Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria Ingalla.
Hi Maria, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
In 2017, I relocated to Arizona to take on the role of a psychiatric nurse practitioner at a local community mental health organization. As I moved into the healthcare field, I felt optimistic. I was optimistic that that I could make a difference. However, it was apparent that my only role as a prescriber was to make the company money. I found myself in a “pill-mill” situation where I was unable to provide any form of quality care to patients. My appointments were between 5 to 15 minutes because that’s what I was allotted — and my patients were vulnerable; they were often kids in foster care or kids with significant trauma. They were kids who needed to be listened to because no one ever had before.
Over the years, I worked at similar facilities and was frequently labeled as a “problematic” employee. I was frequently outspoken about the injustices I witnessed in facility policy. I refused to compromise good care to make some CEO at the top of the company an extra dollar. I found myself at a crossroads. I could settle for another unfulfilling job or take a bold leap towards making change.
In resistance to the system I constantly found myself at odds with, I started Paperflower Psychiatry, LLC in October 2020.
I started Paperflower in resistance to a healthcare system that values money and productivity over care. I wanted this company to be openly allied with social justice movements. I wanted to create an openly safe place for the LGBTQIA+ community. I wanted to create a space that acknowledge that healthcare IS political and to speak about what is often dictated as “inappropriate” in professional settings. I wanted to end the “professional” dichotomy of “patient” and “provider,” which is ultimately giving the provider an ungodly amount of power in determining someone else’s mental health treatment. I wanted to make an environment where the patient would be able to be on a team with their provider. Where they could be heard, valued, and known as a human being, not just a set of symptoms.
I wanted to create a company culture that valued team members as more than expendable resources.
I wanted my company to be different than every other psychiatric practice.
I spent time networking, making Zoom meetings, and using all of my contacts to build awareness of my new practice. People really resonated with our approach, and it boomed. I’ve been able to grow Paperflower to encompassing thirteen nurse practitioners, including myself.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I anticipated a rough road moving into being self-employed — and it has been at times. Frankly, I know nothing about business. I went to school to learn about public health, sociology, nursing, and psychiatry. I am not a businessperson by nature. Developing into a businessperson has been a struggle for me. Frankly, I don’t enjoy a lot of the aspects of being a business owner.
There are so many growing pains in a business: unhappy patients, billing and insurance issues, terminating employees, overhead expenses increasing, changing health record systems, ensuring compliance in a million different areas. Finding a way to develop systems of seamless communication with our patients, our support team, and our providers has required a lot of creativity – but I think we’re moving towards improvement.
Owning a large practice has been a learning curve. Building a team of people, I trust has been magical in riding out the bumps in the road when it feels unbearable.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
Paperflower Psychiatry, LLC is a psychiatry practice that provides medication management for mental health conditions ages 5 to 65. We treat depression, anxiety, OCD, trauma, ADHD, bipolar disorder, psychosis, as well as other concerns. We provide care virtually as well as in person in Phoenix, Flagstaff, and Tempe.
We are openly progressive and inclusive — which sets us apart from many other practices. I am outspoken about our commitment to social justice, and I hire providers who have similar values — if people don’t feel that would be a good fit for them, then they can find a more “professional” practice somewhere else. I encourage my team to not wear “professional” attire. My goal has been to disrupt the power dynamic that is typically established between a patient and healthcare provider.
Paperflower Psychiatry was built as a resistance to the healthcare system, and I am proud that it continues to maintain that. We have longer appointment time even though it means it doesn’t pay us as well. It allows us to learn about our patients as human beings and develop relationships with them.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you, and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
COVID-19 launched the telehealth industry. It set expectations that people CAN work remotely, and you don’t need to work a basic 9 to 5 in a windowless office. It changed laws that allowed prescribers to be able to remotely evaluate and treat patients for conditions like ADHD.
I found out I was pregnant about two months after launching Paperflower Psychiatry. In a pre-COVID world, I could have never worked remotely. I do feel lucky that I am able to be home with my girls while running my business.
Beyond that, COVID increased mental health needs across the globe. I realized how needed our services are. So many people lost their jobs and no longer could afford to have the treatment they needed. This definitely helped me develop innovative methods to discover affordable options for medication that people would otherwise be unable to afford.
Pricing:
- Self Pay 90 Minute Evaluation: $250
- Self Pay 30 Minute Follow-up: $100
- Mental Health Case Management: $25/hour
Contact Info:
- Website: www.paperflowerpsychiatry.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paperflowerpsychiatry/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paperflowerpsychiatry/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/paperflower-psychiatry-phoenix
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.mariaingalla
