Mental Health Champions: Why & How Dr. Derek Price Of Sierra Tucson Is Helping To Champion Mental Wellness
An Interview With Michelle Tennant Nicholson
Exercise is my way of turning the world off. I swam the English Channel to raise money for charity, I’ve done 50 Ironman competitions, I do jiu jitsu. When I am doing that, I don’t have my phone with me. It’s intentional. When you do combat sports, the last thing you’re thinking about is your taxes. It’s my meditation, my time to Zen everything out. And spirituality keeps me grounded. I like to see people happy in their own faith.
As a part of our series about Mental Health Champions helping to promote mental wellness, I had the pleasure to interview Dr. Derek Price.
Dr. Derek Price is the chief executive officer at Sierra Tucson. He joined Sierra Tucson in January 2023 following his time as CEO of Desert Hope Treatment Center. Price’s diverse professional background includes launching more than a dozen chiropractic clinics, serving as a leadership consultant, and spearheading numerous philanthropic projects. He is also a former NFL player for the Detroit Lions.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I’m the oldest of three boys. My father passed away when I was seven years-old and we were raised in Arizona by a super awesome mom who was a teacher. To make enough money to pay the bills, she also tutored and taught night school classes. I recognized I needed to contribute, so by third grade I had a paper route. My view of life was primarily that no one really cares what your struggles are, just work harder. When I was in high school, I decided I wanted to go to college and asked my mom what we had saved for my education. She said, “Remember when I asked if you wanted a Christmas present or wanted to have heat?” In other words, we didn’t have college savings.
I played football, so I got a football scholarship. It was a means to an end. For me, football was never about the games or the crowds of the fanfare, I loved the consciousness of a group of people trying to do something successful together. It was going into battle alongside the brotherhood. When I got my degree, I decided I was done with football, but my coach, Chuck Long, told me I’d regret it if I didn’t at least go and workout with a team. I respected him, so I did it. And I got signed by the Detroit Lions! I was lucky. In 1996, I got to play. But I knew there were 5,000 other guys as good or better than me that could take my job in a second.
Halfway through the season, I broke my neck, but I kept it to myself. I knew I was the “lucky to be here” kid and if I said I was injured, I’d be replaced. Every time I hit my head; my whole arm went numb. After the first season, I signed another contract and when I came back for the second season, the medical team noticed the discrepancy between my arms because all the nerves in one of my arms had been crushed. The team told me I could ride out my contract on the sidelines and travel with them, but I chose to leave instead.
You are currently leading an initiative that is helping to promote mental wellness. Can you tell us a bit more specifically about what you are trying to address?
Individuals who are struggling with mental health challenges and addiction need a trusted source, a network and a champion. That’s the team at Sierra Tucson. Every patient is unique and every single patient needs to be screened. We have trained professionals and a clinical team that fields every call. We get as much information as we can, and it goes to the clinical and medical teams to determine what the next best steps are. Sometimes that treatment is with us, sometimes it’s not.
For anyone who has the strength and courage to make that first call to (844) 335–1495, whether it’s for themselves or a loved one, we have resources and a network. The vast majority of our patients come from around the country. We can refer people to resources near them, but having that one number, that trusted source who can network on their half, that’s a place to start. We’re that place.
Reputation is doing the right thing when no one is looking. We talk to anyone who calls that number and even refer business away because there’s a better fit for them than we would be. That’s the right thing to do for patients and for human beings. Sierra Tucson’s reputation is as lofty as it is because of our world-class staff. If we can help, we will. If there’s a better option, even if it’s our competition, we’ll make that connection.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
How did a chiropractor like me become the CEO of one of the most respected mental health facilities in the country? Because I care. I’m super open about what I don’t know; then I find out. It’s the way I’ve been taught to lead.
I was a musculoskeletal provider for 20 years and we’d fix the part. Consider this: Jane the long-distance runner sprains her ankle and comes in to have the ankle looked at. I tell her what’s wrong and what to do. Then she cries. Not because the ankle hurts, but because running is her escape from depression and trauma. She’s not crying about the fact that her ankle hurts — rather, it’s because her ability to get a release and empower her mental health was removed. As a provider, I’d think it was a bummer that she couldn’t run and her ankle hurts. However, I and many other providers didn’t know how to observe, quantify and deal with the associated post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression that often accompany those physical injuries.
