Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America

Welcome to Why Not Me the World? Podcast hosted by
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us as our guests tell us their stories. Some will
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people who will inspire and show that you are not
alone in this world. Hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance,
and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi,
I'm Tony Mentor. Welcome to Why Not Me the World?
Today we have the pleasure of hosting Gabriella Salcido, who
established the Roman Empire Agency in twenty ten to provide
services to individuals with developmental disabilities. Currently operating in eight states,
she's striving to expand her services nationwide. Welcome to the show.
Yeah, thank you for inviting us.
Oh, it's my pleasure. How long have you been working
with autism, mental health and the special needs community?
About twenty four years or so. My starch started out
as a social worker for the state in California. I
did about ten years there and then after ten years,
I decided to open up my own company, and I've
been in business for about fourteen years or so in County. Oh.
That's perfect. When you started your company? Is that the
Roman Empire Agency.
Yeah.
Roman Empire Agency is kind of an umbrella because I
have several companies under that. I have a company called
Roman Empire Living Skills, Roman Empire ABA Services, and Roman
Empire ABA Agency.
Which one come first? How did you develop it and
evolved from there?
Yeah?
The first one that we developed was Roman Empire Living Skills.
But with that company, we provide services for a wide
range of disability diagnosis. And then after that, the ABA
Agency developed because the state was no longer going to
be funding services for behavioral therapy and the insurance was
now going to pick up that tab. So that's when
I created ABA Services and we have a contract with
about seven different states and with all the major health
insurances for every state.
Wow, that's great. What kind of a process was it
to get that started and then expand it to all
the other states that you're in currently.
I decided to expand to other states because I saw
that there was a really great need. And as I
more got into it and providing services, and then I
started asking in different states, I saw that the demand
was definitely there, and we are trying to expand to
more states. It's just a credentially process that sometimes to
a little bit of time.
One of the things that I hear from several different
people is autistic children. The autistic community pretty much all
across the country have the same needs. Unfortunately, it's the
way the different states operate that causes some issues. So
how do you handle that with the way that you
do business?
Well, the states are for instance, I'll tell you in California,
the way that it's run. In California, they have what
you call regional centers. The regional centers get state and
federal dollars to provide services and then they hire vendors
such as me to provide the services. In other states,
there is no regional center, so in other states, the
money goes directly to the vendors providing the surface, so
there's no person giving you referrals. You get the referrals
strictly from getting a contract with the state, and that's
how you get your business. In California, the way you
get your clients, it's through the regional center. They have
social workers, they manage the cases and then they give you,
for instance, me a venger, they give me a client.
I offer a.
Variety of services which I can explain and they may
tell me, I have a referral. This is the age bracket.
Can you guys provide services for this, you know, child
or adult? So depending on the state that you're in,
it's the type of services that sometimes you're going to
get rendered and sometimes you might get our services rendered
faster and some states than in other states.
When you deal with people that have issues with the
state and they're autistic and their families struggling, do you
find that the state will give you what you need
or do you still have to fight for the client
to get them everything that they need to move forward.
Yeah, you know what, it's kind of a challenge right now.
We're dealing with kind of a crisis. And every single
state in terms of like the majority of the states
to do behavioral therapy, with the exception of maybe California.
Below the age of twenty one, the insurance will pick
up the tab. So what happens sometimes is that depending
on the state, it makes it very hard for that
individual to get services because.
There's more requirements.
Maybe the child needs to have a diagnosis from a
psychologist not from the school, So sometimes the parents are
having a difficulty and number one getting their child diagnosed.
There's not a lot of people in the fields that
are diagnosing the kids fast enough, quick enough for them
to start the process to get services if your child
has autism. So sometimes depending on the state, it makes
it very difficult. There's a waiting list of clients depending
on the state, from one years to five years. I
can give you an example, for instance, Vegas there's a
five year waiting list. I could not believe when I
was at that state when the parents would tell me this,
because five years. Can you imagine all that time lost
from a child being from five to ten. It's like ridiculous,
Like things need to change and they should be formed
across the board with every state.
