Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Gabriela Salcido:Creating Lifelong Pathways for Autism Services Across America
Wed, 05 Feb 2025
Send us a textJoin us for a compelling conversation with Gabriela Salcido, a trailblazer in autism services and the founder of the Roman Empire Agency.Discover the challenges and triumphs of expanding vital support networks across state lines, as Gabriela shares her journey from a dedicated social worker in California to leading a multi-state agency. Learn about the pressing need for uniform service provision nationwide to better serve families facing long waiting lists and hurdles in obtaining autism diagnoses for their children.Our discussion takes a heartfelt dive into the life stages of children with developmental disabilities. From initial diagnosis to the transition into adulthood, Gabriela emphasizes the importance of early interventions like speech and behavioral therapies. As children grow, the focus shifts to developing adaptive skills and exploring supported living options, while the necessity of conservatorship ensures continuous advocacy for their needs beyond age 18. Through a personalized approach, Gabriela's agency collaborates with families to tailor individualized service plans, ensuring every child’s unique needs are met.In the final part of our episode, Gabriela sheds light on the ambitious national expansion of her agency. Facing challenges such as state credentialing and insurance approvals, she remains committed to making autism services accessible across the U.S. Gabriela also highlights exciting partnerships, including one with the Arizona Cardinals, to foster community support. Tune in to hear her passion for helping families and her vision for a future where no one feels alone, and learn how you can support this mission.https://tonymantor.comhttps://Facebook.com/tonymantorhttps://instagram.com/tonymantorhttps://twitter.com/tonymantorhttps://youtube.com/tonymantormusicintro/outro music bed written by T. WildWhy Not Me the World music published by Mantor Music (BMI)
Chapter 1: Who is Gabriela Salcido and what is the Roman Empire Agency?
Hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance, and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi, I'm Tony Mentor. Welcome to Why Not Me? The World. Today, we have the pleasure of hosting Gabriella Salcido, who established the Roman Empire Agency in 2010 to provide services to individuals with developmental disabilities.
Currently operating in eight states, she is striving to expand her services nationwide. Welcome to the show.
Yeah, thank you for inviting us.
Oh, it's my pleasure. How long have you been working with autism, mental health, and the special needs community?
Chapter 2: How did Gabriela Salcido start her journey in autism services?
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.
Oh, that's perfect. When you started your company, is that the Roman Empire Agency? Yes.
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.
Which one come first? How did you develop it and evolve from there?
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.
And we have a contract with about seven different states and with all the major health insurances for every state.
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Chapter 3: What challenges exist in expanding autism services across states?
Wow, that's great. What kind of a process was it to get that started and then expand it to all the other states that you're in currently?
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.
One of the things that I hear from several different people is autistic children, the autistic community, pretty much all across the country, have the same needs. Unfortunately, it's the way the different states operate that causes some issues. So how do you handle that with the way that you do business?
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.
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.
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.
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Chapter 4: How do state differences affect autism service delivery?
And sometimes you might get our services rendered faster in some states than in other states.
When you deal with people that have issues with the state and they're autistic and their family's struggling, do you find that the state will give you what you need or do you still have to fight for the client to get them everything that they need to move forward?
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,
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.
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.
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.
Absolutely. I've heard that many times. What ages do you find yourself working with most of the time?
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.
Yeah, that's good to know. I found that one in seven people around the world either know someone or has someone that's autistic in their family.
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Chapter 5: What services are crucial at different life stages for children with autism?
Yes, absolutely. Change is definitely needed. Now, in some states, they age out at 18. In other states, they age out at 21. What do you do to help those that have aged out? As we all know, autism does not stop at 18 or 21. It continues, so they still need help.
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.
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?
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.
That's great. What's first then?
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.
They give speech therapy, playtime, behavioral therapy, and so forth. Great. The child is getting those services when he's identified at early stages.
That makes total sense. What's next?
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.
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Chapter 6: Why is conservatorship important for families with autistic adults?
Yeah, and that's a very scary thing for the parents. Now, do you help in that at all with the transitions like that?
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.
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.
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.
Yes, that's very important for both of them.
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.
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.
Yeah, that's very important things for people to know. Do you come to them or do you go to them? How does that work out for your company?
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.
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Chapter 7: How does the Roman Empire Agency tailor services to individual needs?
Okay, that makes sense. Now, when you take on a new client, you decide what they need. Do you go to their homes to help them or do they come to your office to decide what is needed to move forward with your company?
All of our services that I've mentored are in the community and in the home.
All right, so you actually go to their homes, look at what they're doing, diagnose what's going on, and then formulate a plan so that everything can get better for them with your services.
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?
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.
Yeah, that sounds like a tremendously good plan. Now, once you have that laid out, you've done your diagnosis of what the family needs, then you lay out what they need to do to accomplish it.
Have you had situations where you look at everything, you have your reservations if this will work or not, then you get working with them, they're following through, you still have your doubts, but then all of a sudden, it just works out. Have you had that happen?
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?
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.
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