Excelsior Youth Center, one of Spokane’s largest behavioral-health nonprofits, has changed leadership, transitioning to a new chief executive officer for the first time in the 34 years since its founding.

Robert Faltermeyer, founding CEO of Excelsior Youth Center, retired as top executive there at the end of last year, after serving in that position since 1982, but agreed to stay on for two more months in the role of organizational consultant to assist his successor, Andrew Hill.

“It is somewhat difficult to let go of something I’ve invested so much of my energy into, but it’s really been an incredible journey,” Faltermeyer says. 

One thing he says hasn’t been difficult is passing the torch to Hill.  

“I have confidence that Andrew will take this agency to the next level,” he says. “This type of succession planning is something many nonprofits struggle with but we developed a plan that’s worked out pretty well.”

Located at 3754 W. Indian Trail Road, Excelsior Youth Center provides comprehensive behavioral health services, primary and specialty medical services, and education services to at-risk adolescents and young adults, ages 10 to 21, and their families. Services include an onsite licensed medical clinic as well as fully accredited junior and senior high schools to address youth’s medical and educational needs.

The 55,000-square-foot center sits on a 34-acre site that includes an arboretum, outdoor courtyards, sports fields, gardens, recreation courts, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, and hiking trails.

The center employs a full-time staff of 110 people, plus 40 part-time pool workers, and each year admits an average of about 430 young people. Length of stay varies according to program, with the average length of stay being about 121 days for residential units, and 180 days for outpatient services. It is estimated that Excelsior has worked with around 3,500 families from 1982 to 2015. 

The center has a $9 million annual budget and receives funding from a mix of sources including direct payments from families, and federal, state, and county funding, along with grants and donations from various other sources.

Families that have an ability to pay for services do so on a sliding scale, based on financial information provided in their application. Excelsior doesn’t refuse services to families based on an inability to pay. Most programs serve Medicaid-eligible youth and families at no cost. 

Hill is originally from Port Orchard, Wash., and holds bachelor’s degrees in leisure service management, and mental health counseling from Eastern Washington University. He has a background as a child and family psychotherapist and operates a private practice at 140 S. Arthur. As Excelsior’s CEO, Hill still will operate the practice, although he will only be working minimal hours.  

Hill began working with Excelsior in 2008, starting out as a mental health therapist, and taking on various other roles, prior to being named CEO. 

 “I’ve always loved this area,” says Hill. “I feel one of the unique things about Spokane is the excellent collaboration between agencies within the health care community.”

According to Hill, Excelsior is the second largest social services nonprofit in the Spokane area, in terms of behavioral and mental health agencies. 

“There are other agencies that provide these services who are larger, with bigger budgets,” says Hill. “But when you look at the many services that make up their budget, the percentage they devote to behavior health is smaller compared to ours.”

Of the facility’s $9 million annual budget, Hill says, “In 2014 we were working with around $4.2 million. By 2015, our budget grew to a little over $5 million, and it has been growing rapidly. Managing that budget requires a lot of time, attention and thoughtfulness to ensure services remain excellent.” 

According to Hill, most of the budget’s growth in the past year has been due to an increase in services under the Spokane Regional Support Network. 

“The RSN is the county government (entity) that oversees mental health, substance use, housing, and developmental disability services. They contracted with us to develop some of these new programs, and that has been the main source of our growth,” he says. 

Hill says another source of growth comes from a state program called Wraparound with Intensive Services, or WISe. WISe was created as the result of a legal settlement that required the state’s Department of Social and Health Services and Health Care Authority to develop and provide mental health services to Medicaid-eligible young people in their homes or communities. The settlement will take five years to implement and will require legislative appropriation of several million dollars each year up to 2018.

“Through WISe, Excelsior is one of a handful of agencies that will now be equipped to provide those services, increasing our staff and serving more families. It’s a great program,” he says. 

In his 34 years working for Excelsior, Faltermeyer says he has seen the center transition from a child welfare agency to a fully-fledged facility providing mental health and substance use services, primary and specialty medical services, and education services.

 “The Affordable Care Act gave expansion to Medicaid for behavioral health services and with that expansion we were really able to improve and enhance our services, developing our outpatient programs,” he says. 

Hill says Faltermeyer’s early insights helped give the center its ideas for coordinating mental health care and substance abuse treatments. 

 “Without Bob taking that initiative early on, we’d be in the position of needing to expand the services we provide,” he says. “Instead we can serve as a model to other agencies of what integrated care looks like, and we’re so thankful to him for that.” 

Faltermeyer says staffing remains a challenge for the facility.

“We’re a 24-hour facility, so we have to have certain staffing patterns that fit that clock. This depends on having a flexible workforce. One way we get that flexibility is in hiring junior and senior students from academic programs at surrounding universities,” he says.

Hill says the center maintains a good relationship with area universities, serving as a training site for Washington State University nursing students, and behavioral health students from Eastern Washington University, Gonzaga University, and Whitworth University. 

“Many of those students come back to us as employees after they graduate their programs,” he says. “Without those relationships, we would certainly struggle more to find staff.” 

The center hopes to expand its staff this summer to include at least 20 more full-time workers.

While Faltermeyer believes the most challenging aspects of the job lie in managing the center’s business side, he acknowledges that working with at-risk teens isn’t for everyone. 

“We look for people with a good knowledge of adolescent development, and approaches to behaviors presented,” he says. 

Faltermeyer foresees a looming shortage for qualified mental health counselors, therapists, and others with behavioral health credentials, which will present a challenge for both Excelsior and the community. 

“Passion and commitment are definitely key characteristics needed for this work, and they can be tough to come by,” he says. 

In addition to hiring more staff, Hill says Excelsior plans to expand its hospital diversion programs, and its collaboration with other organizations on service programs that help provide youth the treatment and education they need.

 “The bottom line is that there are so many who need support, but not enough money to help them all,” he says. “Health and social service industries are committed to helping those individuals, so there’s no reason we can’t be collaborating to maximize our impact  and better the community.