For registered nurse Erin Rasmussen, the medication management program at Davis Behavioral Health’s Main Street clinic in Layton, located at 934 S. Main Street is a big part of helping the community.

For the past nine years, she’s managed what the team commonly refers to as the “med clinic” or the place where patients of DBH can come to get help managing their medication when it feels too overwhelming.

“It’s really huge for the community because it keeps a lot of people out of the hospital because they’re stabilized on their medications and their injections,” Rasmussen said. “We’re here making a huge difference for these mentally ill clients – if we weren’t around, they would never be able to manage their lives, and they would be the ones out on the streets and in the homeless shelters and in and out of the hospital.”

Currently, around 500 patients are taking advantage of the medication management program at DBH.

Patients are helped with managing their medication used to treat mental illnesses and substance abuse issues. Staff helps by pulling the medication every day, readying injectables, bubble packing medication into manageable doses and more. Teams deliver medications to homes or help administer medications in the clinic.

A stack of injections at the facility shows another way in which medical professionals help patients manage the dosage and treatment of mental illnesses and in instances of substance abuse. (Photo courtesy of DBH)

“Davis Behavioral Health offers our clients the opportunity to work with board-certified psychiatrists or psychiatric nurse practitioners who have expertise in diagnosing and using medications to treat mental health or addiction-related conditions,” said Dr. Noel Schenk, Davis Behavioral Health’s Medical Director. “Some patients gain additional benefits from working with nursing staff, who assist in coordinating medication setups with pharmacists and help patients learn more about the side effects, expected results of medications, and how to take them to achieve the best outcomes.”

Schenk called the nurses on staff “knowledgeable and compassionate.”

Since most patients are long-term participants in the program, the staff including Rasmussen, doctors, case workers and other personnel get to know them on a personal level that cultivates trust and understanding.

“Because a lot of these clients don’t trust people and it may be due to their mental illness,” Rasmussen said. “Since they come to know us very well, they’re really good about opening up to us and consider us kind of their friends – building that trust is huge so they will follow through with stuff.”

A case in particular that Rasmussen remembers includes a patient she has known for six years, and whose name is omitted for privacy purposes. Rasmussen remembers the rough beginning with this particular patient who suffered from severe depression and had attempted to take her own life many times. 

“She was just so depressed that she couldn’t even get out of bed like she wouldn’t bathe, she wouldn’t dress, she wouldn’t do any of that on her own,” Rasmussen said. “Once we got her into the med clinic and got started doing her meds and monitoring her medications … she’s got an apartment and she has a job and is back with her family.”

Rasmussen called it a rewarding job.

“When you see them come in and maybe they’ve come from the hospital and they’re just not doing well,” she said, “and you know, a month or two down the road, you see that they really change. Their lives have changed.”

In addition to the medication management program, Davis Behavioral Health offers a lot of different programs to aid the community including a crisis recovery unit and a rapid detox program. More information can be found at www.dbhutah.org/. λ