Absolutely, I've heard that many times. What ages do you
find yourself working with most.
Of the time right now for the autistic children and
providing behavioral therapy the majority of the clients, it's under
the age of ten. The statistics is right now that
one out of thirty six children get diagnosed with autism,
but one out of forty five adults are also getting
diagnosed with autism. But we provide the majority of the
services to children mostly under the age of ten years old.
Yeah, that's good to know. I found that one in
seven people around the world either knows someone or has
someone this autistic in their family.
Absolutely, yes, it's I think that your legislation has to
take a better look at this because we have a
crisis in a situation where there's a shortage of therapists
in the field. Just like there's a shortage of doctors
and nurses, we have a shortage of staff providing services
for these children and adults.
Yes, solutely, change is definitely needed. Now in some states
they age out at eighteen, in other states they age
out at twenty one. What do you do to help
those that have aged out? As we all know, autism
does not stop at eighteen or twenty one, it continues,
so they still need help definitely.
And I'm just going to give you like a really
brief rundown in terms of like how is it that
It all kind of starts, you know, like your child
has a disability and they tell the parent, Hey, your
child has this disability, whether it's autism, mental retradation, you know,
dual diagnosis, whatever, and then the question becomes to the parent,
I have this diagnosis, Now what do I do next?
What's going to be expected of my child transitioning into
like younghood and then adulthood. Right, that's the number one
worry of the parents. What's going to happen to me
when I die? What's going to happen to my child?
So I'm going to kind of give you like a
rundown in terms of, like the audience listening, a brief
rundown of like.
How things work and what you should be expecting.
And then if you guys want further information, you guys
are more than welcome to then join my website and
contact me directly.
That's great. What's first then, so when the.
Child first gates diagnosed, the type of services that are
offered to a child, which is the typical age to
diagnose someone is about four years of age. That's the
average age at four years of age, a child will
get diagnosed. If he's identified, then he has, you know,
some type of disability. So services like that could be
like early start, they give speech therapy, playtime, behavioral therapy,
and so forth. Great, the child is getting those services
when he's identified at early stages.
That makes total sense. What's next?
Then you go on to transitional, which is like the
child that becomes a teenager, well, what's offered to him
at that point? Behavioral therapy is also offered to him,
whether he has autism, whether he has mental retardation, whether
the child has down syndrome.
Also, the services that are.
Offered are adapted to skill, which is like, let me
go ahead and learn how to make my bed. Let
me learn that instead of grabbing food with my fingers,
I should be using a spoon. And this is how
you should be using your utensils. Some children that have
like more severe disabilities, they don't know like the mom
is always feeding them and things like that.
Independent living skills.
The parent that has a child that's a teenager, she
wants that child to be independent. She doesn't want to
have to do his bed, she doesn't want to have
to pick up his clothes, she doesn't even want to
have to do his laundry. She wants that child to
learn those are independent living skills.
That the child can get during the teenage years.
Now, I'm sure the next step is when they turn
eighteen or above. What's next?
Then the child becomes eighteen, So now what happens right,
Like that's the parents are going to be like what's
offered to my child at that point. So the type
of services that are offered to adults, it's independent living skills.
You still want that individual to learn how to be independent,
to be able to take access to public transportation, go
to the movies by himself, and learn how to count money,
learn how to manage, you know, a small amount of
money that maybe he's getting from the parents. And then
there's also the supported movie that he's available to get,
and that is let's just say the child gets a job,
he's by functioning and he wants to move out. The
state can provide services for that person to become not
only independent, but to have the supports in place for
that person to live alone one day without mom and
dad having to care for him.
Yeah, and that's a very scary thing for the parents.
Now do you help in that at all? With the
transitions like that.
