Gabriela Salcido
Appearances
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Absolutely. Yes. Yes. We became partners with Amazon and they now have like a department in which they hire a lot of clients with a disability and they're trying to support the community in that sense. And there's Amazons everywhere and they have that department where you can apply if you have a disability and they will hire you.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Yeah, Roman Empire Agency is kind of an umbrella because I have several companies under that. I have a company called Roman Empire Living Skills, Roman Empire ABA Services, and Roman Empire ABA Agency.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
It is. You know what? It's so funny because I started with one client, to be quite honest with you. And since I was very knowledgeable in the services, I had a feeling that I was just going to be a great success. And I was going to offer the client something that nobody else was offering because I wanted to be different.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
And right now I have honestly over a thousand clients and over a thousand employees and still growing. Like we get the referrals that we get on a monthly basis. It's a lot.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Yes.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Yes, I want to go to other states because honestly, there is such a high need. We are right now credentialed with TRICARE, which is the military clients that are connected with the military because there's really a high need for them as well. But yeah, I would love to provide services in every single state if I could.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Yeah, it's just a process. Like every state has about maybe 12 to 14 insurances. So it's just a matter of time before one insurance approves you. It takes about nine months or so. If you're dealing with like state Medi-Cal and stuff like that, they take a little bit longer. Sometimes they can take up to two years. So sometimes that's a little bit of a holdup depending on the state.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
But right now we're trying to apply to as many states as we can. But if we were to have, let's just say a client in, let's say... Oh, my God. A state that we were not in. And they have the military insurance. We can provide services for them right away.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
There's different ways to actually do it. They can actually call their insurance and they can tell them that, hey, listen, I really want this company to start. And what they will do is a private agreement with me so that I can provide services. It's kind of like an individual private agreement. They expedite the process, but I can only work with that specific client.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
So it doesn't matter what state it is. We can walk them through if they really want my agency to provide services.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Yeah, the first one that we developed was Roman Empire Living Skills. But with that company, we provide services for a wide range of disability diagnosis. And then after that, the ABA agency developed because the state was no longer going to be funding services for behavioral therapy. And the insurance was now going to pick up that tab. So that's when I created ABA services.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
It's unfortunate, but sometimes I tell the families, work with us. We're not going to take two to five years. I'm sorry that you've dealt with that. And we really try to expedite them. So let's just say they've had such bad luck with other companies that are not able to perform for them.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
I have been in a situation where like, okay, it's not going to take that long, but it'll probably take between six months to nine months. And so then the families get really excited. The problem that we're having right now is like, I'll give you an example. Depending on the state, the requirements are so high for the therapists to provide services. They have to be state registered.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
They have to be, sometimes they have to be certified and have an exam that they have to take. So that makes it more difficult to find the therapists that are state registered so I can get them up and running to work with the clients. I think that the state's have to be all uniform. And one state shouldn't be harder than the other one.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
If they all kind of came uniform, I think the children, regardless of the state, would be able to get services much faster that way.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Absolutely.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Yes, because it is just, and we actually need to also do more community outreach and really kind of go to the colleges and really kind of have this talk with the universities and kind of like persuade the students to go into this field that it's very great, you know, that it's a good paying job and we need workers. And there has to be that voice of someone to say, please, you know, like,
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
More people need to join the program so that they're able to be field workers. We need workers. We have a lack of workers out there. Nobody wants to really get into this field. So we have to make it enticing again. We have to open those doors to our students so that they're able to graduate and work in this type of service.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Absolutely. If I could tell you right now, depending on the states that we work, I can tell you California is the number one state that offers a lot to our clients. And one thing that they did recently that has been great, they increased the rates for the vendors. So what does that mean? That means that we can pay our workers more money.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
That means that I can be able to pull more workers and they'll be happy and they'll get paid well and they'll be more enticed to get into the field. But if you were to go to another state, and I'll give you an example, Arizona. Arizona, they can get behavioral therapy, not a problem through the insurance.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
But when you talk about having your child that's an adult or like a teenager, the services that are out there, there are not really that many out there. There needs to be more companies like me to open up these type of services in different states. Maryland is another state that is very run exactly like California. But California does offer a variety of services for anyone and also any age.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