If I ask a patient something as a provider, I own the outcome. Many providers don’t know what to do with accompanying information about mental health. A big mission of mine is to bring those two worlds together.
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest them. They don’t get up and just do it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and do it? What was that final trigger?
After I left the NFL, after my surgery for my injury, I was referred by a world-class spine surgeon to a chiropractor. I found someone who ran a chiropractic clinic near where I grew up and realized he was a holistic provider — addressing diet, exercise, physical therapy, and changing habits. After just three weeks, my family and I moved across the country so I could study at a chiropractic school. From there, I went on to build integrated orthopedic clinics including chiropractic care, and physical therapy. My plan was to sell everything and retire, but after a short time into that retirement, my wife looked at me and said, “You’re 40, what are you doing?” It was a good question.
I went into leadership consulting which led me to American Addiction Centers. At the time I was asked to be CEO, I didn’t know anything about mental health or addiction, but it opened my eyes. I felt like I was still helping my fellow humans even though I couldn’t physically help them anymore as a healthcare provider.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
I became CEO in January, so I’ve been in this role only a few months, but one of the most surprising aspects for me has been to witness the depth of this talent pool across both the medical and clinical departments. Typically, you might find one or two experts at a singular facility, but at Sierra Tucson the patients get the benefit of an incredibly talent-rich group of caregivers and support staff.
There is such a pride about who we are and what we do, it extends from our newest maintenance employee to the chief medical director. It’s highly unusual for so much talent in the field to come together at one facility. It feels like I’m coaching a Pro Bowl-level team.
None of us can be successful without some help along the way. Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?
The person who ran that first chiropractic clinic, the man who inspired me to go to chiropractic school — his name is Dr. Jeff Glaus. He’s still my mentor and life coach.
I’m also friends with Rich Diviney, a retired Navy SEAL commander and author of “The Attributes: 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance.” I read his book and saw humans in a completely different light. I reached out to Rich and now we talk at least once a week. We have the Sierra Tucson Research Institute with amazing providers and evidence-based materials. I’m always looking at best outcomes and we have PhDs, statisticians and other experts testing brain mapping, biofeedback, neurofeedback, and predictive models. I invited Rich to see our organization and asked if he’d help me build an evidence-based class on “The Attributes” in the mental health space so we can find out how we’re moving the needle.
According to Mental Health America’s report, over 44 million Americans have a mental health condition. Yet there’s still a stigma about mental illness. Can you share a few reasons you think this is so?
First, I think it’s a lot more than 44 million people. Mental health conditions are an invisible disease. You can’t see depression; you can’t measure it in a jar. It’s a perception and a reality, like pain. Breaking down stigma is a big campaign and one I personally stand on. There’s such a lack of education and understanding.
People who do not have an addiction or mental health issues often find it hard to have empathy or compassion for those who do, because they don’t understand what the person is going through. It’s often perceived as an “illness by choice.” When some people learn that a friend or loved one is struggling, they often offer the advice to, “Find something that makes you happy,” or even to just stop drinking or using. I can’t tell you that I was much different from that before I started working directly with mental health and addiction. I would have thought if you are an alcoholic, it was an illness of choice or a poor choice, unlike how I perceived a cancer patient or person with diabetes.
However, knowing what I know now, meeting the patients that come to Sierra Tucson, they’re not dwelling in this for the sake of an identity, they don’t want to live the way they’re living. It’s so incredibly difficult. Once you raise your hand and become known as someone who has an addictive tendency or mental health issues and work to get help, people may see you differently. That’s the stigma. That’s what holds people back. I work every day to educate and humanize mental health issues and addiction.
In your experience, what should a) individuals b) society, and c) the government do to better support people suffering from mental illness?
