Many of us on the Pathfinder team have experience with substance use, as clinicians, mentors, or those in recovery. When we began, we knew we needed to customize to our audience with care and intention.

So we created a different kind of platform for you to use within your community, accessible to the end user, your clients. Because you and your people — not us — are the experts on your journey.

Our culture is one of teamwork, empathy, communication, problem-solving, and trust. Because we know the product we put out into the world reflects who we are and how we work.

The Wellstone Legacy

My mother and father, Sheila Wellstone and Senator Paul Wellstone, had a vision: To end the disparity between physical healthcare and substance use care. Before their deaths, they worked tirelessly to bring substance abuse treatment benefits to all, particularly those in the Native American community.

In 2008, the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act was signed into law. Trouble was, highly paid lobbyists pushed back on any effort that affected the insurance or pharmaceutical bottom line, and this law was barely recognizable as my parents’ original vision.

It took me four years — and over 300 meetings — to ensure insurance companies cover substance use treatment at parity with physical healthcare. Now, they do.

Meanwhile, technology has become a robust reference tool, as well as a community gathering spot. So it seemed the natural next step to use technology to extend expert care to everyone we could.

I’m proud to carry on my mother and father’s legacy, using technology to reach even more people where they are, more easily, with more choices. You won’t find this kind of help anywhere else. But then again, my parents encouraged us to create our own paths toward a more just world.

Thanks for joining us on this important journey,
David Wellstone, CEO, Pathfinder Solutions