Some of the things that we also offered in our
company is that we also try to educate. And I
mean this is even when I was a social worker,
I was always trying to educate the parents to make
sure that the parents wants the child turns eighteen, that
they get a conservativeship for the child. And I'll just
explain it briefly, what a conservative ship needs. Conservativeship means
that when the child becomes eighteen, they kind of gain
the rights of their child because after the age of eighteen,
he technically becomes an adult. So let's just say he
goes to the doctor, the doctor says, hey, you know,
we're gonna go ahead and prescribe this medication for him,
you know, because he's divating symptoms. And then a mom goes, no,
I don't like that medication. If she does not have
the conservatorship, she cannot advocate for her child anymore. So
a conservatorship is so important because not only will she
regain the rights medical but also financial to make the
right financial decisions for her child.
Yes, that's very important for both of them.
There's about nine powers that the court grants that no,
there's nine powers that there is, but usually the court
will grant you seven out of nine. One of them
that they will not give you is like you cannot
show your child who to marry or you know, who
to be involved with, which is kind of obvious, but
it's very important for the families to always seek that
conservatorship because you become like almost like the attorney for
your child. And you're always looking out for the best
interests of your child with that document.
Yeah, that's very important things for people to know. Do
you come to them or do you go to them?
How does that work out for your company?
They we get all the referrals in California, We get
those on the regional centers, right because we have a
contract with them and what the insurances were on the network.
But sometimes they may seek my services through my website.
Okay, that makes sense. Now, when you take on a
new client, you decide what they need. Do you go
to their homes to help them or do they come
to your office to decide what is needed to move
forward with your company.
All of our services that I've mentored are in the
community and in the home, all.
Right, So you actually go to their homes, look at
what they're doing, diagnose what's going on, and then formulate
a plan so that everything can get better for them
with your services.
Absolutely, and what we do is we do an individualized
service plan. So I'm going to do an assessment. I'm
going to assess the child. I'm and ask mom, dad, hey, listen,
what are his weakness is? What are his strength? Let's
meet together and tell me what you want him to accomplish,
and then, like I also said, a set of goals.
For instance, do you want him to learn money, well,
let's do money management goal. Do you want him to
make his own medical appointments, then let's make a health goal.
Do you want him to access the community, Well, let's
make a community goal for your child.
So it's very individualized on the.
Child, depending on the age bracket and also the disability
that he may have.
Yeah, that sounds like a tremendously good plan. Now, once
you have that laid out, you've done your diagnosis of
what the family needs, then you lay out what they
need to do to accomplish it. Have you had situations
where you look at everything, you have your reservations if
this will work or not. Then you get working with them,
they are following through, you still have your doubts, but
then all of a sudden, it just works out. Have
you had that happen?
Absolutely.
My company also not just deals with children to do
behavioral therapy and different types of disapl but we have
a small percentage of our clients that are referred to
us that are forensically involved. What I mean is that
they got in trouble with the law. The court calls
us and tells us, hey, listen, can you guys help
this individual.
So, like somebody that's gotten.
Involved with the law that will get arrested, they can't
call the probation officer and report to the probation officer
every single day. So they'll call me and they say, hey, Gubby,
can you rehabilitate this client? And I'll tell them yes,
let me work with that client that has a disability.
I'll report to the court. I'll let them know the
progress that we're making. And to be quite honest, we've
had a huge success that we end up closing the
cases very successfully. We end up getting them a job,
and they're just like really really good, you know, after
they work with our agency.
That's great to know. What are some of the steps
that you do to help that transition. I've heard from
several people and there seems to be a big gap.
There are are several charities trying to build that bridge
between autism and the first responders. So do you do
that collectively or individually?
So we do.
We do a lot of events in different states. We
kind of like are always giving our information out. We
have a lot of information on our website. We're always
you know, sponsoring events because we want the community to
feel supported. If there's such a high knee, let's just
say that some of these faminies they don't know where
to get services. They don't know how to get services.
It's almost like they have to self educate themselves. So
I as an agency, having worked on the inside as
a social worker and also outside now as you know,
my own vendor, like I can really educate the families
and walk them through the whole process so they're not
really kind of like terrified, like what's going to happen now?