And we have a contract with about seven different states and with all the major health insurances for every state.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
I will provide you my website. I will also provide my phone number. So if families have a question, they can text me or they can email me. And then I can give them information of how to acquire any services that they may need for their child or their adults. If they need information on conservatorship, I can also guide them where to go get it for free so they don't have to pay an attorney.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
So I can give them kind of like tips of what to do with their child or their adult.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Absolutely. The company is called Roman Empire Agency. The website is www.romanempireagency.com.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Yeah, that's a central number. I have a few staff that will pick up that line and then they'll route it to the right department. I will provide all of you audience my email that you guys can email me directly. And if you guys have questions, you can just say, I heard your information throughout the podcast. My direct email is Gabby, G-A-B-B-Y at romanempireagency.com.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
I am the owner and I'm also the founder. I'm bilingual. I also speak Spanish and I can definitely help all the families out there.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
So one of the things I'm going to say before our session is over is that I'm a very proud agency because we became partners with the Cardinals here in Arizona, the Cardinals Stadium with NFL. We're actually sponsoring a sensory room and we're utilizing it to give the kids a break when they need a break from loud noises there at the stadium.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Hopefully we can continue to get more partnerships here so that we're able to offer that to the community.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Thank you for having us on the show.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
I decided to expand to other states because I saw that there was a really great need. And as I more got into it and providing services, and then I started asking in different states, I saw that the demand was definitely there. And we are trying to expand to more states. It's just a credentialing process that sometimes takes a little bit of time.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Well, the states are, for instance, I'll tell you in California, the way that it's run. In California, they have what you call regional centers. The regional centers get state and federal dollars to provide services. And then they hire vendors such as me to provide the services. In other states, there is no regional center.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
So in other states, the money goes directly to the vendors providing the service. So there's no person giving you referrals. You get the referral strictly from getting a contract with the state. And that's how you get your business. In California, the way you get your clients, it's through the regional center. They have social workers. They manage the cases.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
And then they give you, for instance, me, a vendor. They give me a client. I offer a variety of services, which I can explain. And they may tell me, I have a referral. This is the age bracket. Can you guys provide services for this child or adult? So depending on the state that you're in, it's the type of services that sometimes you're going to get rendered.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
And sometimes you might get our services rendered faster in some states than in other states.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Yeah, you know what? It's kind of a challenge right now. We're dealing with kind of a crisis in every single state in terms of like the majority of the states should do behavioral therapy with the exception of maybe California. Below the age of 21, the insurance will pick up the tab. So what happens sometimes is that depending on the state,
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
It makes it very hard for that individual to get services because there's more requirements. Maybe the child needs to have a diagnosis from a psychologist, not from the school. So sometimes the parents are having a difficulty in, number one, getting their child diagnosed.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
There's not a lot of people in the field that are diagnosing the kids fast enough, quick enough for them to start the process to get services if your child has autism. So sometimes, depending on the state, it makes it very difficult. There's a waiting list of clients, depending on the state, from one year to five years. I can give you an example. For instance, Vegas.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
There's a five-year waiting list. I could not believe when I was at that state of when the parents would tell me this. Because five years, can you imagine all that time lost from a child being from five to ten? It's ridiculous. Things need to change, and they should be uniform across the board with every state.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Right now, for the autistic children and providing behavioral therapy, the majority of the clients is under the age of 10. The statistics is right now that 1 out of 36 children get diagnosed with autism, but 1 out of 45 adults are also getting diagnosed with autism. But we provide the majority of the services to children, mostly under the age of 10 years old.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Absolutely. Yes, I think that the legislation has to take a better look at this because we have a crisis in a situation where there's a shortage of therapists in the field, just like there's a shortage of doctors and nurses. We have a shortage of staff providing services for these children and adults.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Definitely. And I'm just going to give you like a really brief rundown in terms of like, how is it that it all kind of starts? You know, like your child has a disability and they tell the parent, hey, your child has this disability, whether it's autism, mental retardation, you know, dual diagnosis, whatever. And then the question becomes to the parent, I have this diagnosis.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Now, what do I do next? What's going to be expected of my child transitioning into like younghood and then adulthood, right? That's the number one worry of the parents. What's going to happen to me when I die? What's going to happen to my child?
