Joey Wahler (Host): This is Health Matters, insights from WCH medical experts. Thanks for joining us. I'm Joey Wahler. Our guests are Dr. Benjamin Forrester, a Psychiatrist with Falcon Health Center, as well as Dr. Eric Baltrinic. He's Director of the Bowling Green State University Counseling Center. Hi, Doctors. Welcome.

Benjamin Forrester, DO: Thank you. Hi Joey.

Eric Baltrinic, PhD, LPCC-S: Hello, Joey.

Host: Great to have you both aboard. So first for you, Dr. Forrester, what would you say most of all, first led you to work in mental health care?

Benjamin Forrester, DO: Sure. Well that's an interesting question. I did four years of medical school at Ohio University. Your third and fourth year is met with rotations and all the various different forms of medicine. Ended up thinking I wanted to do anesthesia and then I wanted to be an emergency room doctor.

And then I did this one month long rotation in psychiatry and I really enjoyed it. In fact, a couple of my friends were a little surprised that you really enjoy this stuff, don't you? I was like, yes, I'm fascinated with it. So ended up doing another month of psychiatry down in Columbus and liked it even more.

And came home, told my family. I think I like this mental health stuff. I, you know, I find that treatments that we have available to assist people these days are just so much more advanced now than they were even 20, 30 years ago. So enjoy the psychopharmacology of it. I enjoy the meeting with students, typically, on a daily basis. And I also have college aged son and college aged friends. And I always want to make sure that the students are being treated the way I'd want one of my children to be treated. So, working on a college campus has some great merits that way.

Host: All right. Always great to hear how someone first got that initial motivation. What would you say brought you to Falcon Health Center?

Benjamin Forrester, DO: So I've worked in a variety of different places in northwest Ohio. Actually from 2012 to 2016, I was a part-time psychiatrist here at Bowling Green State University. That was just one day a week. Then some circumstances changed with my family that I wanted to be closer to my son who was in high school.

So I ended up working in Toledo at one of the six state psychiatric facilities in Ohio. And I worked there for a little bit of time and went over to the VA for about four years where I thought it was going to be my stopping place. Enjoyed that. But I got a call from the CEO at Wood County Hospital, asked me if I'd consider coming back. And after about the third call, he kind of got me hook, line and sinker. And, and I've been here the last four years and it's been a good move. Truly enjoyable. And seeing the students, it's a very good place to be.

Host: So indeed the third time was a charm, right? Dr. Baltrinic, how about you? Why healthcare for a career?

Eric Baltrinic, PhD, LPCC-S: I started out in corrections and when I was working in those settings, I became friends with counselors who were working with folks there, and thought that that was a good pathway. I felt like a good fit for me. Went back to graduate school and studied community mental health and did a lot of my clinicals in different college counseling centers. Worked in two jobs and I've worked at four different ones, five now with Bowling Green State University and sort of become my focus. I love working with students. I love the developmental lens. I love the different walks of life, so that kind of became my career.

Host: That's great. That's great that you both found your passion. So how did you arrive at the BGSU counseling Center?

Eric Baltrinic, PhD, LPCC-S: Yeah. So I was working at the University of Alabama's Counseling Center and my wife applied and got a faculty job at BGSU, and I followed and was doing some teaching and the position became available. Very lucky. Got an interview and it worked out and I've been here since January, so it's great to be able to continue.

I was in an assistant director role before, now I get to be the director so I can kind of see everything from an aerial view and have input on all those things. So feel very lucky.

Host: Do you still keep close ties on Alabama football?

Eric Baltrinic, PhD, LPCC-S: I do, I grew up in northeast Ohio, so learned how to roll tide when I was down there, but you know, I know where my roots are, so.

Host: Understood. So Dr. Forrester, how do Falcon Health Center and the BGSU Counseling Center, how do they each support BGSU students mental health wise?

Benjamin Forrester, DO: Yes, we're located at the Falcon Health Center on Wooster. It's a medical clinic, and we have emergency services downstairs, and then upstairs we have some family physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and then we've got our mental health department.

We are located a little bit in different place than the counseling center. But it's kind of a referral system. If they are seeing a student at the counseling center that they feel need maybe more medical intervention, medical therapies to assist them, they will then refer over to us.

