A not-so-small miracle has taken place over the past ten years in Southwest Oregon.
Building on a legacy of over 50 years of service, the people of Adapt Integrated Health Care have quietly built a health care powerhouse, integrating science, compassionate care and innovation to promote the health and well-being of individuals, families and communities in Douglas, Josephine, Curry and Coos Counties, the four southwesternmost counties in Oregon.
In 1971, Adapt began offering addiction treatment and prevention in its hometown of Roseburg, Oregon. Since then, Adapt has continuously expanded its services to include primary care and mental health as well as addiction services.
Growth over the past decade has been remarkable, as indicated by the chart below. Importantly, that growth has been a byproduct of Adapt’s approach to community health, not a goal or strategic driver in and of itself.
Adapt has been led for the past decade by Dr. Greg Brigham, a board-certified clinical psychologist and Fellow of the American Psychological Association. In late September, Adapt’s board of directors shared news of Dr. Brigham’s decision to retire by May 2025, prompting the current search for his successor.
Adapt’s next CEO will inherit an organization with significant momentum: Operating revenues of over $80 million, a highly motivated staff of over 500, and a growing, intersecting array of primary care, mental health and addiction services provided through multiple locations across the region. The organization has an unusually strong balance sheet, with most of the funding in place for a new 40-acre campus in Roseburg expected to break ground in the first half of 2025, permitting consolidation of many services and expansion of others within one purpose-built campus.
Perhaps most importantly, Adapt has earned the trust of the people it serves, the partners, agencies and departments it collaborates with, and the regulators who monitor its quality.
Adapt may look quite different from what it did a decade ago, but the values that drive it have remained consistent: professionalism, caring, accessibility, excellence, respect, innovation and integrity. Far from being just slogans on a shelf, they inform everything Adapt does for its patients and its communities.
The Organization
Adapt Integrated Health Care is a CARF-accredited nonprofit serving the people of rural southwestern Oregon. While Adapt describes itself as “an Oregon leader,” the organization’s reputation is in fact national. For example, of Oregon’s 30 community health centers, Adapt is the only one to receive this year’s HRSA Health Center Quality Leader Gold Badge, placing it in the top 10% of all such facilities in the country.
Adapt is also certified as a Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. In addition, this past summer it was recertified as a Great Place to Work, having been so cited by fully 82% of its 540 employees.
Adapt’s services are extensive, overlapping and, wherever possible, integrated. Among its core offerings:
Substance use disorders: From its beginnings as an outpatient substance use treatment program, Adapt has expanded to offer a full continuum of substance use treatment services for youth and adults, including intensive outpatient, residential treatment, medically managed detoxification, opioid treatment program (OTP), day treatment with supportive housing, transitional housing and a sobering center.
Mental health: In Oregon, county-based community health programs are tasked to provide effective, accessible safety net services to meet the mental health needs of community members. In Douglas and Curry Counties, Adapt has served as the Local Mental Health Authority and Community Mental Health Program since 2016 and 2021, respectively. Depending on location, Adapt provides such treatment and support services as 24-hour crisis care, forensic services, assessment and diagnosis, outpatient care, psychiatric medical service, school-based services and fidelity-based programs like ACT Teams, EASA and IIBHT.
Primary care: Adapt’s patient-centered primary care was first offered in 2006 and was first recognized as a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in 2012. In the year ending June 2023, the most recent year for which full data has been published, Adapt’s patient-centered primary care clinics served some 7500 adults in over 53,000 visits in person and via telehealth.
Adapt’s extensive website offers numerous examples of its innovative approach to integrated health care. Here are just a few, some with systemwide impact and others distinctly personal:
Construction on the Adapt Recovery Campus [see rendering on left] is expected to begin in the first half of 2025. The plans are set, the funding is in place, and discussions with potential contractors are underway. When complete, the campus will combine residential treatment, outpatient services, mental health and primary care resources within one 14-acre purpose-built facility.
