North Valley Hospital recently unveiled its new behavioral health division to serve people experiencing mental health issues.

The new division was prompted by a 2013 Community Health Needs Assessment done of the Flathead Valley.

Dr. J. Douglas Muir, a board-certified child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist, will head the program and see patients.

“One of the reasons I was so drawn to child and adolescent psychology is if you can reach people first starting to show symptoms you might be able to mitigate some issues and take a proactive, preventative approach,” he said.

Muir, who was born, raised and went to school in Arkansas, spent the last three years in Wyoming, another place underserved in the realm of mental health.

“I was one of four [child psychologists] in Wyoming and I’m one of less than 20 in Montana,” he said. “So it really piqued my interest to come here to another underserved area.”

Of particular interest is Montana and Flathead County’s high suicide rate, one of the highest in the nation and double the national average.

For every completed suicide there are 25 attempts. Many emergency room and hospital visits are directly related to attempted suicide and self-harm.

Muir wants people to be able to talk about depression, bi-polar disorder or other things bothering them.

“There’s a huge stigma of mental illness,” he said. “It’s gotten better but there is a lot of work to do. My job will be a lot of community outreach and working with primary care physicians for collaborative care.”

Muir said many people who ultimately commit suicide have been thinking about it for a long time. Mental-health maladies should not be taken lightly, and support should be available for those suffering from them, he said.

This applies not just to the population at large, but also to youths.

“I have worked very closely in the past with schools,” Muir said. “I can go in and tell them what signs to look for. From the administration to nurses to teachers, we can set up individualized education plans.”

Some of these at-risk children and teens need special attention. Muir can write prescriptions, but prefers to use collaborative therapeutic care as treatment.

“Therapeutic alliance is just so powerful,” he said. “We can do a thorough evaluation of the person and what they are struggling with, maybe set up to see a therapist.”

The North Valley Behavioral Health program’s stated goal is to return mental health to an optimal level and to help alleviate symptoms which may be affecting quality of life.

Before coming to Whitefish, Muir was staff psychiatrist at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center in Cheyenne, Wyo.

He and his wife Bethany have been in the Flathead for several months, but Muir saw his first patients just weeks ago. Business has been brisk since then.

“I’ve seen a couple dozen patients,” he said. “It’s just a case of if you build it, they will come. It’s a very complex, multi-faceted issue. I don’t think it will be easy, but education can go a long way to achieve that.”

The potential for growth in the Flathead is such that Muir said it is likely another psychiatrist might have to be hired in the near future.

But even as North Valley Behavioral Health continues to grow, Muir wants all Montanans to take inventory of their own mental health, as the infrastructure to do it professionally is still lacking.

“It’s really important to stress the paucity of services in our state for kids,” he said. “That lack of care was the driving force for me to move here. So far, it’s a great community and I’m very impressed.”

North Valley Behavioral Health is located at 2004 Hospital Way in the North Valley Hospital Medical Village in Whitefish. It shares offices with North Valley Geriatric Specialty Services, a comprehensive senior health services program launched in 2013.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.