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A month ago in response to Mercy Medical Center’s closing of the Behavioral Health Unit, Bob Board, a family therapist, started Community Partners Counseling with Jeri Benedetto, another former BHU therapist. The duo offer 10 to 12 week counseling courses in cognitive behavioral therapy.
Even before the Behavioral Health Unit at Mercy Medical Center closed and put him out of work, therapist Bob Board says patients would come to the emergency room seeking help, with little room to turn.
They may have had a mental health problem, but not one that required hospitalization. And they had no insurance and couldn’t qualify for the Oregon Health Plan.
“We just kept seeing these people that there was no place to send them, and we knew they’d come back,” said Board. “I think all of us have a serious concern moving forward in Douglas County. The hospital is being stretched. Mental health is being stretched.”
A month ago, Board started Community Partners Counseling, where, for no charge, he and Jeri Benedetto, another former BHU therapist, offer 10- to 12-week counseling courses in cognitive behavioral therapy.
“When I’ve needed another set of eyes, another set of ears … counseling has been a godsend,” Benedetto said.
The service is designed to help those who fall in the gap between having the Oregon Health Plan and being able to afford private counseling.
Many of their clients have no insurance because anger or depression issues cost them their job. Others are couples hoping to prevent a failed marriage.
Patients are currently referred by either the ER at Mercy or Douglas County Mental Health. Board said callers who seek their services directly are referred to the county for a screening to determine if they qualify.
On the first visit, Benedetto said she just gets the background on the client, learns the demographics.
“It’s kind of a ‘get to know you’ time. Have they been in counseling before? Do they have a primary care physician,” she said. “On the second visit, the patient may be given some homework to do.”
If clients have anger issues, they are asked to jot down when in the past week they lost control of their anger, so that they may be able to head it off next time.
For depression, they’re asked to think about what irrational demand might be triggering their emotional paralysis.
“It’s very much tailored to the individual,” Benedetto said. “It’s not a one-size-fits all process. With each subsequent visit, we look at how the goal is being met.”
Neither Board nor Benedetto are licensed to prescribe medicine, so Board said he asks his clients to seek a physician if they need medication such as antidepressants.
Those drugs often take two months to kick in, by which time the therapy sessions should have made major improvements in a client’s thinking and management of emotions.
“When they are feeling better, it can be the difference between jumping off a bridge or getting their old job back,” Board said.
Currently, all of their time is volunteered. Board and Benedetto are both nominally retired, and do the therapy to stay active. Mercy donates the space, electricity and a phone.
Board said he hopes Community Partners Counseling can get established as a nonprofit to assist patients who need help paying for medication or other necessities. By mid-January, he hopes to have a partnership with Umpqua Community Health Clinic, which offers low-cost medical care.
The clinic’s deputy director, Bryan McKnutt, said up to two-thirds of his clinic’s patients have mental health issues, for which they are treated medically, with drugs. He said many of them could get help with counseling, but the clinic would probably swamp an outfit like Board’s with people without insurance.
“Primary care providers do a lot of brief therapy, but they’re not treated as therapists, nor do they have the time,” McKnutt said. “What Board is doing is a very creative and wonderful thing, and we can only hope it is a seed that will grow and bear fruit.”
• You can reach reporter Chris Gray at 957-4218 or by e-mail at cgray@newsreview.info.
They may have had a mental health problem, but not one that required hospitalization. And they had no insurance and couldn’t qualify for the Oregon Health Plan.
“We just kept seeing these people that there was no place to send them, and we knew they’d come back,” said Board. “I think all of us have a serious concern moving forward in Douglas County. The hospital is being stretched. Mental health is being stretched.”
A month ago, Board started Community Partners Counseling, where, for no charge, he and Jeri Benedetto, another former BHU therapist, offer 10- to 12-week counseling courses in cognitive behavioral therapy.
“When I’ve needed another set of eyes, another set of ears … counseling has been a godsend,” Benedetto said.
The service is designed to help those who fall in the gap between having the Oregon Health Plan and being able to afford private counseling.
Many of their clients have no insurance because anger or depression issues cost them their job. Others are couples hoping to prevent a failed marriage.
Patients are currently referred by either the ER at Mercy or Douglas County Mental Health. Board said callers who seek their services directly are referred to the county for a screening to determine if they qualify.
On the first visit, Benedetto said she just gets the background on the client, learns the demographics.
“It’s kind of a ‘get to know you’ time. Have they been in counseling before? Do they have a primary care physician,” she said. “On the second visit, the patient may be given some homework to do.”
If clients have anger issues, they are asked to jot down when in the past week they lost control of their anger, so that they may be able to head it off next time.
For depression, they’re asked to think about what irrational demand might be triggering their emotional paralysis.
“It’s very much tailored to the individual,” Benedetto said. “It’s not a one-size-fits all process. With each subsequent visit, we look at how the goal is being met.”
Neither Board nor Benedetto are licensed to prescribe medicine, so Board said he asks his clients to seek a physician if they need medication such as antidepressants.
Those drugs often take two months to kick in, by which time the therapy sessions should have made major improvements in a client’s thinking and management of emotions.
“When they are feeling better, it can be the difference between jumping off a bridge or getting their old job back,” Board said.
Currently, all of their time is volunteered. Board and Benedetto are both nominally retired, and do the therapy to stay active. Mercy donates the space, electricity and a phone.
Board said he hopes Community Partners Counseling can get established as a nonprofit to assist patients who need help paying for medication or other necessities. By mid-January, he hopes to have a partnership with Umpqua Community Health Clinic, which offers low-cost medical care.
The clinic’s deputy director, Bryan McKnutt, said up to two-thirds of his clinic’s patients have mental health issues, for which they are treated medically, with drugs. He said many of them could get help with counseling, but the clinic would probably swamp an outfit like Board’s with people without insurance.
“Primary care providers do a lot of brief therapy, but they’re not treated as therapists, nor do they have the time,” McKnutt said. “What Board is doing is a very creative and wonderful thing, and we can only hope it is a seed that will grow and bear fruit.”
• You can reach reporter Chris Gray at 957-4218 or by e-mail at cgray@newsreview.info.
