Christi Davidson is the Executive Director for Customized Medical Needs, a hidden gem in the City of Memphis whose mission is to provide a high quality, multi-disciplinary approach to healthcare through affordable and reasonably cost services, ethical and honest treatment, respect to their patients and the provision of safe communal behavioral/medical services by highly trained clinical staff.
Hi Christi, welcome to the Bluff City magazine family. Please introduce yourself and tell us who you are and what you do.
My name is Christi Davidson. I am the executive director of Customized Medical Needs and collaborate with our nonprofit arm, Customized Veteran Group.
What is the difference between those two entities?
When we initially started Customized Medical Needs, we were seeing clients who required home health before we entered the alcohol, substance abuse, and mental illness space. Many of the clients that we were seeing were veterans. When we partnered with Retired Naval Chief Antwane Bohanon, we created a nonprofit arm to gain more insight and networking opportunities with the different veterans and veterans’ groups to serve them collectively. When you look around our city, you see that civilians and veterans require the same services.
Absolutely. So, to meet this need for veterans, what have you learned by creating this nonprofit arm?
We have more access to veterans. I've learned recently that many organizations in the city work with veterans. However, they typically send them out of town to provide residential treatment and housing. I was never able to get a very good understanding other than that they didn't know of any local facilities in our communities that would take the veterans in for treatment.
If you are a veteran and you are suffering from any alcohol, substance abuse, mental health, PTSD, trauma, anger management, or any of those services, we can help with any of those issues. But our initial mission before we entered Alcohol and Substance Abuse, again, was rehabilitative therapy. We can provide occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, registered nursing, and dietary care. We can offer any of those services that they need under one roof.
I've visited your facility, and it is absolutely beautiful. What was your vision when you created Customized Medical Needs to ensure that you could meet the needs of veterans?
I wanted one level with ample space. In this population, when dealing with anybody, whether they have one or two obstacles and already feel challenged or defeated, you lose them. They should be able to roll up the ramp with their wheelchairs or on a walker, be able to come in large enough rooms to maneuver and have the doors wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair. Ensuring that any services and special modifications they require are available. They are required because of the Americans with Disabilities Act. I think it's a lot more marketable to a veteran to know that, yes, I've got anger or trauma that I'm dealing with, but I also need assistance with my activities of daily living, and we can provide those services there. So, just that vision of one-stop shopping brought it all together for me.
The building itself is 4,769 square feet. We have 12 beds. We are a co-ed facility. Our men's bathroom has two stalls, a urinal, three showers, and three sinks. The women's bathroom has three stalls, three showers, and three sinks. We have a common area where they can watch TV, sit, and eat. We have our multi-purpose room, where we hold classes to get individual treatment services if they're not in one of the counselor's offices. We have computers where we can work with them on workforce development skills, whether writing a resume, constructing proper emails, having good communication, and taking assessments online to help them identify career paths they may want.
We also have a quiet front area. It's a place for them to sit, think, and read. If they have assignments and don't want to take them back to their room, they can sit up there and do those assignments. We combined residential and outpatient care and brought it all into this building because it was so big.
Our veterans are so important, but it may be hard to understand what they went through, especially if serving has affected them drastically. How do you get them what they need as soon as they come out of service versus just trying to figure life out on their own? Then, at some point, somebody says, oh, my God, we need to get them some services. How do you close that gap?
They can come to us through referrals. Typically, when they are referred to us by a case manager at the VA, or if they are referred to us from any other organizations that have worked with them but may not be able to give them those services, then we do an initial assessment, an intake, an assessment to determine what all they need. Right now, we are a two-tier partner with the Driving the Dream grant through the United Way. You have a huge collaboration of resources and partners in the city that provide a lot of services. Some people may provide the same services that we do, but they may not accept insurance, and we accept insurance, or they may not be able to accommodate. As I said, if they need any other type of physical assistance, not just mental but physical. Then, they would have to look at transferring that patient or veteran to a VA or the clinic to be seen or get the needed services. But if we can do it all, that makes it much more manageable. When they are referred, we're given all that information upfront to know whether we can accommodate them.
How long have you been in business, and did you have community resources available to meet such a critical need and get up and running correctly?
We've been in business since 2013. We started off just doing rehabilitative therapy and home health. It wasn't until 2017 that we started becoming increasingly aware of the opioid epidemic in our communities. That's when we started applying for licensure with the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse to start working in that arena. We added that component. Initially, we were doing intensive outpatient care. Many people we were working with, such as the forensic social workers, were pushing us to get a residential house.
We opened our first residential facility in Orange Mountain on Baltimore St. It was a house with eight beds, but we needed to expand. We needed to be in an area where we could get more support. We have that alliance with Early Grove Baptist Church because we're renting the building from them. Christ Community is across the street, and First Broad Baptist is also in our vicinity with various resources and accommodations.
Having those types of community partnerships was integral. It was a very daunting process because you can’t just transfer licenses. You must go through the process and have the surveyors, monitoring, code enforcement, and the fire marshal come out. Although we signed the lease in April of 2023, we didn't get all the paperwork and inspections finalized until September 26.