And if I'm seeing a student that I think could benefit from the counseling center then, a lot of times we'll refer to them. The counseling center, I believe is part of BGSU tuition so they can get services even if they're having some financial difficulties. They can receive mental health services that they need.

We have two therapists here at Falcon that work in, in coordination with me. So not only do we have our therapists here, but we also have the counseling center. There's a lot of need on campus and so there's a lot of different help available in different places depending on what those needs are.

But yes great to have, newly added leadership with, Dr. Baltrinic. And we do discuss cases at times depending on the needs of the student. I'll sometimes even had to go over to the counseling center and meet with one of the therapists that we're doing some work together on calling families or treating students.

And sometimes they've traveled over here to my offices, to, you know, if we have unique situations where both of us are needed. So it's a good relationship. And we appreciate everything that the counseling center offers our students.

Host: I see you nodding in agreement, Dr. Baltrinic. What would you say is the best part of this partnership?

Eric Baltrinic, PhD, LPCC-S: We're all in it together to help students with mental health issues. I mean, we know mental health issues can be barriers to retention, graduation, just an overall quality experience for education. And just grateful to have campus partners like the Falcon Health Center to work together.

We do outpatient work here, which is kind of brief. So we see students biweekly, monthly, but then we have a percentage of students who have higher needs and oftentimes within those higher needs, we need to coordinate and get them connected for medication evaluations. And we're currently located on the west side of campus, but we're going to be moving pretty soon to the middle of campus and I'll be able to see Ben's office from outside the door.

So it's going to even be closer and easier for us to get connected and just very grateful.

Host: So, so who pays for lunch in that situation?

Eric Baltrinic, PhD, LPCC-S: It's his turn.

Host: And we have it on video now as proof. Dr. Baltrinic, how about in deciding between the two facilities? When should a student choose one or the other?

Eric Baltrinic, PhD, LPCC-S: I think immediately if someone were just curious about needing some kind of a support, I think they should walk in the doors. And I don't want to speak for Ben, but I think they should walk in the doors and get information if they have questions and are in need.

If they do a little bit of research, the counseling center, like Ben said, is a place to come to talk with someone through issues that might be getting in the way of their academic success or just their overall state of wellbeing. We offer individual talk therapy sessions, group therapy sessions.

We do same day consultations for people who just have questions about counseling without the obligation. We also have a drop in service anytime from eight to five, if someone's in a crisis, and it's often then that we may be working with people and getting releases and maybe connecting them to Falcon Health or other services in the community. Folks who have higher needs tend to need more support.

So, we tend to try to work together as a network to support those students in particular, even though there's 20,000 at campus, I mean, there's always a few that need a little more support.

Host: And speaking of the community, Dr. Forrester, beyond campus, how does Falcon support the mental health needs of the broader Bowling Green community?

Benjamin Forrester, DO: So we do have therapists, that do treat not only students here on campus, but they are available to treat uh, a community of Bowling Green as well. Since there is just me at this point in time and my dedication is more towards the student population, at this point in time.

Host: Dr. Baltrinic what mental health trends or new challenges are you noticing locally? Anything new or different than in years past?

Eric Baltrinic, PhD, LPCC-S: I'm going to date myself when I say this, Joey. But I think a lot of the, a lot of what the students I'm working with and we're working with here, a lot of the things that perpetuate stress responses or pressures happen with their interactions with folks through social media in addition to like direct contacts.

And so I think issues can be perpetuated directly and indirectly through their constant contacts and use of technology. I don't think that's brand new, but it continues to trend in conversations and observations we have of students. That'd be a big one.

Host: Dr. Forrester, again, addressing this collaboration and partnership here, like the one between Falcon Health and the Counseling Center. What role does that partnership play would you say, in addressing mental health in the local area overall, the fact that you're really teaming up to get this work done.

Benjamin Forrester, DO: We do everything that we can in support of one another. As for the community, there are a couple of different community mental health agencies also that help treat the broader Bowling Green area. Um, a couple of different community mental health agencies.

