Meet The Medical Experts

The DeTar Healthcare System Expert Services:

• DeTar Healthcare System affirms its commitment to behavioral health by opening DeTar Mental Health Lifestyle Center.

• The DeTar Lifestyle Center is designed to serve adults with a primary mental health diagnosis such as depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. These individuals are stable but need intense psychiatric services to help them integrate successfully into an outpatient setting within their communities.

• The Lifestyle Center provides adults with therapeutic psychiatric services when inpatient hospitalization is not necessary or no longer required but traditional outpatient services are too limited for the individual’s needs.

• A multidisciplinary team of professionals in psychiatry, nursing and counseling provide group and individual treatment to empower patients to be more successful in their daily lives.

• In Victoria and surrounding counties, access to psychiatric care is difficult because of a shortage of psychiatrists and behavioral health programs in our county. DeTar Healthcare System offers the only inpatient facility; however, age restrictions prevent accessibility to all patients needing this level of care. Furthermore, when patients leave an inpatient psychiatric hospital setting, the only transitional care option available is not comprehensive enough to prevent re-hospitalization.

• The DeTar Lifestyle Center bridges the continuum of care gap affecting those who need a transitional program.

• The under-treated behavioral health patient is as problem for our community. Individuals without access to therapeutic intervention often present to already crowded hospital Emergency Departments for costly stabilization of their symptoms or enter the criminal justice system where their long-term needs go untreated.

• The outpatient approach at the DeTar Lifestyle Center allows participants to secure the care they need with minimal disruption to their daily life.

• This new Center will improve access to behavioral health care resources in our region, reduce overcrowding in EDs and lower costs associated with overuse of hospital-based services.

• DeTar Healthcare System is the sole local provider of hospital-based behavioral health services for individuals living with psychiatric disorders.

• As with all health care services, costs are based on each individual’s particular needs. The DeTar Lifestyle Center will work with all clients regardless of their ability to pay for services.

A note from the Medical Expert: William R. Blanchard, FACHE

"The DeTar Healthcare System has delivered high quality and compassionate healthcare to the residents of our community for more than 80 years, and we remain committed to delivering the care you need for many years to come. We continue to add new services and advanced technology that enable us to keep pace with the ever-changing world of healthcare and so that we can provide you with the care you deserve right here at home.

This past year we have added an accredited Chest Pain Center to our emergency department, robotic-assisted and bariatric surgery programs to our surgery department, and we continue to be the leader in obstetrics in our community. We are very excited about our progress and know that our success is due to the dynamic relationship we share with our employees, physicians, volunteers and community.

Again, thank you for choosing the DeTar Healthcare System. We wish you well."

-William R. Blanchard, FACHE