TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) - Patients are heading to Northern Lakes Community Mental Health for more than just emotional and behavioral health care.
The office on Hall Street partnered with Traverse Health Clinic in 2013 to offer primary care and has since expanded clinic hours to three days a week. This summer CMH opened the clinic up to the greater community; patients no longer have to be CMH clients to access the primary care offered, but it is reserved for those who also struggle with mental health issues.
“So part of that is persons with a severe mental illness statistically die 25 years sooner because of poor health care or because of a lack of ability to follow through,” said Rebecca Vincent, who manages the clinic. “This allows them the opportunity to have their needs taken care of at CMH.”
Vincent said the setup relieves both stress and cost. Many clients with severe mental illness are low-income and lack transportation, and many haven’t had access to routine checkups or a primary care physician in the past.
The clinic is tailored to fit the patients’ unique needs and to bring them adequate, accessible care under one roof, said MaryLee Pakieser, the clinic’s nurse practitioner. Clinic physicians can work together with CMH therapists and psychiatrists.
“My role is to prevent problems, or if there are problems, lessen the severity or complication from those problems,” Pakieser told the Traverse City Record-Eagle (https://bit.ly/1TktF32 ). “And with registered nurses we do case management, so that’s following up and making sure they get to their appointments.”
Dawn Bergman is a peer-support specialist at the clinic, but she’s a patient there, too. She said opening the clinic has made it easier for her to get all the care she needs, whether it’s a mammogram or her medications. Bergman said she hears the same positive feedback from patients she works with.
The integrated clinic now has 237 patients who use it as their primary source of care. CMH’s CEO Karl Kovacs said he sees more agencies across the state moving toward the same model, and he wants to keep the option viable in northern Michigan.
The CMH and Traverse Health Clinic partnership is currently funded by grants from the Michigan Department of Community Health and the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which should last another three years.
“The hope is to become self-sustaining,” Kovacs said. “When the grant money runs out we hope to still do it.”
The clinic also offers monthly wellness meetings where staff pick a health topic and invite clients in to learn more about it.
“I think the big message here is Community Mental Health, along with Traverse Health Clinic, has really taken a big leap to provide primary care to a very disadvantaged and somewhat hidden population in our area,” Pakieser said. “We have developed and worked very hard to make this a safe, nonjudgmental place where patients can come and talk about their physical health issues.”
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Information from: Traverse City Record-Eagle, https://www.record-eagle.com
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