There's a crisis stabilization unit. So it's not only just us in the counseling center here in collaboration but we also collaborate with Unison Behavioral Healthcare as well as Harbor Behavioral Healthcare, and, there is a crisis stabilization unit that's new to Bowling Green over the last couple of years where when people needed a higher level of care, they ended up in, places like Sylvania, Ohio Flower Hospital or St. Charles Hospital over in Oregon, Ohio. That's kind of somewhat traumatic for students to be going 30 or 40 minutes away from their college dormitory when they need extra help. But now we've got this option for the stabilization unit here, right here in Bowling Green. And they've been a great help in treating the broad community as well.

Host: Dr. Baltrinic, taking a quick step back here, remind us please, what are some signs that someone might need mental health support? Because we know, of course, that unfortunately, so many people suffering from mental health issues go untreated, right?

Eric Baltrinic, PhD, LPCC-S: That's a good question. I mean, I think for me, the starting point is that the signs and symptoms of mental health issues are things that most people face to some degree on a daily basis or when they're under stress, and I think they can become magnified over time. For me, the telltale signs are like the degree to which they impact the person's ability to do the things they normally do in life.

If it's a lot more difficult to like, get up, get activated, engage in the things that you normally do during your day, if it impacts the way you think about yourself, the way you feel about yourself, your relationships. So these things manifest in a lot of different ways. They can be nervous or anxiety, anxious in nature.

They can be more depressive in nature where a person is down. They can be more externalizing in nature, where a person's acting out and then conflict. But I think the wellspring from it comes from humanity and stress response, and then it moves into the realm of mental health when it becomes internalized, and continues to impair a person's functioning even when there aren't stressors immediately around. That's the way I like to think about it.

Host: Dr. Forrester, speaking of which, what practical steps can students or other community members take to prioritize their mental health right now? What's a good place for them to start if they're feeling like, I'm not in a good place, I want to do something about it?

Benjamin Forrester, DO: Yes. You know, sometimes people don't know, what they might be experiencing. Might be depression, might be anxiety, might be bipolar disorder, might be trauma related symptoms. And a lot of times I get people that come in that are wondering whether they are, what is this? What am I experiencing? But everyone's allowed to have a bad day, here and there. But when people start to have strings and strings of bad days, not functioning, not wanting to go to class, not finding interest in things that they previously found interest in or experiencing sleep disturbances or appetite disturbances.

These are kind of indicative of kind of feeling more down, feeling more depressed. Someone might have an isolated panic attack. That's okay. When somebody starts having more panic attacks, that's contributing to them having fearfulness of, of going to class or being around social situations, or being involved in those things.

Those are kind of signs that, that they might need to step in. We take phone calls to get students scheduled. Sometimes we'll ask them a couple of questions if they're interested in more medical therapies or if they're already seeing clinicians back home and then they come to campus.

We kind of continue those things for those individuals. They've got somewhere that they can go. That they don't have to worry about driving back to Cleveland to see their clinician if that's not necessary. So it's kind of unique having the psychiatric and mental health help here on a closely coordinated with a college campus.

And, a lot of people have told us that this is unique and a, and a very, very positive thing for the students of BGSU.

Host: Yeah, I'm sure that close proximity makes a huge difference. And in summary here, Dr. Baltrinic, what would you say is one common misconception from your experience that people have about seeking mental health care? Maybe you can set us straight on it here once and for all.

Eric Baltrinic, PhD, LPCC-S: One thing that I see and hear a lot from students who come in who talk about it, it's not their first time that they've thought about services. Sometimes they need some prompting from friends, and it may have been a passive thought that they had. And I think a lot of times people have internalized messages like, you know, there's something wrong with you or there's something negative about seeking that type of support.

So there's just some stigma. I think it's better in a lot of ways, but I still think when I'm talking with students, it's not the first time they've thought about seeking out a counselor. So there's hesitation related to, I think, some stigma that there's something wrong or broken or people are going to think less of me if I do that.

Host: Well folks, we trust you are now more familiar with mental health treatment. Doctors, keep up your great work. A pleasure. Thanks so much again.

Eric Baltrinic, PhD, LPCC-S: Thank you.

Benjamin Forrester, DO: Thank you so much, Joey.

Host: And for more information about mental health resources, please visit falcon.org or bgsu.edu/counseling-center. Now, if you found this podcast helpful, please do share it on your social media. I'm Joey Wahler. Thanks so much again for being part of Health Matters, insights from WCH medical experts.