CEO of AHP Workforce, Susan Nancarrow, and The Allied Health Academy’s Gary Morgan recently caught up with Clare Groves to discuss her journey from occupational therapist to successful healthcare entrepreneur.
With a background in crisis assessment and treatment (CAT), Clare’s unique experiences have shaped her business approach, as well as her drive to revolutionise mental healthcare. Clare talks about how an occupational therapist functions in CAT teams, what it can be like for an AHP to start and develop a business, coping with the loneliness of running a business, the importance of a solid exit strategy, and the realities of pivoting from one allied health business to another.
Her ability to navigate the complexities of the healthcare system, negotiate with corporate giants, and create innovative models of care is instructive for allied health professionals who seek to pivot their innovations into private practice.
Early Career and Introduction to Crisis Assessment Treatment (CAT) Teams
Clare started her career as an occupational therapist but quickly realised that it wasn’t fulfilling her professional aspirations. However, her path took an unexpected turn when she joined a crisis assessment treatment team in Vancouver. This role involved working alongside police and ambulance services, providing front-line assistance to individuals experiencing acute mental ill-health.
“It gave me a very high tolerance for risk from the get-go, that was just my ‘normal’, and I credit my entrepreneurial spirit to that in some ways, because I could sit with a lot of risk and mitigate. It was an incredible introduction to governance and risk mitigation.”
As Clare explains, CAT teams are the first responders to mental health emergencies. They determine whether individuals could be treated within the community or require increased levels of clinical care to recover under the Mental Health Act, or receive community-based treatment. Clare’s role involved working in the community and emergency departments.
“I was on night shifts and feeling just that there’s a better way than this—as all entrepreneurs start off with—and idealistically thought, ‘surely there a better models of care for people with significant mental health concerns’. With the rough and tumble in the public sector, the demand is so high and you discharge people quickly; it can create a lack of continuity of care and escalate help seeking behaviours. I was searching for a better solution and wanted to build my business acumen. Whilst on shift one evening, I decided to enrol in an MBA which built my skills and confidence to execute on my idea and dream.”
Founding Clarity and its Vision
At the age of 26, Clare decided to pursue her vision of providing high-quality, community-based care. She founded Clarity, an innovative mental health service, with the goal of reducing hospital admissions and empowering consumers. Clare developed a model that focused on long-term community-based treatment, skill-building, and making the service redundant as patients regained independence. Clarity’s ethos resonated with Clare’s values and aimed to be a genuine alternative to traditional hospital-based care.
Initially, Clare operated Clarity on her own, driving around and testing the viability of the business and clinical model. As the business grew, she expanded the team. With an in-depth understanding of the possible billing systems and the interrelation between public and private healthcare sectors, Clare positioned Clarity as a service that could hold complex, acute consumers without the use of inpatient care (wherever possible). Her ultimate goal was to reach more consumers through commissioning programs with public and private funding bodies.
“We had a mix of revenue streams in the first few years with Medicare and other public funding. From here, I ensured I was evaluating our effectiveness consistently to ensure a compelling narrative when opportunities presented themselves. I did start with very little capital; if you can start without a business loan, that’s even better!”
Clare explains that in the early days of Clarity, she focused on strategic thinking and creating clear space to plan and reflect. As an entrepreneur, she found the journey to be lonely, especially as the business grew and she became less involved in the day-to-day operations. Clare had expected that expanding the team would alleviate some of the loneliness, but she found that the responsibility increased as she had to guide and lead more people.
Despite the challenges, the company has positioned itself as a provider of community-based care for complex mental health consumers with complex psychosocial needs. With data-driven outcomes showing a reduction in admissions by over 90%, Clarity had a significant advantage in negotiations with funders.
Pivot to Founding
It was during COVID that Clare made the decision to pivot to a new company, Founding, which provides entrepreneurs with business coaching and mental health support.
“I was running out of steam and had carried the significant clinical governance responsibility for close to ten years. We got through COVID, and I contacted someone to discuss facilitating the sale of Clarity, and he was amazing.”
Despite the challenges, she remained dedicated to her work; continuing to carry a case load of consumers through her whole time at Clarity. This allowed her to have a firsthand understanding of the issues within the contracts and address them effectively for better outcomes. In the midst of these challenges, Clare faced the decision of finding an exit strategy for Clarity to ensure it could continue to grow without Clare being the “key person risk”. Clarity has now transitioned to new owners following a lengthy negotitation and they continue to go from strength to strength.
The launch of Founding
Clare describes Founding’s niche service offering: “When you’re an entrepreneur, founder and CEO, a therapist [might not] understand the responsibility—the mental strategies needed to manage the unique stress of owning and running a business. And then you have business coaches who don’t necessarily have the ability to assist you in assessing and understanding the mental health issues to ensure a speedy and adequate resolution. Sometimes you just need a sanity check around the finances, and you need someone to look at it and go: ‘you’re bloody doing a great job’; or, ‘yes, you are proportionately anxious/stressed, given the finance, given your profit and loss, it’s fair enough, so what can we do given this’; or ‘actually you have a mental health concern, and your profit and loss is strong’. So [Founding’s service offering means] bringing together the mental health and the finances so that we can actually see: ‘is your stress proportionate?’; or ‘it’s starting to look like your business is picking up speed, and there’s a bit of an underlying mental health issue going on.’
“Not to mention, all of us with our histories, we’ve got different trauma associated with money or risk—how do you unpack that so someone can say what they’re thinking, how they’re interpreting the world, and whether it’s realistic or trauma-related? And how does that translate through the staff and the company—because it can ripple.”
Clare Groves’ transition from occupational therapy to entrepreneurship really highlights the importance of personal experiences in driving innovation, and underscores the importance of risk tolerance, governance, and a patient-centric approach.
Follow Clare on LinkedIn, or view her business website.
We’ve recently launched the Empowering Allied Health Entrepreneurs Learning Community & Pre-Accelerator Program, designed to bridge the gap between clinical expertise and business acumen, helping you create a profitable service delivery model that empowers you to do more of the work you love. We’re offering a limited number of placements, commencing October 12. Please view our overview page to learn more.
