Thank you for taking the time to read this as we reflect upon the many years Zephyr has served our community in philanthropic and innovative ways.
Since our founding in 2015, we have proudly hosted graduate and undergraduate students completing their practicum hours, providing free or reduced-rate care throughout northern Nevada. When we first launched the program, it was a novel concept, and Zephyr was one of the only agencies to offer such an experience. To date, we have tallied the following: 14 university partnerships, 48 students hosted, and 11,400 hours worked.
Prior to Zephyr Wellness demonstrating that such a thing could be done ethically and professionally, almost no therapists were on social media, and certainly no agencies had a social media presence. In the spirit of philanthropy and innovation, we began creating YouTube videos and social media posts to promote mental health in all forms. From mid-2015 through 2016 we sponsored and hosted our own local weekly radio show, Mental Matters, which eventually transitioned into a podcast, Noggin Notes, in 2017, which provided the opportunity to launch Guns and Mental Health in 2020. Both shows still run today, and have collectively produced more than 400 episodes. The purpose of content creation is to provide community members with free information, encouraging them to address their issues independently in their own kitchens and workspaces.
Another pride point for us is the number of community partnerships across the years. When we first opened, we wanted to be different. We wanted to be visible. We did not want to be a typical therapy shop hiding in the shadows. Organizations that we have supported through monetary donations, volunteer labor, or official contracts include, without limitation; Safe Embrace, Nevada Coalition for Suicide Prevention, Nevada Gay Men’s Chorus, Head Start, Walk the Talk America, Hillside Foursquare Church, Sparks Christian Fellowship, Texas Torah Institute, Reno Guns and Range, Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors’ Authority, Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce, Carson City Chamber of Commerce, multiple city, state, and county governmental departments and divisions, multiple court systems, multiple public and private youth sports leagues, and multiple high school athletics and music departments. And the list keeps growing.
In addition to those partnerships, we also guided the introduction and installation of school-based mental health services in multiple school districts in order to improve care access and to screen children at risk for suicide. Again, we were the first agency to do such a thing in this area, first with Washoe County schools, then with Lyon and Pershing Counties, and most recently with charter and private schools.
But we also wanted to make agency work desirable while growing the profession as a whole. We have proudly been a training facility for students and interns, and we also retain our employees for many years. Often, they leave to launch their own private practices or even their own agencies. The stability of our work environment has created a culture in which employees’ children can be found doing their homework in the conference room on sick days, infants might be in the reception area rocking in a bassinet, birthdays are celebrated regularly, and festive spirit weeks are held. We have Soup Wednesdays in the fall and winter, and we have an Easter egg hunt in the spring. We throw two parties per year. We never work on holidays, and we always close for at least a week at Independence Day, and from Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day. We provide health insurance, free continuing education, free intern supervision, a matching 401(k), lots of paid time off, and the comfort of a predictable salary, all while never being asked to work off the clock.
Furthermore, we are the only agency that does not utilize a wait list for new patients, and to our knowledge we are the only (remaining) agency in town that still accepts all five brands of Nevada Medicaid along with almost all major insurances. Couple that with the graduate students and we literally never have to turn away anyone for inability to pay or lack of insurance coverage, and the wait to get in is days, not months.
And finally, the volunteer work that I have been able to do personally in the community because of all this has been nothing short of a blessing directly from God himself. I am honored and privileged beyond belief to have my salary generated by my employees. It frees me up to do such things like supervision and mentorship, as well as dozens of talks and seminars annually within the Truckee Meadows, across the state, and throughout the nation. It affords me the opportunity to make professional connections literally around the world and to bring that knowledge and those emerging practices back here to our community. It also allowed me to serve for three years in our state government, helping improve the regulations that govern the entire mental health field, across all disciplines, in an effort to elevate Nevada from the cellar floor where we have been ranked for far too long.
In the end, we’re really just beginning. It’s hard to believe that more than a decade has passed, and yet simultaneously it’s totally believable. I mean, heck, I have two kids, ages 10 and 8 who weren’t even born when we formed the company! I eagerly anticipate new partnerships in the future, along with the current ones sustained, and I sincerely hope, in keeping with our mission statement, that you will choose to join us on our quest.
Jake Wiskerchen