The path that led Todd Van Buskirk to his position as Director of Integrated Care at Porter-Starke Services started with tragedy, and is now leading into success and happiness.
After a tragic event concerning a family member, Van Buskirk found help and inspiration with a psychologist and set off on the path into becoming a licensed social worker.
Van Buskirk was born and raised in Ohio and has moved around to different states with his wife who coached basketball and conducted basketball clinics for students of all ages. They were living in Rochester, New York where he was attending school to get his Master’s degree in social work. The summer of 2007, his wife went to New Buffalo, Michigan to teach a clinic and Van Buskirk was to meet her and their kindergarten-aged son there a week later.
“She called me and said the ‘high school offered me a job to coach,’” he said.
Since he had just finished school, the family moved to New Buffalo, and through friends, he heard about the programs and services offered at Porter-Starke. Now, with the license under his belt, Van Buskirk applied to the organization.
“Working with the psychologist was very helpful and I thought I would like to do that one day,” he said. “My story started with a tragic story and is one of redemption that came full circle.”
His first position at Porter-Starke started with working with students in small schools in Porter County. These students may be behind in credits, having attendance problems, and are at risk for falling behind in classes, so Van Buskirk and employees would help them in therapeutic programs and services. The Porter-Starke team took students to volunteer at nursing homes, other non-profits, and local parks, offering ways to serve people.
“The kids just loved it,” he said. “It really integrated the kids into the community, giving them new opportunities and different experiences.”
Van Buskirk began as the Director of Integrated Care in 2013. Integrated Care is a branch of the organization that is helping push the healthcare field into a new way of providing health to patients.
According to Van Buskirk, healthcare providers are teaching patients that physical health has a direct impact on moods and behaviors. They look at blood pressure, body-mass index, sugar levels, etc, then look at ways to change lifestyles (e.g., nutrition, exercise) to address health problems. When people, [under the care of their primary care provider] increase healthy behaviors, they often find symptoms of their mental illness improve.
“We are treating the health problems, but more importantly making them more aware of the health risk and designing treatment programs on preventative health measures,” he explained. “Most chronic diseases like heart disease and smoking, its treatment starts with changing the behaviors. So, our specialty is helping people change their behaviors which is hard. It is hard for anybody to change behaviors.”
The social workers and psychologists, or the mental side of Porter-Starke, do not just look at everything from the neck up and the primary physicians only look at the body form the neck down. Physical health affects mental health and vice versa, Van Buskirk said. So, everyone at the hospital, clinics, and branches are working together to provide treatments to the entire body.
“We are all working together - improving systems of communication - to try to change how we deliver services so that we are all working together,” he said.
Van Buskirk enjoys serving and working in the community and his position at Porter-Starke has introduced many opportunities to interact with people.
“That is a main part of my role, I would say,” he said. “The relationships with patients and providers, the social worker, doctor, psychologist, are important. We are changing the policies and ways we conduct our services and programs to make sure everyone is working together for the patient.”
Just like real estate is about “location, location, location,” he said, healthcare is about, “relationships, relationships, relationships.”
Van Buskirk now lives in New Buffalo with his wife and his son, 15, and daughter, 13. His children are active in sports and especially love playing soccer and enjoy swimming. They frequent popular food joints (his wife’s birthday coincides with the beloved Redamak’s restaurant opening day - a must do), and head to the beach as much as possible. Van Buskirk enjoys playing golf in his free time as well.
When it comes to living in New Buffalo and close to Northwest Indiana, the activities to do, the restaurants to eat at, the school system, and just overall, way of life is pretty ahead of the curve, Van Buskirk believes.
And so is Porter-Starke, he said.
“We do our best everyday to improve the care we provide,” he said.