Like your child has rights, your child can get services,
but knowing how to get to those services is sometimes that. Yeah,
you need to bridge that gap into the community. You
need to educate the community.
Yes, that's so right. The education part of it is
just so tremendously important. Have you ever had anyone you
worked with that did so well that after you got
them through it, they went in, they studied, they went
to school, then all of a sudden they became therapists
and came to work for you.
You know, it's funny because we've had actually therapists work
for us that they did not disclose that they actually
had autism because they were very high functioning. When we
found out, we were just like very amazed. We were
very excited. Is there is someone that has a capacity
to help another client, We are more than welcome to
bring them on board because we've had situations like that
that we were just not aware and they worked out great.
You know. So it's a possibility.
We have kind in a lot of our clients that
are high functioning jobs like at Bourhouse. You know, like
we've been so successful in getting our clients' jobs in
the workforce that despite the fact that they have a disability,
it does not impair them to be very successful.
Yeah, that's so true. I think that's awesome that you
help out and do that. As you know, the autistic
community is either unemployed or underemployed. It's not good.
Absolutely. Yes.
Yes, we became partners with Amazon and they now have
like a department in which they hire a lot of
clients with the disability and they're trying to support the
community in that sense. And there's Amazon's everywhere and they
have that department where you can apply if you have
a disability and they will hire you.
Yeah, I think that's really good. How many people do
you have working for you now? I mean you've got
eight different locations in several different states. You have a
lot of people working at your organization.
It is you know what.
It's so funny because I started with one point, to
be quite honest with you, and since I was very
knowledgeable in the services, I had a sitting that I
was just going to be a great success and I
was going to offer the clients something that nobody else
was offering because I wanted to be different. And right
now I have honestly over a thousand clients and over
a thousand employees and still growing. Like we get the
referrals that we get on a monthly basis, it's a lot.
Wow, that's great. Now you're in California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Washington, Hawaii, Tennessee,
and Florida. Yes, now you're thinking of expanding from there?
Yes, I want to go to other states because honestly,
there is such a high need. We are right now
credential with Tricare, which is the military clients that are
connected with the military, because there's really a high need
for them as well. But yeah, I would love to
provide services in every single state if I could.
Yeah, I think that's a great thing to think about doing.
It will help a lot of people. Plus, it didn't
take you long to get to the eight States, so
I don't think that's anything that's out of the possibilities
of happening. I think that's great.
Yeah, it's just a process.
Like every state has about maybe twelve to fourteen insurances,
so it's just a matter of time before one insurance
a preves you. It takes about nine months or so.
If you're dealing with like state medical and stuff like that,
they take a little bit longer. Sometimes they can take
up to two years, so sometimes that's a little bit
of a hold up depending on the state. But right now,
we're trying to apply to as many states as we can.
But if we were to have let's just say a
client in let's say, oh my god, a state that
we were not in and they have like the military insurance,
we can provide services for them right away.
Well, that's definitely a good thing to know. What do
you do in a case where someone might call you
You're not in that state yet, so do you refer
them to someone else? What do you do in a
case like that.
There's different ways to actually do it.
They can actually call their insurance and they can tell
them that, hey, listen, I really want this company to start.
And what they will do is a private agreement with
me so that I can provide services.
It's kind of like an individual private agreement.
They expedite the process, but I can only work with
that specific client, so it doesn't matter what state it is.
We can walk them through if they really want my
agency to provide.
That's a great thing to know. You said it takes
sometimes two to five years. These people can't wait two
to five years. Is there a quick thing to where
you can help them? Or they still need to find others?
What do you do in cases like that where they
just don't have the time.
It's unfortunate, but sometimes I tell the families, like, work
with us, We're not going to take two to five years.
I'm sorry that you've dealt with that, and we really
try to expectate them. So let's just say they've had
such bad luck with other companies.
That are not able to perform for them.
