Gov. Walker: Joins Mayo Clinic Health System to announce Psychiatry Residency Program expansion

Contact: Amy Hasenberg, (608) 266-2839

Expansion helps address nationwide shortage of mental health care providers

EAU CLAIRE – Governor Scott Walker joined representatives from Mayo Clinic Health System today to announce the Mayo Clinic Psychiatry Residency Program’s expansion to northwest Wisconsin. Mayo Clinic is ranked as one of the Top 10 hospitals for psychiatric care.

“We are pleased to be here today with representatives from Mayo Clinic Health System to announce this hugely important expansion of its Psychiatry Residency Program,” said Governor Walker. “This expansion will greatly help to address the need for more mental health care providers and further address behavioral health needs which will improve outcomes for patients.”

According to Mayo Clinic Health System, up to two additional psychiatry residents per training year will be available to see patients in northwest Wisconsin due to the expansion of the residency program. Residents will begin training in Eau Claire in 2020, and the program expansion could add up to eight practicing clinicians to the Eau Claire practice at one time within a few years. The resident physicians are those who have received a medical degree and are continuing training in a specialty.

“Across the nation, there is significant need for more psychiatric care providers. It is a critically important area of health care,” says Richard Helmers, M.D., regional vice president of Mayo Clinic Health System in northwest Wisconsin. “Increasing access to mental health care is vitally important to our patients and the overall health of the communities we live in.”

Mayo Clinic Health System encompasses 11 hospitals, clinics, and medical facilities throughout northwest Wisconsin, employing nearly 5,000 people in the communities of Eau Claire, Menomonie, Chippewa Falls, Rice Lake, Barron, Bloomer, Chetek, Glenwood City, Mondovi, Osseo and Elmwood.