We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Patsy Dolan Bouressa. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Patsy below.

Patsy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the story behind how you got your first job in field that you currently practice in.

Part of being in graduate school for Social Work involves your “practicum” or internship. I had always intended to work with teenagers and felt very fortunate to have my final internsthip of grad school in a residential treatment facility for mentally ill children ages 5-18. My internship was 6 months in length and I fell in love with the work. After my internship ended and upon graduation, I was employed by the same facility as a PRN therapist, someone who filled in when full-time therapists were out on vacation and such. I immediately was asked to come in and start training with a therapist who was going out on maternity leave in about 2 months. The day I was to start training with her, her baby arrived early so I found myself working full time. That was extremely terrifying to me because that therapist worked with children under the age of 10, an age group with whom I had no experience. After approximately 2 months, the Medical Director came to me to ask if I wanted to work there full-time on a teenage unit and I jumped at the chance.

Patsy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

During my 16+ years in social work, I worked in a variety of settings with a diverse range of clients.  My career began at a residential treatment facility for mentally ill children and teens. I then created and managed the only therapeutic re-entry program for incarcerated individuals in the state of Texas.  After 5 years working in that environment, I joined a psychiatric hospital as the Outpatient Services Director where I worked with my team to create the hospital’s first partial hospitalization program.

I’ve always been a vocal advocate for those dealing with mental health and substance use issues and have served on many committees and working groups dedicated to improving the way in which behavioral healthcare services are delivered.  Currently, I work with the Austin Opioid Workgroup, the Planning Network Advisory Committee, and the Substance Use Disorder Workgroup in addition to partnering with several local non-profits who are focused on educating others about mental health and substance use issues and on destigmatizing these issues.

Prior to obtaining my Masters in Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin, I had a lengthy career in Human Resource Management.  The skills honed during my time in human resources continue to serve me well as I work to ensure that SIMS Foundation is stable and prepared to expand in both scope and reach.

The SIMS Foundation is the only non-profit of its kind. SIMS provides musicians, music industry professionals, and their dependent family members access to mental health and substance use services and supports that allow them to thrive. SIMS has been at the forefront of making emotional well-being a priority, working to eliminate stigma, educate the public, and arm the music community with the resources needed to look out for themselves, and each other.

I am very proud of SIMS, our staff and all the amazing work that is done helping our clients with their behavioral healthcare needs. SIMS provides over 1400 case management hours to ensure our clients’ wellbeing and also provide hundreds of hours assisting those in the music industry across the nation with finding care in their area.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

I would absolutely choose to be a Social Worker all over again. I spent a great deal of time exploring my options when I decided to return to graduate school. I chose social work because of its holistic approach. I knew I wanted to be a mental health professional but purposely chose social work over other programs because of the social work focus on the person as a whole and not just on their mental health issues. Instead, my education was much more systemic in nature, recognizing that all humans live, work, exist in a myriad of “systems” and only focusing on the individual’s mental health challenges can be short sighted.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I think everyone has a “pivot story” due to the pandemic! SIMS is no different. Thankfully, moving to doing everything online and via phone was not a huge change for us. So, I will focus on my change from years as a Human Resource Professional to my new career as a Social Worker.

I conducted my 16th layoff when I closed the office for the last company for which I worked as an HR Manager. I was given a year’s severance, which was unbelievably generous. This allowed me a great deal of time to regroup and really explore what I wanted my next steps to be for my career. Just three months after the office closed, 9/11 happened. Because I was unemployed, I was glued to my television. As reports of Flight 93 started rolling out, my very first thought was of those passengers who knew they were going to die and hoping that they all were happy about where their life was at that point. I realized that I was not happy about where my life was at that point. So, despite loving my career in Human Resource Management, I took the next several months investigating a variety of different graduate programs and schools, ultimately settling on Social Work.

Contact Info:

• Website: simsfoundation.org
• Instagram: @simsfoundation
• Facebook: @simsfoundation
• Twitter: @SIMSfoundation

Image Credits
Todd Wolfson took the photo of me. Dave Pedley took the concert photos