Through education and conversation, we can normalize what is stigmatized. When you see a person’s life and struggles through their eyes, you gain compassion. Health conditions like cancer and paralysis are visible and quantifiable. If cancer is the identified enemy, we can attack that. Depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) — that’s all still invisible. When I look at you, I can’t tell if you have it. No test is going to prove that. And for the lay person, if they haven’t dealt with it, they just think, “Well, I’ve been sad and then I found something that made me happy,” so they give the advice that they’d give to themselves when they were feeling down. Education about mental health will be the key to changing those perceptions and giving people the tools to empathize.
For providers, we’ve found that patients, regardless of what they’re being seen for, have better outcomes with mental health coaching than with just medication, surgery or physical therapy. This is going to be an important area of focus as mental health care advances. One of the things we’re doing is hosting providers and even personal injury attorneys to show them the link between physical injury and mental health, how to find it, how to screen for it and what to do with the information. We also provide them a list of resources and referrals locally in the community. And if they hit a stumbling block, we tell them to call us and we can walk them through it.
This isn’t a business build for us. But it allows other providers to see unaddressed and unattended mental health issues.
What are your 5 strategies you use to promote your own well-being and mental wellness? Can you please give a story or example for each?
I’m a creature of habit and routine. My five strategies are: Sleep, diet, exercise, service and spirituality. I’ve been afforded great benefits in this life. I was lucky enough to play pro sports and am lucky enough to be the CEO of an amazing company. My head could easily blow up and I could think I’m better than I am. It’s important to give back, to keep in focus why we’re here.
Exercise is my way of turning the world off. I swam the English Channel to raise money for charity, I’ve done 50 Ironman competitions, I do jiu jitsu. When I am doing that, I don’t have my phone with me. It’s intentional. When you do combat sports, the last thing you’re thinking about is your taxes. It’s my meditation, my time to Zen everything out. And spirituality keeps me grounded. I like to see people happy in their own faith.
As for diet, you can’t control a whole lot in life, but one of those things you can control is what you choose to eat.
What are your favorite books, podcasts, or resources that inspire you to be a mental health champion?
I’m always reading three books at the same time: One for escape, one self-help book and one book that makes you think.
If you could tell other people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
You may be the recipient of a person’s first and only call for help with addiction or mental health issues. If you don’t handle it appropriately, they might be done. That scares me, it’s the “I’m done,” that scares me.
So make an impact. When someone reaches out for help, that’s the best case. You can share a national helpline phone number so they can be connected to resources and networks. When a friend, family member, loved one or coworker is struggling and haven’t reached out, that’s more difficult. You know something is off and if you come at them with a suggestion like, “You seem depressed, have you tried yoga?” you’re the 700th person to do that. Then, the wall goes up and the conversation is over. If you can’t go in with advice, what do you do? Have empathy and compassion.
Try saying this: “I feel like I’ve noticed something going on and I don’t understand it. Can you walk me through this? I just want to understand from your perspective what’s you’re experiencing.” Emphasize that you’re not there to judge or share your opinion, just listen and empathize. Do your best to underscore that you’re coming from a place of love and compassion. The person you’re concerned about needs to accept you as a teammate. You should also acknowledge your limitations — you’re likely not the person to ultimately help, but you can ask if they’ve ever thought about getting help and share resources to make it easier for them to do so.
Take the time to understand mental health because it’s life and death. Mental health issues and addiction are legitimate diseases. But people don’t want to admit to having depression or anxiety or other mood issues, because they don’t want to be labeled, so they hide and isolate. No one can have all the answers. But we can open the door to education, understanding and sharing of life-saving resources.
How can our readers follow you online?
- Website: https://www.sierratucson.com
- https://www.facebook.com/SierraTucsonTreatmentCenter
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/sierra-tucson/?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sierratucson.com%2F
- https://www.instagram.com/sierra_tucson/
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz4XeFB4sthzMlEmUcfoo9w
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
About the Interviewer: Inspired by the father of PR, Edward Bernays (who was also Sigmund Freud’s nephew), Michelle Tennant Nicholson researches marketing, mental injury, and what it takes for optimal human development. An award-winning writer and publicist, she’s seen PR transition from typewriters to Twitter. Michelle co-founded WasabiPublicity.com.
