Opening of Wellful Psychiatry allows Waukon area native to help fill local health service need while fulfilling aspirations of “I can do more”

by Jennifer Bissell

A Waukon area native is giving back to her community by providing a much needed health service. In doing so, Malory (Hartong) Larson, a 2005 Waukon High School graduate, has also fulfilled a dream of her own by recently opening Wellful Psychiatry, located at 520 West Main Street in Waukon.

FINDING HER PASSION
Following her high school graduation, Larson went on to earn her associates degree in nursing from Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) in Calmar. She then received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree from Upper Iowa University in Fayette.

It was during a clinical rotation while studying at Upper Iowa that she found her calling to work in mental health. She completed a rotation at Mental Health Institute in Independence that she said sparked her interest in a career in mental health.

“I cried when I left MHI, I loved it that much,” she said. “When I left school I never thought I’d be here doing this. I never really thought I’d be a nurse practitioner. I loved the bedside aspect.”

For several years, Larson has worked at Emplify, formerly Gundersen Health System, in La Crosse, WI, working with inpatient behavioral health patients. It was that work that propelled her to continue her education, earning a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) from Walden University in November 2019.

“My experience at Gundersen led me to go, ‘I think I can do more. I think I can do more for the mental health community, do it a little differently’,” said Larson. “There’s just a lot of not good experiences shared by patients where they feel they aren’t listened to or are pushed medications where that’s not necessarily what they wanted. I guess I went, ‘I think I can do something more and different as a prescriber myself’.”

Since earning her MSN, she’s also served as a Family Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner for Regional Health Services of Howard County in Cresco.

PRIVATE PRACTICE
It was a student following Larson who planted the seed of opening her own practice. The student, who was working toward a psychiatric nurse practitioner degree, asked Larson if she planned to open her own business. After a deep dive into the logistics, Larson decided to return to her hometown to open her clinic. She said it was two years of behind the scenes work and planning to make it a reality.

While she lives in Decorah, she said her hometown of Waukon seemed like the perfect location.

“Waukon has really been booming here the last several years, which is awesome. I love that,” she said. She also said she currently has patients that come from the Waukon area to see her in Cresco.

“It’s really filling in the gaps where it makes the most sense logistically for me and my patients to drive,” she said.

The building site also seemed perfect. While along Main Street, it isn’t located directly downtown. She said while she hopes to break the stigma that often is associated around mental health care, having a location not downtown also allows for patient privacy.

She said she wouldn’t have been able to make it happen without the help of her family, specifically her father, Allamakee Power Sports owner Scott Hartong, who helped build the building and instilled her strong work ethic. She also had a lot of support from other family and friends, including her three children.

“It’s been such a welcoming community, which I expected nothing less from,” she said. “I know there’s Tara Fink, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner at Veterans Memorial Hospital. My goal was never to be competition to Tara or to take away from her. I wanted to add to the community.”

DOING IT ALL
At Wellful Psychiatry, Larson said she practices medication management for psychiatric disorders like anxiety, depression, PTSD, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, personality disorders, ADHD, behavior issues and insomnia. She can treat patients from age six through adulthood.

Patients do not need a referral from their primary care physician. They can self-refer for her services.

Appointments can be booked online through her website, https://www.wellfulpsychiatry.com/, as well as by calling her at 563-217-6488. She did ask for a little grace with returning calls as she is still working at Cresco and Gundersen for now.

“I’m very excited to be back in my hometown and doing things the way I want to do them,” Larson shared. “That’s the nice thing about being a private practice ownership. You get the say in everything. I’m a one-woman show here. I answer the phone. I take vitals. I do the assessment piece. I’m learning the billing side of things.”

Due to the demand, as well as her current personal schedule, she will not be seeing new patients until early 2025.

“I was maybe not prepared for that (the demand), the new clientele. Obviously, I know mental health is a need but I significantly underestimated that,” she said. “I’m trying to promote self-care and boundaries for my patients and sometimes I need a reminder to do that myself. I love being busy but everyone has their limits too. That was a goal of private practice. I didn’t want to feel like I was working in a factory of being in and out with patients all day long. The setting of limits was the goal of creating boundaries so I didn’t have to see 12-14 patients every day. I want to take longer appointment times with patients so I spend a good amount of time with them.”

Wellful Psychiatry is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and every other Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. For more information, visit Wellful Psychiatry on Facebook or her website at https://www.wellfulpsychiatry.com/.