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To address the substantial shortage of mental health providers in Nebraska, a pair of Omaha doctors came up with, what is believed to be, a first-of-its-kind project. Primary care and non-psychiatric specialists are trained to provide early mental health treatment in places where patients and the public already come for care. Nebraska Public Media’s Dale Johnson talked with Clarkson Regional Health Services CEO Dr. Bill Lydiatt, a co-founder of the Bridges to Mental Health Workforce Expansion Project, to find out why it’s so groundbreaking.
Max Lydiatt: Several things. One is we are trying to use the existing workforce to expand the care of Nebraskans with mental illness, and we do that through two novel groups. One is recently retired physicians and nurse practitioners, and the second is through group specialists, people that are doing, for example, cancer work or I’m a head and neck surgeon. My partner, John Mitchell, is a gastroenterologist, so getting people that are seeing a lot of patients but don’t necessarily focus on mental illness to have a better awareness and more confidence and competence in dealing with them…