“We started the Center for Social Dynamics in order to help children and families dealing with autism”: CSD

The Silicon Review

“My goal is to enable all of us to understand and analyze the complex issues that young children have to deal with.”

The Center for Social Dynamics (CSD) is a multi-cultural organization providing ABA autism treatment to diverse populations in Northern California. The company has a strong commitment to:

Rapid responding to evolving child and parent needs
Cultural sensitivity to family values and generational dynamics
A Multi-disciplinary approach to evidence-based methods

Company’s mission is to enable children and individuals to reach their full potential by providing intervention that will develop new skills and concepts to maximize their ability to learn from natural environments and to empower families by providing supportive coaching and behavior management.

Its Vision is to deliver the best and most innovative solutions possible for children and their families affected by autism or other disabilities and foster a strong culture of communityparticipation and inclusion.

An upshot about theprogrammes conducted

Applied Behavior Analysis

Applied Behavior analysis, commonly referred as ABA focuses on the principles that explain how learning takes place. Positive reinforcement is one such principle. When a behavior is followed by some sort of reward, the behavior is more likely to be repeated. Through decades of research, the field of behavior analysis has developed many techniques for increasing useful behaviors and reducing those that may cause harm or interfere with learning.

Social Skill Groups

From a very young age, neurotypical children learn social, cognitive, and communicative abilities from their primary caregivers by listening to speech and looking at faces. Recognizing and interpreting familiar faces allows infants to identify socially important people and understand others’ internal mental states. At the Center for Social Dynamics (CSD), the team uses an evidence-based approach that treats the social-emotional affects associated with the medical diagnosis of ASD.

Adult Transition Program

The importance of the young adult transition is becoming more recognized within the community of providers who work with young people on the Autism Spectrum. The company knows young people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) struggle with the transition fro high school precisely because it is a difficult process. Society tends to cast a view that the young adult transition is a ‘launch’, a sudden shift from dependence to independence. If a young adult is not able to immediately find their path, others are often quick to pass judgment.

A dialogue exchange with the giant Pete Pallares: CEO

Why was the company set up?

2012 was the year where Autism became part of Healthcare SB946, and I wanted to be part of it. The company was set up because I saw an opportunity to do it my way after 20 years of working in the industry. I had a unique understanding of doing things and provide services.

Tell us about your first product that was launched?

I wanted to be able to treat and diagnose individuals with Autism. That’s when we started offering Autism services.

How successful was your first project roll on?

I was able to address and focus on a population that nobody wanted to address- Latinos, Asian Americans, and African Americans (among others) and this made us in many ways special from the very beginning.

If you have to list five factors that have been/ are the biggest asset to your organization, what would they be and why?

Capital: I was very naïve at the beginning with the way things work with insurance companies, they have a particular way to operate and we had to adapt to it. I ran out of my capital very fast, so I was in the need of finding an investor. Capital has always been a big need for us.

Ability to get the right people in the right place: It took me a couple of years to find skills around the organization and the key people to help me run it. When this happened, CSD became a different organization.

Strong relationship with payers: Especially three of them. Sustaining very stream client services was and still is key to our organization.

Location: Having the right offices in the right regions as I mentioned was critical for better client support and service delivery.

Ability to always understand how to make things better: Embracing mistakes is the key to grow. When we do things wrong, we move forward, but even when we do things right we always try to make them better. Healthcare is frantic and requires people to be at the top of the game.

How big is your organization today? Briefly explain the organizational structure?

We have 300 employees, 600 patients across northern Call centersled by CEO and followed by the 3 main arms: CFO, Operations and Director of Ops.

For me the structural pyramid is inverted- myself as the CEO, and the people in management has a clear message that their responsibility is to provide support to the teams that actually offer the services (the highest level from my perspective)

A glimpse about the CEO: Pete Pallares

Active in the field of autism and developmental disabilities for over 20 years, Pete has devoted much of his time working in research, diagnosis and the treatment of autism across different cultures. As CEO, Pete is in charge of directing a team of highly qualified professionals develop and implement individualized treatment programs for children and families diagnosed with autism utilizing the principles of applied behavior analysis and the cultural context within their geographical location. Pete has provided intervention programs for a wide range of patients, from high-functioning children to very challenging individuals. His specialization includes unpacking and analyzing cultural the dynamics within a setting, an environment, or an individual. Pete is an annual presenter and his work in cultural competence has been internationally recognized. He is currently an active member and presenter for several national and international organizations and has also been an associate to important autism research studies conducted by the Department of Public Health and Kaiser Permanente.