Taking care of the business of taking care of people

Even in high school, Kathleen Brown McHale, now 62, found herself drawn to her classmates with developmental disabilities.

"I volunteered - at lunch, I was with the kids that had development disabilities," said Brown McHale, president and chief executive of Special People in Northeast Inc. (SPIN), a Philadelphia nonprofit that provides life-long services, including residential care to people with intellectual, developmental and autism disabilities. It also offers early childhood services, and especially important in the summer, a camp for people with special needs.

"It was always my dream to be in this field," Brown McHale said.

"I've just had a strong instinct - my mother called it a maternal instinct, just caring for people, but also in a leadership position, wanting to help people."

As it turns out, there was more to it - an emotional benefit that she herself didn't fully understand until years later, as she found herself increasingly caught up in the cacophony of conflicts and demands that mark the life of an executive.

What was the benefit?

I always found that when I'm with people that need me, I'm in the moment. A lot of my stress falls away. You're fully there. Now they call it mindfulness. And I find that in a lot of the things that I do in life, I'm not mindful.

Turnover is high in the kind of direct services SPIN provides.

Our turnover is far lower than the industry average - it's researched at 47 percent and ours is at 22.

What's the key?

You have to care about your direct support employees if you expect them to care about the individuals that we're here for. It's essential and we don't just pay lip service to it. We really, really do it.

So many executives do pay lip service. What do you do that actually makes a difference?

You have to spend time. I like to go by myself [to visit group homes and other facilities]. If you go with your administrative assistant and an entourage, it's not the same. I like walking in with no fanfare.

What do you do when you get there?

You ask them, 'Tell me what you're the proudest of that you did in the past couple of months.' You hear their stories and then you get to say, 'Oh my God, I love that.'

Then you say, 'What could make this place better?'

What do you learn?

Sometimes, I've heard things like 'You know, the lift on the van doesn't work for the new wheelchair that [a client] just got.' I'll say, 'Oh my God. We've got to fix that. Tell me.' Then they'll show me that the wheels splay out as they push the wheelchair up the ramp.

You know these are the kinds of things that people are dealing with and I can relate. I've told them, 'If I was working in this home and this happened to me, I would be going nuts. And I need you to realize that you have power. You need to throw a fit.'

SPIN relies on grants from the government for lots of its funding. How do you grab the attention of legislators and government officials?

We grab their hearts by telling them the stories of the people that we're supporting - the most vulnerable people in Pennsylvania.

Do the stories grab you?

Last summer there was a young man who was found in a convenience store with nothing more than a diaper and duct tape. He was living with his family and he had run away. He was eating food and he was very, very thin.

They typically taped him into his bed because they didn't have the wherewithal to support him and he does have extremely significant developmental disabilities and autism. There could be compelling reasons for it, but it's still abusive. So he now is here and thriving.

How did the state's budget impasse affect SPIN?

We had to lay off eight people in January. Laying off people is the worst thing we have to do. That was a test of integrity. The first thing I did was cut my own pay and my executives voluntarily reduced their pay because we were facing deficits. So you know people want to see that you're not just cutting people without affecting yourself as well.

Interview questions and answers have been edited for space.

jvonbergen@phillynews.com

215-854-2769@JaneVonBergen

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Home: Mount Laurel.

Family: Husband, Bob McHale; children, Courtney Kafka, 33; Rebecca, 25, Emily, 23.

Diplomas: Council Rock High School; Temple University, psychology; Southern Illinois University, master's in business administration.

Career: Started as a direct support professional while in college, moved up ranks at SPIN, becoming first CEO to follow founder.

At camp: Loved archery, swimming.

Loves: Vacuuming. "It's immediate gratification."

Special skill: Sews her own curtains. EndText

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What: Provides residential, other services for people of all ages with intellectual disabilities, autism; camp, early-childhood programs.

Where: In Philadelphia area, Lehigh Valley.

Dollars: $62.2 million, mostly from government contracts, serving 3,500.

Employees: 1,300.

Started: By parents in 1971 as a camp for their special-needs children. EndText

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Kathleen Brown McHale on the power of parents. www.philly.com/jobbing

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