ISU and University of Utah partnership aims to combat Idaho’s mental health crisis
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POCATELLO — A partnership between Idaho State University and University of Utah health professions schools aims to improve mental health coverage and stunt high suicide rates.
Idaho ranks 49th in the nation in physicians per capita, according to a news release from ISU. The entirety of the state is classified as a “shortage area” — or “health care desert” — when it comes to mental health care providers. The state of Utah is in a similar boat, with 99 percent of the state falling under the same classification.
A collaborative effort by ISU and the University of Utah aims to improve the number of mental health providers in both states — especially in rural areas.
In a video provided by ISU, Daisha Orchard, M.D., an ISU psychiatry intern in her third year of residency, spoke to what she believes to be the issue causing the shortage of providers in rural areas of Idaho and Utah.
“I feel very strongly that the only way we’re going to get physicians in rural areas is if those physicians come from rural areas, or if those physicians train rural areas,” she said.
Orchard explained in the video that she will pursue work in or around Pocatello after completing her residency.
The reason, she said, is because this is where her family is, and this is where she has trained to be a professional mental health care provider.
In the same video, Elizabeth Botts, M.D., an associate training director at University of Utah expressed her own take on the subject.
“In rural psychology, physicians are very integrated into the community and we really wanted to start that process early,” she said.
Botts, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, said that the effects of the program are already being felt in Pocatello. The program has been asked to assist with suicide prevention on the ISU campus. Its services have also been requested by local organizations like Bannock County.
The program, Botts added, is hoping to expand into child forensics soon.
“We are thrilled to have joined forces with the U of U to bring about this Idaho Rural Track in Psychiatry,” ISU vice president for health sciences Rex Force said in the news release. “Residents are already greatly impacting accessibility to mental health care providers by completing rotations at many institutions across SE Idaho who serve a variety of patient populations.”
The program’s residents spend their first two years in the program studying in Salt Lake City. Years three and four are then spent in Pocatello, refining their skills through outpatient work.
“The addition of mental health care providers has led to increased care for patients in rural areas suffering from mental health crises, students at our universities, inmates incarcerated in the tribal jail, our deserving veterans and many more,” Force said.