May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and a longtime Noblesville resident wants to ensure the community has all the resources it needs with her downtown practice.
Jami Cecil, a former family nurse practitioner, recently left her full-time job to open her own private practice, Delta Mental Health Services, at 54 N. 9th St. in Noblesville. She began accepting patients in January.
In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, Cecil is collaborating with Noblesville organizations like Compassionate Roots to raise awareness and community outreach for anyone struggling with mental health issues. The organizations plan to put together a team for the Indianapolis Walking for Dreams walk May 19 that supports children in the foster care system.
On a personal level, Cecil will begin accepting walk-in patients this month and is committing to sharing more about her mental health struggles in her blog, which can be found on her website deltamhs.com.
“I feel like the community is all in this together and fighting the same fight,” Cecil said. “I recently resigned from my full-time job to give everything to Delta because it’s going really well. There’s so much interest and so much need that I can’t accommodate it, which is a great problem to have.”
Cecil’s practice treats patients struggling with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, addiction and more. In March, Delta Mental Health Services was awarded a grant from the Hamilton County Council, which came from an award as part of the national opioid settlement that was reached two years ago with Indiana and 45 other states, that allowed Cecil to hire a patient navigator who assists in helping patients map their recovery goals.
“So much of the addiction and mental health world is about needing immediate help,” Cecil said. “People are not always able to wait for help. Knowing I will finally be able to offer walk-in hours is something I am happy about.”
Cecil, 42, was a nurse practitioner for 10 years at IU North hospital before she got into the psychology field. She received her Family Nurse Practitioner certificate in 2019 from the University of Indianapolis and her Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner certificate in 2022 from the University of Cincinnati.
“I was primarily treating the Medicaid population and working in an inpatient drug and alcohol rehab facility,” Cecil said. “I fell in love with what I was doing.”
After Cecil helped patients through 30 days of rehab, she said she realized they were going back into an environment where they had little access to resources and support.
“They were going back to their home life, which is usually a world of mental health and addiction triggers,” Cecil said. “There is no one that really offers follow-up care for this population and addresses the psychiatric mental side of things, as well as provides medications for opioid stimulation.”
Cecil said she started her practice to fill that gap.
“I have lived in Noblesville for years, so I started talking to people in the area,” Cecil said. “I talked to friends, the fire department and other local therapists and asked how I could bridge the gap I was seeing. That was in November of last year, and I have seen beautiful organic growth.”
Cecil said her passion for helping others stems from her own struggle with mental health.
“I struggled with an eating disorder and alcohol abuse for many, many years,” Cecil said. “The whole time, I had a family and a job, and finally, my life crashed and burned. I got into residential treatment, and it was the hardest thing I have ever done but the best thing I’ve ever done because it changed my life. I have fully recovered from my eating disorder and have been sober since my treatment. I have data from both sides of the desk, which gives me great empathy for everything my patients are going through.”
Cecil said she combines her professional and personal experiences to help her patients. She said she has hope for all of her patients because she used to think recovery was impossible, but when working with a therapist who had also struggled with mental health issues, she found a new motivation.
“I saw a spark of life in my therapist that I wanted to feel,” Cecil said. “That spark grew in me and became my own. With Delta, everything has come full circle, and I am able to share my story and expertise with the community.”
For more, visit deltamhs.com or contact Cecil at [email protected].
MORE ABOUT DELTA MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
Delta Mental Health Services accepts private pay, as well as commercial insurances such as Anthem BC/BS, UnitedHealth Group/Optum, Traditional Medicaid and IN HIP. The practice assists people with the following mental health challenges:
- Depression
- Anxiety disorders
- Bipolar disorder
- Schizophrenia
- Obsessive compulsive disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Eating disorders
- Substance abuse and addiction
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
- Borderline personality disorder
- Mood disorders
- Parenting and family issues
- Work-related stress and burnout
- Relationship problems
