At our October 2026 Professionals Meet-Up, Chyrel Snedigar, Director of External Relations and Strategic Partnerships at Rimrock Foundation, presented Rimrock Access, Care Now, and Trauma-Informed Principles. Attendees learned how Rimrock’s Care Now strategy and “no wrong door” approach are designed to reduce barriers, connect people to the right level of care, and create clearer, more supportive pathways into behavioral health and substance use services. 

Chyrel also explored how trauma-informed care can shape the way professionals respond to behavior, referrals, and service engagement. She highlighted principles such as safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment, and cultural awareness, and encouraged attendees to consider how small changes in language, processes, and handoffs can help people feel more supported and respected throughout the care experience.

The presentation began with a simple but important idea: access is part of care. The first phone call, referral, release, or handoff can either help someone feel safer or create another barrier. Rimrock’s approach is designed to make those early steps clearer, more timely, and more supportive so that when someone is ready to seek help, they can be connected to the next right step. 

Rimrock’s programming reflects that philosophy by offering a continuum of care rather than a single point of entry. Services range from withdrawal management and residential treatment to partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient services, outpatient counseling, peer support, medication-assisted treatment, client navigation, psychiatric rehabilitation, and recovery supports. The goal is to match each person with the level of care and support that fits their needs at that moment. 

A major focus of the presentation was Rimrock’s Care Now model and its “no wrong door” approach to behavioral health. Instead of beginning with, “Where do you fit?” the model shifts the question toward, “What level of support helps you engage safely today?” Care Now is intended to expand access, integrate mental health and substance use services, and connect people more quickly with care coordination, peer support, medication management, and community resources. 

That naturally led into trauma-informed care. Even a strong program can fall short if the pathway into it feels confusing, unsafe, or shaming. Trauma-informed principles such as safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment, and cultural awareness can be woven into the entire access process. The questions become: Does this interaction lower threat? Is the process predictable? Where can we offer choice? Are we doing this with the person rather than to them? 

Trauma-informed care was framed as an approach, not a script. Professionals do not need someone’s full trauma history in order to respond in a trauma-informed way. The work involves recognizing the widespread impact of trauma, noticing how it may show up in clients, families, staff, and partners, integrating that understanding into everyday practice, and reducing the risk of retraumatization through language, systems, policies, and relationships. 

Another key takeaway was the connection between trauma and behavior. What appears on the surface may actually be part of a survival response. Fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses can look like arguing, avoiding appointments, shutting down, or agreeing in the moment and disengaging later. One of the central reminders from the presentation was “regulation before reasoning.” When the nervous system is calmer, planning, honesty, consent, and engagement become more possible. 

This lens also changes how professionals interpret behavior. Someone labeled “resistant” may actually be mistrustful or protecting a sense of control. Someone seen as “lazy” may be overwhelmed or missing the next organizing skill. Someone described as “attention-seeking” may instead be looking for connection or needing to feel heard. A trauma-informed perspective does not remove accountability; it can actually make accountability easier to receive because it begins with greater understanding of what may be driving the behavior. 

The presentation also emphasized how trauma-informed care shows up in small, everyday interactions. Before asking sensitive questions, explain why they are needed and ask permission. Before making a referral, be clear about what information will be shared. When someone is angry or shut down, slow the pace and reduce threat before trying to solve the problem. And when options are limited, be transparent about those limits while still offering meaningful choices wherever possible. 

Importantly, these principles apply to staff and organizations too. Professionals cannot consistently provide safety, choice, and regulation within systems that are organized around fear, unpredictability, shame, or repeated stress. Clear communication, predictable processes, supportive debriefing, and reducing unnecessary repetition can help create healthier environments for staff as well as the people they serve. 

The presentation closed with an invitation to think small and practical. Trauma-informed culture does not have to begin with a major overhaul. It can start with one phrase we stop using, one process we make clearer, one meaningful choice we add, or one handoff we improve. Over time, those small, visible, repeated changes can create systems where clients, families, referral partners, and staff experience more safety, dignity, clarity, and connection.

Website: www.rimrock.org

Facebook: www.facebook.com/RimrockFoundation

Thank you to our videographers and photographers who captured this month's meet-up: Kristen Engebretson, Leif Welhaven, and Jessica Kiedrowski.

Our monthly Professionals Meet-Ups will always be free and open to the community but if you’re looking for even more ways to connect, collaborate, and get involved, consider becoming an Alliance Insider.

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The Yellowstone County Mental Health Alliance brings together mental health professionals, healthcare providers, educators, nonprofit organizations, and community partners to strengthen connections, improve collaboration, and support mental health services throughout Yellowstone County.

We’re always looking for speakers, lunch sponsors, and Meet-Up Recap sponsors to partner with us throughout the year.

Our monthly meet-ups take place at noon on the second Wednesday of each month and are designed to help mental health and wellness professionals learn, connect, and strengthen relationships across our community.

If you’d like to share your expertise, sponsor lunch, or support the recap that goes out to our growing audience after each meet-up, we’d love to hear from you.

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Catch up on the latest YCMHA news, upcoming events, community opportunities, and announcements in this month’s edition of Inside the Alliance.

READ Inside the Alliance:

Edition 1 (October 12, 2026)

Edition 2 (October 26, 2026)- To Be Published

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