By Cassidy Friedman, The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho
Jul. 22–Directing the psychiatric branch of a Twin Falls’ hospital was just like running any business, said Bill Southwick.
That might seem odd given that Southwick’s 11 years were consumed by victims from averted suicide jumps on the Perrine Bridge, delusional schizophrenics, and resistant police in-custodies lashing out in violence.
It was also not uncommon to spot the director of Canyon View Psychiatric and Addiction Services at midnight, back at the facility, working with a patient after his staff, shorthanded and unable to cope on its own, called him up at his home.
Despite what he says about running his department like a business, Southwick’s reasons for returning to the facility those late nights were personal. He’d made a promise to his staff.
“My promise to the staff was that I would not leave them short,” Southwick said. “They would always have the resources necessary.”
When Southwick, now 41, took a job earlier this month as chief nursing officer at Salt Lake Regional Medical Center after the Utah hospital scouted him out, he received the farewell of a friend who will be missed — perhaps even more than a goodbye fit for a top-dog administrator.
“Bill was very involved,” said Dr. Cory Alexander, a local psychiatrist since the mid-’90s. “I remember being on call — it’s been years — I remember coming in there to see the patient in the middle of the night and Bill was there. He was very accessible and available.”
Southwick’s associates say he was a nurse first, an administrator second, which separated him from the typical administrator.
The great challenge he faced is that in rural Idaho — as with other rural areas in the U.S. — mental illness is still mired in stigma. More metropolitan areas seem more aware of the seriousness and treatment options for mental illnesses, he said.
Suppressed under the surface, mental illness can lead to suicide as naturally as cancer can lead to death, he said. He made it the goal of his tenure to “get the word out” to the community.
He gave speeches to community groups on subjects including stress management and improving communication. He launched a project with Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
He hoped to convey his message to the “rough and tough” farmer who fears asking for help. Suicide is much more commonly attributed to mental illnesses than the public realizes, he said, noting one in five women and one-eighth of men at some point in their life will suffer from a mental illness.
Because of Southwick’s commitment to his job, working for him felt more like joining a partnership than working in subordination to an employer, said Billie Henry, Canyon View’s office manager.
“Working for him was wonderful,” Henry said. “He is the most patient, compassionate man I have ever met in my whole life.”
Those virtues made him seem more nurse than administrator, and it was his nursing training that taught him how to work so well with people, Alexander said.
“He’s very laid back, very personable,” she said. “He was the kind of person you would feel like opening up to. He was a good listener. You felt like you were talking to a nurse.”
The hospital has appointed a co-management team to succeed Southwick, which pairs Janie Humphrey with Dr. Rick Yavruian, a medical director, Southwick said.
Cassidy Friedman may be reached at 208-735-3241 or [email protected].
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