How Turning Winds Helped Pass SB191: Expanding Mental Health Care in Montana

This is what it sounds like when a treatment provider steps up—not just for their own families, but for an entire state.

In this episode of the Turning Winds Podcast, host Kevin Zundl sits down with John and Owen Baisden to share how they helped write and advocate for Montana Senate Bill 191 (SB191)—a groundbreaking piece of bipartisan legislation that creates a new license for Residential Treatment Centers (RTCs) in the state.

They discuss what prompted the effort, how the licensing gap impacted families with commercial insurance, and why SB191 is a vital step forward for Montana’s mental health landscape. The conversation also touches on what this means for access to care, regulatory oversight, and Turning Winds’ commitment to being part of the solution.

Whether you're a parent, provider, or policymaker, this behind-the-scenes look offers inspiration on how meaningful change happens—one bill, one voice, and one community at a time.

To learn more about Turning Winds, visit turningwinds.com or call 800-845-1380.

Transcript

This is what it sounds like as you work to expand access to care, not just for the families you serve each day, but for the families across an entire state. By helping shape legislation that makes it possible. We looked at the big picture. We really want to make an impact where we're providing treatment.

And be a blessing to anyone. Whether you're another provider competing against us, it doesn't really matter at the end of the day. We just wanted to do what's best for Montana and the kids in Montana and families in Montana. Welcome to the Turning Winds Podcast. I'm Kevin Zundl. Turning Winds offers a full continuum of care for teens in need of stronger clinical and academic support.

In today's episode, we go behind the scenes as they sit down with John and Owen to talk to them about a bill. That's now headed to the Montana Governor's desk. Let's get into it. What we're diving into is SB 1 91 and what that is, why it's important, and what it's gonna  mean for client care in the end. My first question to both of you is, what is SB 1 91?

SB 1 91 is, it's a bill that we wrote together with some ex Department of Health and Human Services personnel and with Senator Cuff, and it basically creates a new license in Montana for residential treatment center. That didn't exist prior. It doesn't exist now actually, but it will exist in October.

And so the need for SB 1 91, the reason that John and I have been. Looking at this and trying to make it happen is because a lot of the insurance providers in Montana, they won't cover residential treatment services in the state because of the lack of a license that we will have in October, but we didn't have, and so we work with kids from all over the country and we utilize their insurance.

But Montana gets, it's been very difficult to get in Montana, and correct me if I'm wrong, but in Montana we only have two licenses. A therapeutic group home in a psychiatric residential treatment facility. Now, out of those two, it's only the PRTF, the psychiatric residential treatment facility license that is recognized by the payers, specifically Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana in the state of Montana.

And so if you're a family and you want care in the state of Montana. You have commercial insurance through BCBS, Montana, your only option of the PRTF programs. And Kevin, there's only just two or three of those programs in the state of Montana. There's two in Montana, there's two limited, limited. Like what are your options?

And so Owen and I were looking at this and we're like, there's gotta be a better way to serve our Montana people. They're limited to two P RTFs to send their kid. To treatment if they have any mental health issues or needs. Right. And then the other issue too, aside from that, is you look at Montana, you look at their data and like the number one reason why Montana kids get referred outta state, it's because there's no beds available in Montana and it's because there's only two PRTs Anyway, we looked at this from a lot of different viewpoints and there's a lot of solutions that this RTC bill.

Solves for Montana people and it's just a common sense Bill that the majority of Democrats or Republicans voted for and supported in the House and the Senate and it went a lot better. Actually, Owen didn't it than I thought. I thought there would be some opposition. We're just so used to that. But yeah, it's true.

We are used to a lot of that, right? This was very smooth sailing, but mental health in Montana is a bipartisan. It's a bipartisan thing. Montana is actually a really interesting state because there's not like a lot of political divide. As we were going through this process, we watched a lot of other  bills being passed and, and most everything, the Democrats and Republicans are together on most everything in Montana, which is refreshing from what we're used to on a national level.

And so it is very bipartisan. It's something that makes sense. Montana kids. We need to say in Montana for treatment and if possible, and not go out of state for treatment. Yeah, I don't think that was a hard one for everybody to pass. And I don't know if John told you this, Kevin, but everything in Montana, like the Department of Health and Human Services, even a new license, it has to be legislatively done.

