welcome to CEO insights I'm Marilyn Guzman with investing News Network I'm speaking with Doug paage CEO of Pure Life healthc Care Management and Doug is providing his insights on the issue of mental health in his company's efforts to address some of the challenges around providing essential care hello dog hey Marilyn thanks so much for having me today yes it's very good to have you let's uh just guess start of our conversation with just an overview of Pure Life Healthcare Management and your


offerings awesome well thank you again for having me today very excited to be here and describe a little bit about the the challenges that we're trying to solve so really Pure Life Healthcare Management is is is around trying to I think provide complex Care Management so we certainly see a significant amount of stress within the Health Care System across Canada and Frank around the world these days and so really what we're trying to do is is come in and provide an integrated Healthcare Management


System where you know we provide over 20 different services to individuals that are looking for health care support and so we've got a specialization inside of that though with sort of complex Care Management specifically around trauma and PTSD we see significant you know increase in that or certainly an acknowledgement and understanding of mental health issues over the last few years um and we consistently see healthare systems that are ultimately responding to symptoms and not often dealing with some of the underlying


issues and so what we're trying to do is we're trying to build out a system where we control sort of an ecosystem that provides these 20 plus different services that ultimately clients and individuals can come into our system and spend the majority of their time you know really focusing on healing and getting better as opposed to understanding how to navigate a system trying to find Specialists trying to find referrals because every time that we see somebody come into into the system um ultimately they're referred to


somebody else referred to somebody else and each time they leave one office to leave go and find another is another time that we see often a lot of people not showing up and so really we believe by creating a single ecosystem we not only create very sticky clients which are beneficial for our our shareholders um but also ultimately get much better outcomes for clients especially when you're looking at some of the complex care when it comes to PTSD and mental so Doug in Reading sort of some of the information from your company um


we see a lot of the mention around W round service could you just explain to our uh audience what wraparound service means from your perspective absolutely so wraparound care services are really meant to be able to provide sort of a full spectrum of support to anybody walking in our door so You' be able to walk in and and we would both you know literally and figuratively wrap our our arms and services around you so you'd be able to walk in see a doctor you know see walk down the hallway to see a pharmacist a


massage therapist a podiatrist um you know a physiotherapist any of these services that you might need in order whether you are trying to heal physically or mentally with that and so really what we're trying to do is is be able to provide that One-Stop shop for individuals to be able to come in and get those services that they need so often what we see across the country is is individuals that have to sort of Bounce between locations get referrals um and every time that an individual moves a location ultimately is an


opportunity where they don't show up again at the next location and so really what we're trying to do is make it as easy as possible for individuals to come into a single location to be able to heal and get the support that they need really we want to take that pressure off of the provincial Health Care Systems the emergency rooms um the walk-in clinics to be able to provide the supports and and really that special Iz care especially when it comes to complex individuals to be able to provide the


sports that they need with so um I want to talk and get your insights on sort of the current landscape of trauma and mental illness in Canada or in North America you know you there's some segment of the populations population that are at most at risk for these um um issues right and like could you talk a bit more about sort of that landscape and where do you see the gaps are in addressing this issue yeah well I I mean first and foremost we we we really view it as as a health care issue not an illness issue


really with it right and so for us it's it's about providing the best supports and part of our difficulty in what I think we want to work on is is being able to quantify these things a little bit better depending on which sort of study you read depending on what information you're accessing depending on you know what country you're even looking at it's difficult to get a perfect picture of what it is certainly here in Canada and the US some of the sort of federal uh sort of stats Canan


models show that about 3 and a half% of the population at any one time has um symptoms consistent with what would be a PTSD diagnosis a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis um about 10% of the population have likely had it at some point in their life um but we don't know for sure a lot of those numbers are outdated and often you know only in the last few years have we really seen any increase I think in an openness and a willingness to start talking about mental health struggles that quite


