Intro
Tim Dupell has dedicated his career to supporting mental healthcare providers with his expertise, resources, and personal passion. For the last 20 years, Tim Dupell has focused on guiding and supporting therapeutic leaders to establish mental and behavioral health programs for struggling families. Dupell’s academic background in business and economics combined with his experience in the healthcare field help programs create sustainable models for long-term success. He continues to offer his empathetic expertise and personal dedication to support holistic treatment systems, placing the highest priority on long-term patient success and improved family outcomes.
A Personal Passion for Helping Others Providing effective mental health care and advocacy is of personal importance to Tim. With loved ones and family experiencing Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, Addiction and Autism– he knows that personalized care is paramount to serving individuals and their families. Finding his calling in this field came after garnering priceless experience in finance, accounting, and risk management. Slowly, his career path grew from working as a CPA consultant with Ernst & Young to founding an organization which helps provide mental and behavioral health to youth across the nation, Family Help & Wellness.
A Career Devoted to Service After working as a CPA specializing in healthcare and insurance, Dupell dove into management accounting with HMO Oregon/Capital Health Care. His six years working with this company helped him recognize areas where individuals were not getting the service they needed. He was later hired on as CFO of The Corvallis Clinic. At the clinic, his expertise helped build financial sustainability and integrity. Dupell mentioned that both of these positions helped him form “lifelong bonds with good people who care about providing clients, customers, and employees with high levels of respect, dignity, and appreciation.”
Discovering the Importance of Apt Ownership Dupell served as CFO, Secretary and Treasurer at Physician Partners, Inc. Here he managed the overall financial activities of a venture-backed company for the first time. Physician Partners, Inc. showed him the importance of hiring healthcare professionals who are imbued with a genuine passion for helping families. Simply put, high levels of clinician and educator ownership creates a safer, more consistent level of healthcare. Through working with healthcare clinics and networking with direct-care providers, Tim was able to see firsthand the correlation between stable business plans and dependable, quality healthcare. In fact, Healthcare Financial Management published Dupell’s essay, “Practice Management Companies Improve Practices”, which comments on this correlation. When physicians are properly organized, they have greater ability to implement best-practice protocols. Alongside well-designed teams, proper financing for the organization at large gains the sustainable support inherently tied to capital access.
Putting Experience to Work for Patient Success When Dupell decided to use his skills more specifically to help at-risk youth, he moved to a position at a nation-wide provider of adolescent mental health care. As CFO and Executive Vice President, Dupell managed the company’s financial, legal, risk management, and IT services. After more than five years with this company, he wanted to help families on a more personal level. Tim recognized the curative potentials of nature and wanted to provide families in crisis with therapeutically designed wilderness experiences.
Family Help & Wellness Dupell co-founded Family Help & Wellness in 2008, seeking to empower therapeutic leaders to provide the best possible care. He now serves as one of 30 minority investors and a mental health advocate. This organization began with just one program: WinGate Wilderness Therapy. Dupell founded WinGate in partnership with experienced clinicians and field guides to provide an immersive therapeutic wilderness experience to adolescents struggling with mental and behavioral health. In succeeding years, Tim was approached by leading clinical professionals and program directors to found or support many more programs. Family Help & Wellness is an organization that currently provides resources and best practice management for 19 programs across the nation. These programs serve adolescents and young adults with mental and behavioral health issues in both residential and wilderness settings.
Dupell prioritized partnering with individuals who “have a strong sense of purpose and caring for others”. More than half of FHW’s ownership consists of clinicians and educators with experience in the field. Licensed therapists and educators in the FHW family approach treatment with relationship-centered, clinically-proven therapy modalities and supportive experiential activities. Each program uniquely provides adolescents and young adults with the tools they need to thrive as individuals.
Hobbies and Other Interests Since Dupell’s management roles at Family Help & Wellness have lessened, he has more time to pursue his hobbies. Tim enjoys all sorts of outdoor activities: water sports, jogging, and hiking. His two Lhasa Aphsos, Sadie and Lucy, often accompany him. Before pursuing economics and business, Tim wanted to teach History– a subject he still enjoys learning about.