So Montana's a unique state in a lot of ways, and there are good ways, I think. But yeah, this is gonna be a game changer for. For Montana families and Montana kids, they, they can stay closer to home. John mentioned the psychiatric residential treatment facility license that is, it's, it's for higher acuity kids.

And so the reason for a residential treatment facility license is it's a kind of a moderately acute kid, uh, low to moderate  acuity level. And so basically if you had insurance in Montana right now, even last year, the year before and even up until this license is available. Your kid's struggling.

You wanna keep your kid in Montana, you have to send, if it's not a high acuity kid, you still have to send them in with high acuity kids, which is, it complicates the treatment process significantly. So it's good, it's very positive. It really underscores the fact that there was a need. Everyone was able to come together and put together a solution, and in the end, unanimously get it through.

That's truly a win that I think is gonna be a benefit to families. My understanding is there's requirements like staff to patient ratio, staff qualifications, trainings, background checks, specific policies. Is that something that it's a concept now or is that part of it gonna be set and the details under that we're gonna follow?

Yeah, in concept, those things are mentioned in the framework. So as minimum staff to student ratio, although not defined. Background checks for your employees, so it's all in the framework and it's gonna be further defined and developed as the license is being written. John mentioned that when this passed the Senate initially and then it went to the house, the house added a few things in there, which is additional requirements for unplanned site visits, and there's a phone that always has to be available to kids that will dial out to Montana Abuse hotline if they need to make a call.

Then there's also a requirement for. Unmonitored video calls one day a week. The house threw those things in and then it went back to the Senate. Senate passed it unanimously. So there are details that are already hammered out because the house committee put those in, but all the rest of the details will be hammered out during the license writing process.

Yeah, and I just have to say, Kevin, this was an idea that was really spawned by Owen and we weren't sure how it was gonna end up. We missed, like Owen mentioned before, we missed. Gate, so to speak, two years ago with the legislative session in Montana. And Montana is unique in that it only has legislative sessions every two years.

Uh, most states they do legislative sessions every year. And so if you miss two years, you gotta wait two years. That's a long time to wait. And so there was a little bit of gamble. We didn't know how this was gonna turn out. We didn't know if there was gonna be enough support. We didn't know if there was gonna be a senator that wanted to sponsor our bill.

And it's cool just to look at how this all unravel. How it all played out and the immense support, regardless of whether or not you're Republican, Democrat, seems like everyone came together to support a common sense Bill because it's gonna be beneficial for everybody in the end. And so I. It was a beautiful process going through the legislative process and seeing firsthand what that looks like in our own state.

And anyway, yeah, kudos to Owen for striving and trying something new and for sticking with it. And we missed the first legislative session was Do it again, and we were all the more prepared the second time, second go around and uh, just had a great team to support us with the Montana group, people that had worked formally for D-P-H-H-S, who were very much in support of this bill as well.

We just had a lot of really smart, good people that really brought us through this process, and for me, I think it's such an interesting new way to see how Turning Winds is really working to help families. It's just like I can wrap my head around easily, okay, you have a clinician and a teen. Okay, that's easy.

I'm expecting that. But really it's like how much work really happens? To make sure that families and teens get the care they need. This is really a good example of it. So as a parent, thank you. That's a good thing. And I do have to add, and no one hit on this, Kevin, you hinted at it. This ties into really who we are as an organization, right?

And this is so reflective of the work that we're engaged in. We really want the best for Montana. We want the best possible treatment opportunities for the people in Montana. We are willing to put that work in and make those sacrifices. We're looking at the big picture, and I think that's exactly what we did with this license in Montana.

We looked at the big picture. We really want to make an impact where we're providing treatment. I. Be a blessing to anyone. Whether you're another provider competing against us, it doesn't really matter at the end of the day. We just wanted to do what's best for Montana and the kids of Montana and families in Montana and providers.

It is really reflective of who we are as an organization and all that we do. If you're a family exploring treatment options for your teen, I encourage you to pick up the phone and share your story with Turning Winds at 800-845 1380. And be sure to check out the many other episodes in this series where we explore the real work philosophies and treatment approaches behind the outcomes Families counter.

You'll also find a wealth of resources on their website at turningwinds.com.