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
So I'm going to kind of give you like a rundown in terms of like the audience listening, a brief rundown of like how things work and what you should be expecting. And then if you guys want further information, you guys are more than welcome to then join my website and contact me directly.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
So when the child first gets diagnosed, the type of services that are offered to a child, which is the typical age to diagnose someone is about four years of age. That's the average age. At four years of age, a child will get diagnosed if he's identified that he has some type of disability. So services like that could be like early start.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
They give speech therapy, playtime, behavioral therapy, and so forth. Great. The child is getting those services when he's identified at early stages.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Then you go on to transitional, which is like the child that becomes a teenager. Well, what's offered to him? At that point, behavioral therapy is also offered to him, whether he has autism, whether he has mental retardation, whether the child has Down syndrome. Also, the services that are offered are adaptive skills, which is like, let me go ahead and learn how to make my bed.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Let me learn that instead of grabbing food with my fingers, I should be using a spoon. And this is how you should be using your utensils. Some children that have like more severe disabilities, they don't know. Like the mom is always feeding them and things like that. Independent living skills. The parent that has a child that's a teenager, she wants that child to be independent.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
She doesn't want to have to do his bed. She doesn't want to have to pick up his clothes. She doesn't even want to have to do his laundry. She wants that child to learn. Those are independent living skills that the child can get during the teenage years.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
The child becomes 18. So now what happens, right? Like that's the parents that are going to be like, okay, what's offered to my child at that point? So the type of services that are offered to adults, it's independent living skills.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
You still want that individual to learn how to be independent, to be able to take access to public transportation, go to the movies by himself, and learn how to count money, learn how to manage, you know, a small amount of money that maybe he's getting from the parents. And then there's also the supported living that he's available to get.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
And that is, let's just say the child gets a job, he's fine functioning, and he wants to move out. The state can provide services for that person to become not only independent, but to have the supports in place for that person to live alone one day without mom and dad having to care for him.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Some of the things that we also offered in our company is that we also try to educate. And I mean, this is even when I was a social worker, I was always trying to educate the parents to make sure that the parents, once the child turns 18, that they get a conservatorship for the child. And I'll just explain it briefly what a conservatorship means.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Conservatorship means that when the child becomes 18, they kind of gain the rights of their child. Because after the age of 18, he technically becomes an adult. So let's just say he goes to the doctor. The doctor says, hey, you know, we're going to go ahead and prescribe this medication for him, you know, because he's getting symptoms. And then the mom goes, no, I don't like that medication.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
If she does not have the conservatorship, she cannot advocate for her child anymore. So a conservatorship is so important because not only will she regain the rights medical, but also financial to make the right financial decisions for her child.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
There's about nine powers that the court grants. No, there's nine powers that there is. But usually the court will grant you seven out of nine. One of them that they will not give you, it's like you cannot tell your child who to marry or who to be involved with, which is kind of obvious.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
But it's very important for the families to always seek that conservatorship because you become almost like the attorney for your child. And you're always looking out for the best interest of your child with that document.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
We get all the referrals. In California, we get them from the regional centers because we have a contract with them. And with the insurances, we're on the network. But sometimes they may seek my services through my website.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Yeah, thank you for inviting us.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
All of our services that I've mentored are in the community and in the home.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Absolutely. And what we do is we do an individualized service plan. So I'm going to do an assessment. I'm going to assess the child. I'm going to ask mom, dad, hey, listen, what are his weaknesses? What are his strengths? Let's meet together and tell me what you want him to accomplish. And then like I said, a set of goals, for instance, do you want him to learn money?
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Well, let's do a money management goal. Do you want him to make his own medical appointments? Let's make a health goal. Do you want him to access the community? Well, let's make a community goal for your child. So it's very individualized on the child, depending on the age bracket and also the disability that he may have.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
About 24 years or so. I started out as a social worker for the state in California. I did about 10 years there, and then after 10 years, I decided to open up my own company, and I've been in business for about 14 years or so in County.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Absolutely. My company also not just deals with children to do behavioral therapy and different types of disability, but we have a small percentage of our clients that are referred to us that are forensically involved. What I mean is that they got in trouble with the law. The court calls us and tells us, hey, listen, can you guys help this individual?
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
So like somebody that's gotten involved with the law that will get arrested, they can call the probation officer and report to the probation officer every single day. So they'll call me and they say, hey, Gabby, can you rehabilitate this client? And I'll tell them, yes, let me work with that client that has a disability. I'll report to the court. I'll let them know the progress that we're making.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
And to be quite honest, we've had a huge success that we end up closing the cases very successfully. We end up getting them a job and they're just like really, really good, you know, after they work with our agency.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
So we do. We do a lot of events in different states. We kind of like are always giving our information out. We have a lot of information on our website. We're always sponsoring events because we want the community to feel supported. If there's such a high need, let's just say that some of these families, they don't know where to get services. They don't know how to get services.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
It's almost like they have to self-educate themselves. So I, as an agency, having worked on the inside as a social worker and also outside now as, you know, my own vendor, like I can really educate the families and walk them through the whole process. So they're not really kind of like terrified, like what's going to happen now? Like your child has rights. Your child can get services.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
But knowing how to get those services is sometimes that, yeah, you need to bridge that gap into the community. You need to educate the community.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
You know, it's funny because we've had actually therapists work for us that they did not disclose that they actually had autism because they were very high functioning. When we found out, we were just like very amazed. We were very excited. If there is someone that has the capacity to help another client, we are more than welcome to bring them on board.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Because we've had situations like that, that we were just not aware and they worked out great. You know, so it's a possibility. We have kind of a lot of our clients that are high functioning jobs like at courthouse, you know, like we've been so successful in getting our clients jobs in the workforce that despite the fact that they have a disability, it does not impair them to be very successful.