Renton, Wash.-based Providence’s Well Being Trust made strides in 2025 across depression treatment, caregiver support and community partnerships, all centered on compassionate care. Arpan Waghray, MD, CEO of the foundation, shared with Becker’s how the foundation’s three pillars are driving innovation.
Providence St. Joseph Health invested $100 million as an endowment to create Well Being Trust. The foundation is dedicated to advancing the mental, social and spiritual health for all.
Pillar I: Caregivers
The No One Cares Alone initiative combines proactive outreach, leadership training and peer support to Providence’s 125,000 caregivers, a population Dr. Waghray said must be “top of mind” when considering the mental healthcare delivery system.
“Just like people do an annual dental checkup, how do you send them an annual mental health checkup that’s anonymous?” he said.
The focus remains on being proactive in a field where caregivers are often reluctant to seek care and may be suffering in silence.
“We want to make sure that if any of our caregivers want access to mental health support or services that’s available to them in a seamless manner based on their needs and preferences, in a timely way,” Dr. Waghray said.
The foundation has also integrated cost-free, AI-driven suicide prevention training for caregivers though the initiative. The training aims to empower employees to engage in suicide prevention efforts thoughout Providence and its surrounding communities.
Pillar II: Patients
Well Being Trust is committed to whole-person care — mental, physical and spiritual — and follows a “no wrong door” policy. Compassion, Dr. Waghray said, must be at the heart of care delivery because patients often enter the system at their most vulnerable, whether after a cancer diagnosis or during a primary care visit for emotional distress.
Support must extend beyond emergency departments with clear pathways to different levels of care.
“Not only are you supporting people when they’re there, but you’re setting them up for success by ensuring that the transitions of care are appropriate,” he said.
Through its virtual behavioral health network, the foundation provides patients access to long-term therapy, medication management and intensive outpatient services. Virtual care also is integrated into the EHR to close the loop, he said.
From cardiology to oncology and OB-GYN care, the foundation’s goal is to embed mental health support systemwide.
“When we provide access that, in itself, is insufficient, the access must translate into alleviating the most common causes of human suffering and saving lives,” Dr. Waghray said.
Through its primary care network, the foundation has focused on depression — a leading cause of disability across the country — and saw a 85% improvement in patients’ response to depression treatment.
Dr. Waghray said driving meaningful outcomes begins with leadership. For example, its board of directors requests key behavioral health measures be included in quality reports, including for prevalent conditions such as depression. Providence President and CEO Erik Wexler has also reinforced that the system must prioritize serving vulnerable populations, including those with mental health conditions and substance use disorders.
“Then when organizations go beyond that and actually prioritize and set a long-term behavioral health strategy to create sustainable services and improve access to mental health support and services, that too, drives a huge separation,” Dr. Waghray said, comparing good organizations to great ones.
Pillar III: Community
Well Being Trust has an obligation to serve entire communities, not just those who are Providence patients, he said. That begins with conducting health needs assessment in every community the system serves and identifying mental health, substance use and homelessness challenges.
Because every community is different, he emphasized the need for tailored, multifaceted approaches. In one underserved Washington community, Well Being Trust partnered with a school district to deliver mental health support to 15,000 children.
The most important factor, he said, is ensuring sustainability — not starting programs that disappear once grant funding is depleted.
Well Being Trust partnered with the Emergency Mobile Opioid Team established by the city of Everett, Wash., to deliver peer support, counseling and medication to unhoused individuals struggling with opioid use disorder. In 2025, the team served more than 900 individuals, combining street outreach with accessible healthcare services.
“A lot of the programs and services that can be scaled, even if we are not running those programs, somebody else is. We found that this was a great year for partnerships and collaboration,” Dr. Waghray said, adding that the foundation has established more than 48 community partnerships.
