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River Hills Community Health Center adds psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner
FAIRFIELD – River Hills Community Health Center inside the Jefferson County Health Center is able to offer expanded services thanks to the addition of a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner earlier this year.
Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Hiedi Lane joined River Hills Community Health Center in August, and now medication evaluation appointments are available at the clinic within seven days. The clinic takes both in-person and telehealth appointments.
The addition of Lane to the clinic’s staff comes on the heels of River Hills acquiring more space inside JCHC earlier this year. River Hills has maintained an office in JCHC for the past two years. It also has offices in Ottumwa and Richland.
Lane said that she sees patients of all ages dealing with psychiatric mental health problems. In fact, she even has a playmat and toys in her office for her youngest patients.
Lane is from Sycamore, Illinois, and attended Kirkwood Community College. She lived in Iowa City in the early 2000s before moving to Fairfield in 2010. She worked at Optimae LifeServices for a year, and for the past decade she worked remotely until she started with River Hills in August.
Lane worked as a nurse for 10 years, and it was through her experience of working in family practice that she saw the value of mental health. She said her patients came to her with problems she couldn’t solve.
“I didn’t feel I was able to meet their needs, so I went back to school to get my psychiatric certification,” she said. “For the past 12 years, I’ve specialized in mental health specifically.”
Lane said she feels that the stigma surrounding mental health care has declined over time, and that people are more comfortable talking about it today than before. Part of her career was spent working for Senior Life Solutions, which operates in the Van Buren and Davis county hospitals. She noted that some seniors didn’t feel comfortable talking about mental health, and saw it as a weakness. One of the goals of her group therapy sessions was to get people to change that attitude and see that others are going through the same problems they are.
The Union asked Lane about the impact of lifestyle choices on mental health. She said making lifestyle changes can certainly be effective for some people, such as eating healthier food, taking time off work, or going on a vacation in the winter to treat seasonal affective disorder.
“Those things can be effective for some people, but for many others, that might not be enough, or they might not have the opportunity to make that choice,” Lane said. “In that case, medicines can be life-changing. They might have tried exercising or eating better, but they still experience depression or anxiety and would benefit from medications.”
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