The new Sobering Center provides a haven for recovery while reducing stresses on local jails and emergency services. Available exclusively through law enforcement referrals, Adapt offers a secure, supervised environment for publicly intoxicated individuals. The Sobering Center is a testament to effective cross-system collaboration.
Adapt’s full-service mobile clinic makes muchneeded services more accessible to families in some of the region’s most rural area communities.
Adapt’s latest annual report to the community, available here, contains a fuller summary of the organization’s approach and services.
Adapt Integrated Health Care has clearly evolved into a complex, multifaceted organization, but its overall mission remains straightforward:
To provide our communities access to world-class primary care, addictions treatment, behavioral health care and prevention services to promote health and restore lives.
The Mandate
Adapt’s next CEO will lead an organization of committed professionals providing life-changing and life-enhancing services to thousands of residents in rural Oregon who otherwise might go underserved, if not unserved. Following a decade of growth that an observer in 2014 could hardly have imagined, Adapt in 2024 is a trusted, dependable and even irreplaceable resource that impacts the region in multiple ways, all of them consistent with a commitment to improved community health.
Adapt’s leadership team is an unusually humble group. To a person, they are proud of Adapt’s impact, and they relish the spirit of inventiveness and innovation that pervades their work and their collective aspirations. Admittedly, some are tired— growth can be exhausting—but the overall atmosphere is decidedly upbeat, dampened only by uncertainty triggered by the present executive search.
Adapt’s next CEO can expect a mandate with several overlapping priorities, among them:
Stability. Adapt’s leadership team is a highly tenured one. Several executives have been with the organization for decades, and only a few are within their first five years with Adapt. One senior leader will be retiring at the end of 2024,? and another long-serving leader has said she will be stepping down next August. There may be other opportunities for restructuring or realignment, but overall Adapt’s day-to-day operations are overseen by a devoted cadre of executives with enormous, shared respect for their CEO. The new CEO’s first mandate, therefore, will be to provide a steady hand, ensuring the stability of Adapt’s services following the change in top leadership. That is not to say anything is cast in stone, just that a measured approach to leadership will likely serve long-term goals best. Whatever the assets the next CEO brings to bear, reinforcing the existing climate of trust, collaboration and mutual respect—a “culture of kindness,” as one member of management put it, but also a culture of high expectations—will be important to a successful transition.
Catalytic leadership. Adapt has proven itself to be an exceptional place, and its network of stakeholder—including providers, community leaders at county and state levels, program partners and individual champions as local chiefs of police—is accustomed to catalytic leadership with a soft touch. In short, the CEO will not have to create a mandate for progress; rather, the CEO will inherit one. High expectations can be a blessing or a curse; in this case, they come with the territory.
Infrastructure. While strains on Adapt’s infrastructure are not obvious, the growth of the last decade inevitably means that some systems are not fully fleshed out and others may simply be new. The CEO must ensure that Adapt’s services and people are supported by the right systems and that decision-makers have access to relevant, useful data for integration and expansion (geographic and programmatic) to continue.
Execution. Several projects underway will need to be brought to fruition, and several new initiatives are ripe for attention. Chief among these is the new Recovery Campus. Funding commitments are in place, land has been acquired and plans have been approved. The CEO will not be the project manager, of course, but Adapt’s largest capital investment in the organization’s history will need care and attention. Similarly, Adapt’s initiatives in housing are an important part of the future mix. Affordable housing in general is a challenge in much of Adapt’s service area, and the chance of houselessness continues to grow. True integration in Curry and Coos Counties will require additional infrastructure. Telehealth is ripe for expansion, but only if patients in outlying areas have access to the technology. The list of initiatives requiring thoughtful execution can only continue to grow, and yet workforce capacity is not growing as fast as funding has grown. That puts considerable pressure on recruiting and retention, especially in more rural areas.
