Anne Gutos, TRN's CEO and Co-Founder's passion came after losing her brother, King Shaffer, to an accidental opioid overdose in 2016. Anne’s brother struggled after a jet ski injury that left him with persistent back pain which was treated with Opioids for many years until it became an out of control heroin/ fentanyl addiction which tragically cut his life short at the age of 49. King overdosed and died in Anne’s family home two days before he was scheduled to arrive at a long-term rehab in Boynton Beach Florida.

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He was a strong brave son and brother who graduated through the Navy Seal BUDS program, had genius IQ, score, multi-talented, loving, generous, entrepreneurial, humble, and kind animal lover. King was diagnosed and treated for ADHD as a child, was a product of a divorced household with childhood trauma. He eventually fathered two amazingly courageous children who together personally witnessed his addiction and eventually the demise of their beloved father.

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It was decades with lack of support, proper treatment, and little or no resources that kept Anne’s brother in the revolving door of suffering with his mental health and addiction issues. This was a “family disease.” Watching someone you love suffering is painful. There was no-where to turn to...other than Emergency Rooms, Intensive Care Units, quick stay rehabs. It always was the same story of interrupted treatment, lack of education, and no continuum of support or care.

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The vision of Telehealth Recovery Network came one morning in the summer of 2016 while sitting at a Cracker Barrel over breakfast. Anne and her brother drew on a napkin the beginnings of a business plan. King spoke of the dire need for resources and care, and how the stigma was contributing to people dying with the feeling of being all alone. Because King never had the proper care, he knew we knew wanted to bring people with mental health and addiction disorders out from isolation and link them to better resources, care, support and treatment while keeping them engaged in their recovery. Three months later, October 29, 2016, King died before he had the chance to help make his vision become a reality.

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With Anne having been a successful brand creator, who often brought her clients own businesses to life, along with her brother’s vision written on napkin, the stars were then aligned for Telehealth Recovery Network.

 

After 3 years passed, in 2019 Anne had a serendipitous meeting with successful business investor and entrepreneur, Zach Harari, where she shared her brother’s vision along with her passionate and intuitive belief that building an affordable Telehealth Platform would be the only way to help masses of people heal from mental health and addiction disorders where they can receive a Gold Standard continuum of care and thrive in recovery.

 

It was at that moment that Zach and Anne began building a team of passionate and talented partners who share the vision and Telehealth Recovery Network and have helped to fearlessly build and bring the Gold Standard of care to the mental health and addiction industry.