May is Mental Health Awareness Month; It’s OK to not be OK
Tara Fink, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner ... May is Mental Health Awareness Month. It’s ok to have a mental illness and it’s important those with a mental illness know it’s ok to not be ok to help reduce the stigma and encourage them to seek the care and treatment they need. Tara Fink, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, offers local behavioral health care. Tara is achieving her goal of improving the community she grew up in through the lives she has already helped just in the nearly two years she has been serving the community. She provides consultations at both the Waukon and Postville clinic locations with no referral needed and all ages accepted. To make an appointment to see Tara in Postville call 563-864-7221 or in Waukon call 563-568-5530. Submitted photo.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. It’s ok to have a mental illness and it’s important those with a mental illness know it’s ok to not be ok in order to help reduce the stigma and encourage them to seek the care and treatment they need.
Tara Fink, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, joined the Veterans Memorial Hospital Clinic staff nearly two years ago to offer behavioral health care to help meet the great need for mental health care in northeast Iowa. Tara provides consultations at both the Waukon and Postville clinic locations and offers medication and non-medication management options for all mental illnesses.
Tara has also been actively seeing patients within our local nursing homes to help treat their mental health struggles as well as the distress of comorbidities that come with a deteriorating mental status. In addition to treating patients in the clinics, Tara has recently been accepted as a member on the board for the National Alliance for Mental Illness Northeast Iowa (NAMI) as a goal to help the clinic become more incorporated into community outreach efforts and to support NAMI’s goal in educating, supporting and advocating for family members, friends and individuals affected by mental illness.
“Helping people, bottom line, is the biggest reason that I chose a career in mental health. After a history with my own mental health struggles, it was difficult to find good support in rural Iowa and I vowed to help change this for others who are struggling,” explains Tara. Since starting her position at Veterans Memorial Hospital, Tara also experienced a traumatic and life altering event of suicide within her family, which has pushed her even harder to fight this disease in our rural area. She reports, “I am seeing all patients of all ages, with all mental health disorders, and we accept all insurances.”
If patients or family members don’t know where to start, they can start with Tara. An initial appointment with Tara will start the process of assessment and possible treatment. If the patient needs additional services, Tara and the team will assist the patient and family member(s) in getting them connected to the correct resources.
In the first appointment with Tara, she will conduct roughly an hour-long assessment to formulate a diagnosis after which a patient will receive psychoeducation and treatment options including suggestions for natural treatments and lifestyle changes as well as prescribed medication, when needed.
Patients can self-refer to the clinic by calling either the Postville or Waukon location to set up their first appointment. Tara works with all ages, young to old.
Tara Fink is available to see patients at both the Veterans Memorial Hospital Postville and Waukon clinics. To make an appointment to see Tara in Postville, call 563-864-7221 or in Waukon call 563-568-5530.
