When you run a schedule-based business, like mental health services, it can be hard to make time for business administration. If you see eight clients in a day, for an hour each, you barely have enough time to eat lunch or run to the bathroom – let alone stay on top of emails, get your errands done, and remember to call back the long list of people who left voicemails.

We’ve all been there. If you’re running a private practice, it can be very difficult trying to juggle all of these different roles at once. Demand for mental health services is high, so now is not the time to let one of those balls drop. Here are some tips you can use in your practice to maximize efficiency.

Ready to optimize your workflow? Ravel Mental Health is the answer.

Tip 1: Delegate Before You’re Ready

Running a business means wearing 15 hats at once. You’re not just actively in session with your clients, or spending time behind the scenes researching new techniques or creating effective treatment plans. You’re responsible for everything from scheduling appointments to completing intake paperwork, ensuring you’re compliant with all of your professional requirements and that your license is valid, solving technology issues, and ensuring the office rent is paid on time.

It’s a lot for one person to manage. That’s why it’s important to hire early. Say you’re looking to recruit a new receptionist, for example. This will take a huge amount of administrative work off your plate and means you can bring your full attention to each consultation without worrying about all the messages that are accumulating while your phone is on silent. It doesn’t make sense to wait until you’re so stressed you lack the time to create a job description and advertise the role. It does make sense to do it early, to save yourself the stress that comes with being completely overwhelmed.

The same goes if you’re run off your feet with consultations. Bringing another qualified therapist on board means you can effectively support your patients while growing your practice. Don’t wait until you’re squeezing in extra sessions at night and on weekends just to meet demand. Burning the candle at both ends doesn’t lead to good outcomes for you or your clients.

Recruiting can be hard, especially if you run a private practice and you’re looking to bring on your first hire. The truth is that you’ll never feel completely ready. You’ll be able to make excuses all day about the fact that you’re managing it fine, or you’re worried about your finances, or any of a million others. Don’t put off something that will make an immediate difference to your efficiency.

Why is this important? The need for mental health services is growing dramatically.

Tip 2: Look After Your Energy Reserves

America is experiencing a mental health crisis. Demand has skyrocketed following the outbreak of COVID-19 and the U.S. government is forecasting skills shortages among mental health professionals by 2025, especially in rural areas. It’s never been more important to look after your own health.

Think about it this way: Choosing not to prioritize your own care is like a general contractor living in an unfinished house, a plumber having leaking faucets, or a mechanic owning a car that sputters to an untimely death. For one thing, it’s not a good look. For another, you know better.

Therapists often feel an enormous responsibility for the care of our patients. Many of us go above and beyond to support people in the most difficult times of their lives. However, to use a total cliché, you can’t pour from an empty cup. As harsh as this sounds, you’re no good to anyone if you’re burnt out and completely devoid of energy reserves. You won’t be able to give your clients the attention you deserve, you’ll find it takes five times as long to do the most basic administrative tasks, and you may find that some important things slip under the radar and cause avoidable stress down the line.

Looking after your energy reserves allows you do the best job possible for each of your clients. This means instead of squeezing in those extra night consultations, or coming into the office on the weekend, you should be prioritizing your own health. This includes eating a balanced diet, making time to exercise every day, and establishing a healthy sleep routine. Clear boundaries are good boundaries. This is essential when it comes to maximizing efficiency in a mental health setting.

Mental health services are in high demand. Here’s what every therapist should know.

Tip 3: Find Ways to Be More Efficient

There is also a huge array of tools available to help you be more efficient in your day-to-day tasks. Software like Slack can help you communicate easily with team members. Programs like Teamwork ensure you can always find the documents you need without trawling through folder after folder of hastily filed emails. There are also therapy-specific tools that can make a big difference.

Ravel Mental Health is one of them. It’s an innovative scheduling tool that is revolutionizing online bookings for therapists. Administration can be a huge burden for therapists running private practices, so if you’re making call after call and responding to email after email just to turn people away, Ravel Mental Health can be a game-changer. It lets you create a profile that uses filters to ensure the only people who contact you are a perfect match for your services.

Prospective clients can sort by location, specialties, preferred modalities, insurances taken, and availability. If they’re a match, and there’s space in your schedule, they can book an appointment on the spot – all you have to do is accept. This saves a lot of time for both sides, eliminating back-and-forth, and you can get straight to business. This means no more phone calls hanging over your head, no more administration-related stress, and no more turning people away when they need help.

This last part is especially important. About 23 million American adults received mental health services in 2019, according to figures from the National Institute of Mental Health. However, even in states with great access to mental health services, about 38% of people are not receiving the services they need. This means the industry as a whole has to work together to find a solution.

Telehealth is a step in the right direction. We now have access to high-quality HIPAA-compliant video conferencing services that ensure people can access the services they need regardless of where they live. It’s a cheap and efficient way for providers to reach new clients and will play a key role in closing the gap between metropolitan and rural areas and increasing access to services.

If we can get the online booking part right, we can take it even further, effortlessly linking the right clients with the right providers. This means therapists will be able to spend more time in session, actively helping people, and less time focused on administration. This also means that clients will be able to find support faster than ever before by using a targeted search function instead of a scattergun approach of reaching out to multiple providers to see who says yes first.

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