In rural communities like those in Sheridan and Johnson counties, wide-open spaces and long dirt roads can make help feel far away, but a new behavioral health outpatient clinic at Sheridan Memorial Hospital has spent its first year proving that care can be both close to home and deeply personal.
Since opening in November 2024, the Behavioral Health Clinic at Sheridan Memorial Hospital has taken a systematic approach to breaking down barriers to mental health care. The clinic has helped clarify diagnoses, connect patients with community resources and reduce the number of involuntary holds related to mental health crises. These improvements are the result of specialized behavioral health expertise and strong partnerships with Sheridan Memorial Hospital’s primary care, emergency and hospitalist teams — alongside close collaboration with local mental health providers and law enforcement.
The small team — currently comprised of one psychiatrist, a licensed clinical social worker, medical administrative assistant and director — has seen more than 400 patients and has served as a resource for inpatient teams caring for patients in other areas of the hospital, including the Emergency Department.
Those efforts have resulted in many success stories, including examples of individuals proactively reaching out when they are struggling or “graduating” out of their need for direct care from psychiatrist Dr. Michael Kinney.
“We see a lot of chronic stress — people who can’t remember the last time they felt truly well,” psychiatrist Dr. Michael Kinney said. “PTSD, major depression and anxiety are common here, but they often show up as sleeplessness, pain, GI issues — a mystery that isn’t a belly problem so much as a brain problem.”
For many patients, that mystery has stretched across decades.
“When the right diagnosis clicks — PTSD, for example — treatment starts to make sense,” Kinney said.
The clinic team has deliberately built the new service as collaborative. Each morning begins with a team huddle to spot gaps in care or available resources and address them. Throughout the day, scheduled patient visits mix with consultations in the Emergency Department or follow-up phone calls. Kinney said two members of the team — care coordinator Kyle Seeley and the office’s medical administrative assistant — serve as the clinic’s glue, coordinating all of the moving parts with other providers, community resources, therapists and the patients.
Seeley, for example, will meet patients with behavioral health needs in the Emergency Department. He completes initial assessments, creates early connections with the clinic and helps to create plans for patients’ next steps, developing a safe plan for individuals and ensuring they connect with additional resources.
“With dozens of local therapists we can call, we’re often able to get people therapy appointments within days,” Seeley said. “If it’s not the right fit, we encourage people to let us know, stick with it, we’ll help find them the person they connect with for care.”
Early data suggests the team’s approach to caring for community members’ behavioral health needs is working. A review of the first year shows a 24 percent decrease in involuntary holds under Title 25 and a 46 percent decrease in the number of days behavioral health patients have been in the hospital at SMH. This data indicates individuals are receiving the right care at the right time to match their needs.
“The decrease in involuntary holds is a clear reflection of Sheridan Memorial Hospital’s culture and our commitment to improving behavioral health care,” said Brittany Goodvin, SMH director of behavioral health. “Patients are building trust in our team by having the opportunity to remain in Sheridan for their care. This progress comes from the collaborative efforts of our medical staff and leadership team, who have worked together to make the most of new resources in psychiatry and care coordination.”
The team has also supported patients’ journeys in voluntarily choosing other paths for care including outpatient plans, community support or, in some cases, inpatient behavioral health facilities.
“When people know we’re not going to automatically take away their ability to receive care close to home with the support of family and friends, their willingness to look at a wider list of treatment options really improves,” Kinney said. “Emergency holds are a last-resort safety measure I will use only if I think I need to prevent a permanent solution to a temporary problem.”
Through their work, the team at the SMH Behavioral Health clinic is also working to encourage western values aren’t only applied to others. Kindness and empathy are part of what makes Sheridan and Johnson counties special, but sometimes residents who are so welcoming and kind to others struggle to celebrate self-care and compassion.
As more patients reach out proactively and community curiosity about the clinic and the services offered continues to increase, the SMH Behavioral Health team is hopeful it will continue to turn the tide in normalizing behavioral healthcare as just another, standard part of healthcare.
Gaps in care remain, though. Wyoming lacks inpatient options for adolescents, residential programs for adults with severe mental illness and providers who specialize in different areas of psychiatry — for example, eating disorders or other issues. In addition, insurance nuances can complicate placements for those needing care.
Still, the Behavioral Health team at SMH credits the communities’ therapists and others willing to step up and offer things like rent or utility assistance, food and toiletries, etc. The network that has grown and strengthened in the last year is closing the distance to personalized behavioral healthcare when that distance once felt insurmountable.
While data has shown the early successes of the program, the opening of a new Behavioral Health facility at SMH will further the efforts already underway. Set to open in the fall of 2026, the Behavioral Health facility at SMH will include four levels of care — an outpatient clinic, behavioral health urgent care, crisis stabilization and inpatient care. Additional staffing, too, will ensure more care coordinators are available to see patients through their behavioral health journey and more support is available in our communities.
“We hear the successes,” Kinney said. “When people have a good experience, they tell their neighbors, they talk about it on social media. That’s how stigmas fade.”
To learn more about the Behavioral Health services at Sheridan Memorial Hospital, see sheridanhospital.org.