frankly everybody has to varing extents and certainly over the last couple of years it's been very trying and a lot of you know fractures and and gaps in the system exist and so really what we're trying to do is is being able to go out find those individuals make sure that they know that there's a place that they can come and get a diagnosis and so we've got an amazing partnership with a not for-profit cult Heroes Haven that actually provides free ttsd testing peer support and actually will help uh


fundraise money to to fill in a lot of those those funding gaps that might exist for for benefits or healthc care models and so really going out and trying to provide those services that allow individuals to come in and spend a lot of their time focused on healing as opposed to understanding how to navigate the system and get very basic supps and I guess one of the challenges as you mentioned with what with mental health or you know mental health issues is that it's most ly it's commonly um


sort of an an invisible disability right so it's not you know it's not physical you can't see it um so how do you look at solving sort of that Gap and that puzzle in in in you know making that a little bit more out in the open more mainstreaming being talked about yeah it's a it's a great question right and so I think there's a lot of individuals companies media programs that spend a lot of time I think trying to normalize mental heal health and the the fact that all of us deal with our own levels of of


stress um and and supports and all of us have a different level of support and network around us some of these um folks that have you know symptoms consistent with the PTSD um sort of diagnosis are often suffering and silence and so they they don't have family supports they don't have you know social supports they might not have you know work they might be very very isolated with it and we see that all the way to the other end of the spectrum where there's still a significant portion of the population


that have all of those things but still struggle and so really what we're trying to create is an ability for people to find that support because we see more and more people being able to talk about mental health challenges you know we see days sort of you know set aside by different corporations that are trying to sort of you know open up the conversation with this um but at the end of the day you know often there aren't really many supports that are provided there might be an 800 number that's sort


of given um there might be sort of you know reaching out to your family doctor or something else but as I mentioned there's so many people in this country that don't even have you know a family doctor don't have a place to go to understand how to get th that that help and so we believe that by providing this wraparound care model the support where every single service that you might need to get better in healing all found in one spot can ultimately really help to solve a lot of those


issues and your company uh you know with your services you're targeting a specific segment of the population could you talk a bit more about this why this Market uh why you're tting this Market well I I mentioned a little bit about sort of that three three and a half percent and we see that fairly consistent between Canada and the US of the general population uh again not entirely sure how they're quantifying that but certainly we see a significant millions of people that exist right now


with some form of PTSD that are not able to get support or at the very least of diagnosis and so really a lot of the work that we're trying to do is um you know certainly Opening Our arms to wrap our arms and supports around any individual that wants to to sort us out on that entire spectrum of of needs um but really what we're trying to do is is Target certain industries and individuals that we see significantly higher rates of PTSD right so first and foremost we see veterans right veterans


often who have done tours overseas um have had traumatic events that they've been experienced with um really making sure that we're able to work with you know Veterans Affairs um and different veterans groups to make sure that they're able to tap into our services so that again they're not spending time on 1 1800 numbers trying to figure out what supports they have they can come into our system we can take care of a lot of the work in terms of filling out the paperwork making sure that we're


interacting with government making sure that they understand everything that they're entitled to um with it you know we see other Industries around First Responders so police officers you know emergency uh EMF and and sort of ambulance workers firefighters you know individuals that are are regularly encountering traumatic events and not often even having the same level of supports that that veterans would have you know coming out of the military you're often given some basic level of of sort of testing and support and


oversight um with it but we too often see Frontline sort of First Responders with uh very much less support with that and unfortunately often um have to go on some sort of disability in terms of really trying to be able to get the support that they need and tap into that you know we look at other Industries Frontline health care workers you know nurses doctors especially coming out of the last couple of years where there's enormous stresses on the system and ultimately you know the very support


that they're looking for and the places that gave them or they experience that trauma in the first place so being able to create that ecosystem that's outside of maybe a hospital or something else like that not to mention you know social workers or some of these other folks that are dealing with these very complex care individuals I mean we see you know rates again depending on on what study you look at of 2030 upwards of 40% rates of of people with symptoms consistent with a PTSD diagnosis and there's so few


