kind of building the team around me has been really exciting...

05:10
Timothy A. Zercher: Absolutely. Where do you see the future of ABA therapy in the next five years?

Makenzie Sandler: I don't know if five years is long enough to see what I want ABA therapy to look like, but I think it depends on what state you're in, where you are in advocacy and licensing...

06:12
Timothy A. Zercher: That makes sense. As clinical leadership, where do you think Bright Achievements is leaning in that fracturing?

Makenzie Sandler: Yeah, and I mean, I won't say it's an exact alignment, but we're definitely moving more in that value-based model that wraps around the family, not having just ABA as a standalone service...

06:55
Timothy A. Zercher: Absolutely. What role do you think technology plays in delivering better care for clients in the ABA space?

Makenzie Sandler: That's a good question. I'm so much of a back-of-the-envelope math kind of person. I pick up phones, I call people, don't FaceTime or, so technology is a funny game for me...

08:50
Timothy A. Zercher: Yeah, so what inspired you to transition from the clinical operations side to more of the strategic leadership role?

Makenzie Sandler: Yeah, it's funny, I think it's happened organically. I don't think it was ever a mission or drive or this my dream, but it's happened so organically that I really...

11:39
Timothy A. Zercher: That is awesome. Well, thank you. We appreciate you taking time for us today and we appreciate the work that you're doing in your community.

Makenzie Sandler: Thank you. Yes, thanks for having me.