What is the standard rehabilitation period for most services you offer?
The services that we provide depend on the individual and a court mandate. But the first thing that we do is called ASI, which is an alcohol severity index. It's not just for alcohol but also drug use. It's an extensive questionnaire, but it scores the individual based on their responses and gives us a guide about how long they need to be in treatment. The court may sometimes say, this person has had treatment several times, and because they've shown up and had a couple of dirty UIs, we're going to send them to residential for 30 days. We’ll keep them for 30 days. Some people need longer than that.
It's difficult to treat those who need treatment but can’t come in because they have to work. They can't afford to be in treatment for 30 days and not working.
Although they want to get a job, sometimes they want to revert back to making that quick money. You know what I mean? So, when an individual comes in, they have to be able to prepare themselves and be honest and say, I'm ready to do this no matter how long it takes.
We've had people in there for 90 days, six months, and even up to a year. For those who have been there for up to a year, their treatments may be over, but they have nowhere to go. We don't want to put them out and put them back into an environment that will undo everything we've worked so hard to accomplish. And they appreciate it. If we don't have any beds that need to be used, we can keep them. If an agency calls and they need a bed, we help them transition to somewhere else.
Donations and resources are imperative to your operation, as it is privately owned. How can someone donate? How can someone be a volunteer? What's available to receive assistance and help?
There should be a QR code on any of our websites, www.customizedmedicalneeds.com or www.customizedveteransgroup.com. They can scan the QR code, and they can donate there. They can always go to our Contact Us form and send an email that's going to let us know that they would like to come and volunteer. We encourage that. Some people like gardening. There are so many different forms of therapy. Some people like music. If you want to come over and you want to do some art therapy, you want to do some gardening, some jam sessions, or whatever, we encourage all of that. One of the things that we are learning is that although we do have funding that comes to us from the state for smaller businesses like mine, honestly, it's just not enough because individuals have a $7,000 cap in terms of what the state will provide for treatment for them for the fiscal year. If my budget is only $20,000, that doesn't even support three people. That's only two people. It's a one-line-item budget, so it doesn't give me room for operational staff personnel. It's like you have to know how to make that work.
This past year, I've been getting more involved from a legislative perspective, trying to speak up for the smaller businesses because funds, the hundreds of thousands and millions, keep going to the larger organizations. We've still got people out here who are suffering and hurting and have nowhere to go. We must figure out how to utilize each other and share the work. It's not about wealth. I'm not in competition. I love what I do and want to ensure that Customized Medical Needs does what it does best: holistically serving the people.
I love your passion, not only for Customize but you’re an advocate for smaller entities as well. As a business owner, saying that really speaks volumes. I'm very appreciative of your heart toward every small business. I absolutely love that. Is there any question that I didn't ask that the readers need to know about you or customize medical needs, customized veteran groups, or anything?
We are open. We have beds. We are increasing our partnership landscape. We've just become partners with the Community Alliance for the Homeless. We've signed up to be a landlord for them. If they come across a person who needs a bed, needs a room, or may be having some mental illness or substance abuse or just any other type of services that they need, they can refer those individuals to us.
I recently joined the Small Business Association, and I just became a member of the National Small Business Association Leadership Council. The category or the board that they put me on is economic development. In that role, I will be working a lot with our congressmen and legislature here, both locally and in DC, as I'm advocating for small businesses and the things that affect us, such as access to working capital.
I understand that personal credit plays a big factor in things, but I say, look at our work. Look at my bank statements and the money I am putting into my business because this is my passion. It's not just what's coming out of my business checking account. Look at outstanding invoices. Most importantly, we should look at what the community needs. Our community needs organizations like yours. We need Bluff City Magazine because our media has gotten so out of control. Every time you turn on the TV or open your phone, it's a negative narrative. We need positive media outlets to show our city's health and growth and what people are doing. Small businesses are the backbone of this economy. Unfortunately, we're the ones that hit the hardest and suffer the most. But because we love it, we're going to keep doing it.
This is great! I want to make sure that when I tell this story, people understand the necessity of Customized Veteran Group and what you are able to provide. That is so important. What's next for you and Customized?
We're working to secure more funding from the city and get a property donation. We want to have transitional housing. The reason to have transitional housing is that people fail to realize when someone has been suffering from trauma or mental illness or alcohol or substance addiction for so many years, you cannot fix this short-term. You can't undo this in 30 days, three months, six months, or even a year. We want to be able to transition people out of the facility into apartment complexes or multifamily units that we own, and they are still under our care. They are still connected to us. They can work, and we could still help with transportation. It's like case management, making sure that they are whole until they are stable. When I say stable, that is a joint agreement that that person is stable from us and for them, and they're ready to move on because that's the biggest fear of many of them. Many often wonder, “What do I do when I leave?” We want to provide them with a place to stay for as long as we need - to make them more stable.
That's our big plan: to secure housing so that we can expand and accommodate our community of veterans and non-veteran clients.