I have been in a situation where like, Okay, it's
not going to take that long, but it'll probably take
between six months to nine months, you know, and so
then the families get really exciting. The problem that we're
having right now is, like I'll give you an example.
Depending on the state, the requirements are so high for
the therapists to provide services.
They have to be state registered.
They have to be sometimes they have to be certified
and have an exam that they have to take. So
that makes it more difficult to find the therapists that
are state registered so I can get them up and
running to work with the clients. I think that the
states have to be all unison, and one state shouldn't
be harder than the other one.
If they all kind.
Of came uniform, I think the children, regardless of the state,
would be able to get services much faster that way.
Yeah, that's where we need to get the federal government
more involved. Absolutely, like a national health service that would
cover a situation just like you're talking about.
Yes, because it is just and we actually need to
also do more community outreach and really kind of go
to the colleges and really kind of have this talk
with the universities and kind of like persuade the students
to go into this field that it's very great. You
know that it's a good paying job and we need workers,
and there has to be that voice of someone to
say please, you know, like more people need to join
the programs so that they're able to be field workers.
You know, we need workers. You know, we have a
lack of workers out there. Nobody wants to really get
into this field, so we have to make it enticing again.
We have to open those doors to our students so
that they're able to graduate and work in this type
of service.
Yeah, that's very, very important for sure. One of the
biggest things that I find out because of the people
I speak with is they are just so overwhelmed when
they first find out and they just don't know what
to do at all. They don't know what's available out there,
they don't know what service, what agency. They are just
so overwhelmed with their child and trying to help them.
The states don't need to make it easier, They need
to make the process quicker so people like yourself can
get out there and help those that really need it.
Absolutely, if I can tell you right now, depending on
the states that we work, I can tell you California
is the number one state that offers a lot to
our clients. And one thing that they did recently that
has been great they increase the rates for the vendors.
So what does that mean? That means that we can
fear workers more money. That mean that I can be
able to pull more workers and they'll be happy and
they'll get paid well and they'll be more enticed to
get into the field. But if you were to go
to another state, and I'll give you an example, Arizona. Arizona,
they can get behavioral therapy, not a problem through the insurance.
But when you talk about having your child that's an
adult or like a teenager, the services that are out there,
they're not really that many out there. There needs to
be more companies like me to open up these type
of services in different states.
Maryland is one.
Maryland is another state that is very run exactly like California.
But California does offer a variety of services for anyone
at and also any age.
That's such great information. How do people get in touch
with you?
I will provide you my website. I will also provide
my phone numbers. So if families have a question, they
can text me or they can email me, and then
I can give them information of how to acquire any
services that they may need for their child or their adults.
If they need information on conservatorship, I can also guide
them where to go get it for free so they
don't have to play an attorney. So I can give
them kind of like tips of what to do with
their child or they don't.
That's great. I think everyone will appreciate that. So what
is your website?
Absolutely, the company is called Roman Empire Agency. The website
is www. Romanempireagency dot com.
That's great. Then from there they can go into your website,
figure out which state that you're in and they're in,
and contact you from there.
Yeah, that's a central number, ty. I have a few
staffs that will pick up that line and then they'll
route it to the right department. I will provide all
of you audience my email that you guys can email
me directly, and if you guys have questions, you can
just say I heard your information throughout the podcast. My
direct email is Gabby Gabby at Roman Empireagency dot com.
I am the owner and I'm also the founder. I'm bilingual.
I also speak Spanish, and I can definitely help all
the families out there.
I think that's great, a lot of information, a lot
of things that people can contact you about, anything else
that you'd like to say.
So one of the things I'm going to say before
you know our session is over is that I'm a
very proud agency because we became partners with the Cardinals
here in Arizona, the Cardinals Stadium with NFL. We're actually
sponsoring a sensory room and we're utilizing it to give
the kids a break when they need a break from
you know, loud noises there at the stadium. Hopefully we
can continue to get more partnerships here so that we're
able to offer that to the community.
Oh that's really awesome, really really good. I appreciate you
coming on.
Thank you for having us on the show.
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