Political sensitivity. Adapt is largely funded by government sources, some of which are direct and some pass-through funding. It is essential that the CEO have the political sensitivity to lead well within a complicated community environment. This is not about personal politics at all, but rather about nuanced leadership at multiple levels— community, county and state. While each may have its own ways of engagement, all respect authentic engagement. For example, The Oregon Health Plan and Coordinated Care Organizations (CCOs) are central to health care and health care delivery in Oregon. There are 16 CCOs in Oregon, and several have critical relationships with Adapt. The CEO’s ability to respect, navigate and contribute to such relationships will have enormous bearing on people across the region.
The Candidate
Adapt Integrated Health Care deserves a passionate, committed executive with the experience to lead a large, complicated nonprofit operating in rural Oregon. A proven leader seasoned by the special demands of growing organizations with integrated community-facing services and complex, multifaceted revenue streams would be ideal.
Adapt’s next CEO will succeed a well-respected clinician who has transformed the organization over the past ten years. The most appealing candidates will be those who are respectful of Adapt’s reach impact and the leadership that made them possible but who are undaunted by the inevitably high expectations that characterize such a transition.
The Search Committee is open to a variety of relevant backgrounds, but deep, credentialed grounding in at least one of Adapt’s program areas—primary care, mental health, or treatment of substance use disorders —is likely essential.
Competencies: Adapt seeks a CEO with a diverse set of experiences, traits, and skills, among them the following:
Passion for Adapt’s overall mandate to deliver comprehensive, integrated health care to communities in southwest Oregon
An accessible, authentic leader with the operating experience and data-informed management disciplines that such a large and complex operation deserves
The proven ability to model and reinforce a cohesive, collaborative approach to management that respects excellence, promotes collaboration, and expects accountability for shared goals and strategies
A leader of leaders experienced in contexts of similar scale and complexity
A manager proficient in the work styles and habits of different generations; someone whose approach is flexible but whose values are not
A record of impactful engagement and leadership in the nonprofit sector, especially in the context of mental health, addiction services or primary care
In short, Adapt seeks a nimble visionary who can help discern where the organization should focus its energies, prioritize opportunities for attention, and then ensure the excellence in delivery and execution for which Adapt is already known.
Culture: Adapt intends to hire a CEO who reflects and embodies
A listening heart and a curious mind
A sensitive but confident approach to management; a servant leader with the nurturing demeanor and management disciplines a mature yet still growing organization deserves
An inviting leadership style informed by mutual respect and accountability
Comfort connecting with a variety of constituents and stakeholders, from the addict on the street to community, civic and political leaders across the spectrum. Comfort with the underserved and those in harm’s way is essential
An inquisitive, innovative mindset; not someone who seeks change for change’s sake, but a leader focused on ways to make Adapt’s life-changing and life-enhancing services fully accessible to those in need
Strategic thinking and deep respect for first-rate execution; a leader who ensures that clinical or therapeutic excellence is supported by operational and financial excellence
The empathy, and relatability to lead with care, never losing sight of the ‘why’ of Adapt’s work
Respect for the value of transparency and candor in communications, be they with colleagues, the Board of Directors, program partners or funders
Ego-free leadership.
Credentials: Adapt has been led by just two CEOs over the last 40+ years, both of whom were clinicians. While the search committee is not closed to creative alternatives, the clear expectation is that the next CEO will also be a credentialed clinician, ideally with a terminal degree in a discipline relevant to Adapt’s mission.
For consideration or to suggest a prospect, please email Adapt@BoardWalkConsulting.com or call Sam Pettway or Patti Kish at 404-BoardWalk (404-262-7392).
Adapt Integrated Health Care is a CARF-accredited nonprofit serving the people of rural southwestern Oregon. While Adapt describes itself as “an Oregon leader,” the organization’s reputation is in fact national. For example, of Oregon’s 30 community health centers, Adapt is the only one to receive this year’s HRSA Health Center Quality Leader Gold Badge, placing it in the top 10% of all such facilities in the country.
Adapt is also certified as a Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. In addition, this past summer it was recertified as a Great Place to Work, having been so cited by fully 82% of its 540 employees.
