As part of my PIVOT fellowship, I had the privilege of interning at TCARE, a venture company in St. Louis started by a WashU alum. TCARE is a health care company that offers software solutions aimed at preventing caregiver burnout and early placement of older adults into long-term care facilities, among other health care outcomes. TCARE’s evidenced-based assessments and care management services have been successful in saving health companies across the US a substantial amount of money while supporting caregivers and their families.
When I was offered a position to intern at TCARE by the CEO, I was ecstatic to intern in a business that does social good while being profitable. My goals for the internship were to learn about entrepreneurship and how my graduate training could translate to industry. I was also hoping to develop industry skills that I could later use in my own work to strengthen families and communities. While at TCARE, I was tasked with leading the adaptation of their main assessment to fit the foster care industry. Given my background in child welfare practice and research, I was thrilled to bring expertise to a project that would contribute to placement stability and permanency for foster youth. My first day at TCARE involved a meeting with leadership from a national Medicaid Insurance carrier and TCARE.
The purpose of the meeting was for the national Medicaid Insurance Carrier and TCARE to ensure that there was a clear understanding of the goals for the project. I was excited as I spoke to the national Medicaid Insurance Carrier’s leadership team and learned about their vision for the project. To prepare for the assessment adaptation, I reviewed the extensive research on the TCARE assessment, as well as additional research on foster caregiver support and needs. Soon after I began coordinating and leading meetings with the VP of Foster Programs from the national Medicaid Insurance Carrier, the TCARE Chief Product Officer (CPO), and a TCARE case manager. The adaptation of the assessment was an iterative process that involved so much learning and growth. For example, as someone who generally prefers a shared leadership approach, it took me a while to adjust to leading the project as a “main expert” in a team of mostly executives.
I also learned a lot about interdisciplinary communication and project management. I was fortunate to be able to see the launch of our assessment and to conduct a simple evaluation of the assessment implementation. I learned that there were a few challenges with implementation, including that some of the families being referred to TCARE had different circumstances than what the assessment was created for. I provided an evaluation and recommendation summary to the CEO and CPO. After meeting with some of the TCARE leadership, I was given the opportunity to carry out some of the recommendations I made on improving the assessment. I worked with two fantastic TCARE managers to develop additional assessments that better captured the different circumstances of families referred to TCARE. My hope is that upon release of the additional assessments, TCARE will be better positioned to support more families.
Overall, I had a great experience interning at TCARE. I developed and gained confidence in my leadership skills and learned so much about product development in industry. I am incredibly grateful to the TCARE CEO, Ali Ahmadi for hosting me and supporting me along the project. I am also thankful to TCARE care managers, Cheri Popelka and Kara Mahoney, TCARE Chief Product Officer Mike Mings, and the national Medicaid Insurance Carrier VP of Foster Programs for working with me to develop a product that will benefit many children and families.
María Gandarilla Ocampo is a 4th year Ph.D. student in social work at Washington University who wrote this blog as part of her Pivot 314 Fellowship.