Ep. 28: Prepared & Flexible with Vanessa Pataky & Kaitlyn Ervin

Vanessa Pataky is the Senior Vice President of Crisis & Addiction Continuum at Aspire Indiana Health, where she oversees a comprehensive crisis continuum including crisis call center, mobile crisis, and the Rely Crisis Center. Kaitlyn Ervin is Senior Director of Crisis Services at Aspire, where she has spent more than a decade serving in roles ranging from intake clinician and therapist to clinical manager and crisis leader. Together, Vanessa and Kaitlyn have helped lead the development of Aspire’s evolving crisis system, building strong partnerships with first responders, hospitals, and community organizations along the way. In this episode, Travis sits down with Vanessa and Kaitlyn to explore what it takes to build a crisis continuum that truly meets people where they are. Kaitlyn & Vanessa share the story behind the Rely Center, the importance of listening to community partners rather than trying to displace them, and the role of trust, humility, and persistence in creating new pathways to care. They also discuss hospitality in crisis care—from good coffee and Mexican hot chocolate to the influence of Disney—along with the importance of being “the pause” in moments of crisis, embracing ambiguity, and recognizing that crisis systems are never finished. Perhaps most importantly, Vanessa and Kaitlyn offer a compelling philosophy for building better crisis care: dream big, start where you are, stay flexible, and keep learning from the people doing the work. Their approach is a reminder that meaningful system transformation is less about having all the answers and more about being willing to build something together.