Today we’d like to introduce you to Ross Ellenhorn.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Here’s considerable detail. It’s about two related roads that meet at the formation of my business. The first road begins at the same point for many entrepreneurs actually: a “learning disability.” We entrepreneurs are disproportionately represented by people who had some sort of learning problem in school. As a child, I was diagnosed with a school a problem. When I was twelve years old, the vice principal of my junior high school summoned my parents to a meeting. He suggested to them that they enroll me in the school district’s special education program. The administrators of my school must have met, and had deemed I was sufficiently disabled to need these resources. This was before “mainstreaming,” so if I were to enroll in “Special Ed.,” I would take classes separate from the other kids.
My parents took a risk and refused to enroll me in the program. I remained with my comrades throughout junior high and high school. I struggled, and at times my hidden problem turned on me psychologically, since I often deeply felt like a failure, a poor learner in learning institutions. From high school, the path I took was imperfect, rocky, and uneven. But, with a little assistance, I did go on to college, graduate school, finally getting a Ph.D.
My parents made a decision that day when I was in junior high that indelibly affected my life. I faced a fork in the road then, and they set me off on a route that significantly divided from the other choice and where it would have led. I sometimes think of myself in the alternative universe of the other route; the Ross who followed the institutional recommendations. He is unhappy, unsuccessful, self-loathing. He identifies himself as broken, something to cast aside. He doubts his abilities, and this self-doubt causes him to give up early on challenges, or avoid challenges altogether. He might have a learning disability, but it’s his self-doubt that keeps him from learning. It’s a much more powerful negative force in his life than the diagnosis handed to him back when the road forked.
So, I dodged a bullet back in junior high. And I know something about what I dodged, mild yet serious ostracism, sequestering, and stigma. This would have been “institutionalization lite,” hardly the kind of force people with more noticeable or debilitating problems experience. Nonetheless, my awareness of my alternative life-path made me suspicious of the institutional road, even though it’s often paved with good intentions. That awareness directly influences the business I started. Before we get to that, however, let me address the second road.
Somehow, and despite that learning disability (what I now call “the inability to factory-learn”), I ended up at the prestigious Heller School for Social Policy at Brandeis, soon doubling my work by pursuing a joint Ph.D. in Sociology. At Brandeis, and while running a psychiatric emergency team, I became quite interested in issues of stigma and ostracism, and how these experiences can drastically affect the behavior of individuals. I got concerned that many of the behaviors associated with mental illness might actually be the result of social, not psychological factors.
Soon, I was running a Program for Assertive Community Team, along with a psychiatrist. These programs take very seriously the social experiences of psychiatric patients, attempting to provide a “hospital without walls,” where clients of the mental health system can remain in the community despite their psychiatric experiences.
The psychiatrist I partnered with, who was also working in very prestigious psychiatric programs in the Boston area, realized that people of wealth actually lack access to this kind of program, often going in and out of expensive institutions because they aren’t offered more intensive services in the community. She suggested we start a private version of our community mental health program, serving well-resourced individuals. So, that’s how we started, around 12 years ago.
The two roads meet here, as I formed a program that balances robust psychiatric care with a real focus on the social traumas caused by institutional care. Today, Ellenhorn is the most intensive private program in the United States that is focused on helping individuals remain integrated in the larger community. We are as oriented to alleviating the suffering and potential dysfunction that psychiatric symptoms can cause, as we are on avoiding and treating the serious social damage often endured by individuals who have been identified and treated for psychiatric issues.
That sort of covers it. A lot of detail, and as much as I would like.
Has it been a smooth road?
Not exactly smooth, but that’s what has made it exciting. We take clients who have often been deemed as needing long term institutional care. So, the bumps have mostly been involved with the risk of working with very acute issues. Sadly, private behavioral health programs are being eaten up by large investment firms, and venture capitalists, forming massive conglomerates, without the strong ethics imparted on us clinicians. These firms, and their tendency to “self-refer” always pose a risk.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Ellenhorn – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I’ve already sort of addressed this. But, basically, Ellenhorn blends the most robust psychiatric care provided by a private community-based program in the United States with the nation’s most intensive program focused on helping individuals remain integrated in the larger community. Again, we are as oriented to alleviating the suffering and potential dysfunction that psychiatric symptoms can cause, as we are on avoiding and treating the serious social damage often endured by individuals who have been identified and treated for psychiatric issues.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Best: It’s a beautiful city, lovely for a long walk, and always stimulated. Behind there gruffness, the people here are kind, community-focused, and willing to help.
Least: Have you been to the ICA? That’s our edge! That’s it! This is an extremely tame place, provincial, traditional. Every once in a while there is an amazing cutting-edge show at the Oberon, but that’s about it. This ain’t no New York or L.A.
Contact Info:
- Website: ellenhorn.com
- Phone: 800-515-9972
- Email: info@ellenhorn.com
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