resources to help these folks that ultimately they get to a point of having to break or you know quit or go on some sort of disability and really what we're trying to provide is a support system so that they can you know find that support whether it's in terms of taking sort of short-term leave or coming into our system before they hit a Breaking Point while they continue to work to be able to gain that support get stabilized deal with those underlying mental health issues physical and mental health issues


uh and continue on with it which you know is is uh very exciting but also very daunting in terms of what needs to be built and how we do that what's your Revenue model and could you talk about as well sort of your approach in um your business strategy for uh you know for Revenue generation yeah no that's a great question so you know a lot of the the certainly the majority of the revenue that we would be coming with is is coming from you know a combination of of you know the federal government if you're a veteran certainly


provincial governments here inside of of Canada um where every province has a requirement to sort of uh provide health care for Citizens um with it as well as uh certainly healthc care providers um and benefits providers whether that's through you know your company or whether you're purchasing sort of benefits over and above that and so really a lot of our our time is is spent sort of working with with government in helping navigate the system which unfortunately is some of the challenges that a lot of our


clients deal with in terms of some of the bureaucracy and difficulty in finding you know simple information and and I think that's something that we can really be able to provide and you know we have a commitment to absolutely be working within you know the Canada Health act we're not looking at trying to build out a large private Network where it's sort of a pay to play we want to be able to work within that um but really we believe that creating that single ecosystem um where quite frankly


there's there's some services that you know uh we do have a profit margin on whether it be sort of you know a cannabis provider you know Pharmaceuticals you know massage therapy some of these ones that sort of we might be able to direct bill or might be paid by the client um all the ways to sort of into working with doctors to make sure that you know as they direct build the healthcare services that you know they have a space to come in and work with and really much like our clients they


can spend a lot of their time dealing with the underlying issues um as opposed to having to work with administrative issues or background or leases or anything else like that and so really we try and work with with government to make sure that not only we work within the system that sort of operates but we have an evaluations model that we're creating so that government can help understand and benefits providers can help understand you know certainly the amazing outcomes that we can provide but


our belief is is that often we can do it in a much more efficient manner and take pressure off the existing system so you know uh so that your last resort isn't going to the emergency room it's it's coming into our system before you even hit that last resort to be able to provide that support um and taking that pressure off the emergency rooms which are are challenged at at best these days so now as we approach sort of go go into the end of the year what does 2024 look like for your company excellent


well it's it's a very busy end of 2023 for us we've just recently announced uh one acquisition of of a significant virtual Clinic uh based out of western Canada but with a n National reach uh we've got a number of of other Acquisitions coming up here both with virtual clinics as well as our first physical wraparound Care Clinic being acquired uh with it to finish off 2023 but really 2024 looks to us building out these larger wraparound clinics right with our our tele health model and our


smaller physical clinics we're able to provide a portion of these services that we want and ultimately we can partner with local companies to be able to provide and fill in sort of those gaps but our goal is to be able to operate these larger physical locations where you're able to walk in the front door and get every single one of those services that you need in order to sort of get better and and focus on that that mental and physical well-being and so really 2024 looks at us building out our


locations we're based here in Alberta and so our expectation is likely we're going to be starting to see each one of those major physical locations being built out here um but really it's it's building relationships with provincial health care providers because every Province delivers Healthcare a little bit differently and so we want to work as a partner in terms of building out a national and soon International network of these facilities that specialize on this physical and mental well-being and


so it's it's a lot of work to be done but we're really really excited I think to be able to not only I I think support the the thousands and tens of thousands of clients that that we have today and and tomorrow but in 2024 building out that model in a much much more significant way so that everybody inside of of Canada and around the world has has access to some of these supports from a wraparound care perspective some really important work you're doing there absolutely and thanks


uh dog again for sharing your insights with me today thank you so much for having me and taking the time I really appreciate it and thank you everyone for watching join us again next time for engaging conversation on CEO insights if you like this video make sure you subscribe to our Channel and turn on notifications so you don't miss future updates and interviews see you next [Music] time