Historically speaking, behavioral health in America has been separated from physical health. And your kinda limited in the treatment that you can provide to a patient and that can be really frustrating. It's nice to have an environment like this where you have both psychiatry and counseling psychologists working together to push the treatment and the progress and the outcomes. It really does take a village, even in this department to take care of all of our patients. I'm Nick Tamoria a psychiatrist by training and I serve as a Regional Medical Director for behavioral health and Psychiatry here in Optum Washington. I was in a really dark place where I was not able to talk to anyone at all. I wouldn't leave bed I wouldn't leave my room. I wouldn't want to help myself. I really reflected upon myself, where is this really the life I want to live? Dave came to us. He could not sit still. He could not look me in the eye. This really had been years of struggle leading up to this encounter. It was very clear that anxiety and agitation were uncontrolled. There were times when he couldn't even tolerate the visit. Dr. Tamoria, the first time I met him, I would cry and I would be very upset and I would not even want to be in the room. He was really understanding of my situation and he worked with me, he put me on medicine that really helps now. So once the medications took effect and we got the right ones, I really needed a partner to come in to help me. In terms of the behavioral training and modification, is that any treatment that would be required? Dr. Steffener is an expert in autism, just very compassionate, very effective. I knew he had the skill set to deal with a complex patient like this. The first time I met Dave, he was really starting to shut down and to some pretty deep depression and extreme anxiety, it was pretty overwhelming for him to just step into a store. The avoidance had built up so greatly that we really had to take incremental steps. A big part of the treatment process with Dr. Tamoria and myself was was keeping each other really in touch with how he was doing. The patient feels like I have a team working together and we're aligned and what we're trying to accomplish and the treatment goals. And I just want to make this clear that, Dave's goals were his goals. It wasn't like my goals. It wasn't Dr. Steffener. goals it was Dave's goals. The three goals that I wanted to have are to work and to socialize. And my third desire was to have a friend. I've never had a friend before. It was really about helping him kind of come up with some self-management routines and then it was time to adapt. Can take on more Dr. Tamoria. So he's prescribed medicine that would help me. But Dr. Steffener really helped me interact with people. They combined effort. They were to help me. And now I'm a completely different person from what I was. I am able to work a job. I got a girlfriend who's now my fiance. I couldn't have imagined actually three years ago he would be telling me that he's engaged. He just opened up so much to the world instead being afraid of it. I have to realize that other people are scared too in the world. I'm not the only one who scared. I'm not the only one who has autism. And it gives me a lot of peace knowing that.
