Scott Baxter
Speaker1: [00:00:01] The first thing if you just introduce your stuff. I got Baxter. Do I look at you? You look at me the whole time. I'm a physician. I'm a psychiatric. You know, however you wanna introduce yourself. Um, I'm the assistant medical director at com clinic. Okay.
Speaker2: [00:00:17] So I'm Scott Baxter. I'm a physician assistant in psychiatric medicine. I'm the assistant medical director at com clinic.
Speaker1: [00:00:28] Awesome. Give me one more time. Like, just a little smiley, like, you know, for kids are watching. Like. Like, I want to see that guy. That's nice.
Speaker2: [00:00:41] All right. So I'm Scott Baxter. I'm a physician assistant in psychiatric medicine. I'm the assistant medical director at Calm Clinic.
Speaker1: [00:00:54] Awesome. Thank you. And tell me things you enjoy. Where are you from? A little bit about you.
Speaker2: [00:01:02] So I grew up in Legrand, Oregon. That kind of stuff. I grew up in Legrand, Oregon, and I enjoy playing music, doing art, like spending time with friends and family, spending time outdoors. I grew up hiking in the mountains in Oregon. Hugging trees, all that stuff.
Speaker1: [00:01:37] So tell me what what do you enjoy about mental health as a career? How is it fulfilling for you and why?
Speaker2: [00:01:46] So I've really enjoyed mental health because for myself, I've I've explored needed to do my own exploration with mental health, with my own personal exploration. Maybe that's not the best.
Speaker1: [00:02:05] And you can certainly talk about your own journey. Right? That's part of the.
Speaker2: [00:02:09] We all have. So so I, I really enjoy mental health first through my own journey with mental health as I help other people with their own journey and share my own experiences with them, it's it's been really good to see their progression. Good to see there. I don't know.
Speaker1: [00:02:38] That one's great, but stay with me.
Speaker2: [00:02:40] Eye contact. Eye contact. Um.
Speaker1: [00:02:44] Is it fulfilling to help people progress and see their growth?
Speaker2: [00:02:49] Yeah. I love I love seeing people progress. I like to see the changes that they make, like when they start to get the feel, the fire of finding their own passions, finding their own purposes in life.
Speaker1: [00:03:06] And what do you think are some of the common reasons people are struggling with their mental health? And repeat the question back to me.
[00:03:16] Some of the reason people struggle with their mental health and stay at.
Speaker2: [00:03:23] Okay. I think some of the reasons why people struggle with their mental health is we look for answers in the wrong places. We try to find we try to fill ourselves up with with the wrong things. I don't know that we.
Speaker1: [00:03:44] Try to fill ourselves up with things that don't serve.
Speaker2: [00:03:46] Us. So I think that some people struggle with mental health because they're looking for the answers in the in the wrong things they look for. Sorry, I'm like too much in my head. That's a good.
Speaker1: [00:04:03] Breath. Wiggle it out. Get loose. Let me ask you, what is telemedicine allowed for your patients?
Speaker2: [00:04:13] So telemedicine, people having access to telemedicine, just access to care. Sometimes because of transportation, they can't make it to the clinic and sometimes because of other health issues that they have. It's really hard to get around. So telemedicine makes psych psychiatric care a lot more accessible.
Speaker1: [00:04:36] You train a lot of psychiatric professional practitioners.
[00:04:40] Can you talk about how as the lead trainer for Common Clinic.
Speaker1: [00:04:47] We're all still learning? Although I do teach people. Help them become better mental health practitioners. We're all getting better every day, and that's part of our culture. And so the question is, how has your experience been as a lead trainer for.
Speaker2: [00:05:06] And so you want me to incorporate.
Speaker1: [00:05:08] The answer however you can. I know when I try to fill the answers, it gets a little tough, but has it been mainly trying to count them?
Speaker2: [00:05:16] So being the lead trainer for Calm Clinic has been really fulfilling. I like to see how providers grow in their role. It's fun to see them challenge and see. It's fun to see how they kind of decide to overcome those challenges and grow in their own in their own capacity to be good providers.
Speaker1: [00:05:42] Would you recommend to your friends to, if they're thinking about a career in mental health, to take that leap and why?
Speaker2: [00:05:49] Yeah, absolutely. I, I would I would totally. Yeah, I. Let me think about that.
Speaker1: [00:05:58] I mean, dude, you've recommended, like, 20 people to her. Just speak from the heart. Why did you do so?
Speaker2: [00:06:06] I recommend mental health as far as provider, because not only does it, is it easy for for you to fit it in your schedule? Maybe you don't have full time hours to to give to mental health. You can fit it in whatever days you have free during the week. And mental health is in every aspect of medicine. And so whether you do emergency medicine, GI, primary care, we all deal with mental health. So it's very applicable to whatever area of medicine that you're in.
Speaker1: [00:06:43] That was awesome. Okay. Can you give a shout out in Spanish here at home clinic? I'm almost espanol, you know, I just kind of get into it and like, if, you know, however in Spanish you might say, like if you're struggling to reach out and if you want help, reach out.
Speaker2: [00:06:56] Okay. Again, let's see. Akin calm clinic también llamo espanol. And this is the detainee problemas Contra Salud Mental chaos book i nos yama but pinero and azita awesome.
Speaker1: [00:07:15] Do it again in spanish. I know what you said. Let's do another round.
Speaker2: [00:07:21] King Kong clinic in espanol. And this is Quinones JAMA Satanic problema. It's almost a keeper.
Speaker1: [00:07:30] And can you say in Spanish like. We all can improve our mental health. We all can improve. We all can be the better version of ourselves or just anything reassuring like that. Because the Hispanic culture is like, Wait, what? Mental health, right? So like the idea that, like, we all can just be the better version of ourselves, it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you. Can you say that?
Speaker2: [00:08:00] Let's see. I have to, like, translate it. Yeah.
Speaker1: [00:08:04] So, Podemos, La Nostra. Salud.
Speaker2: [00:08:09] Yeah. Okay. Those nosotros Podemos, mejorar, Nuestra Salute. Mendel. No imported chicken. No, it doesn't work. Todos nosotros podemos. Mejorar. Nuestra. Salud. Mental. The imported case, Estado is estancia and su vida. I don't know if that works, but.
Speaker1: [00:08:36] Some good ones really want to capture. Yeah, let's say Valencia. Thank you so much.
Marie Stevens
Speaker1: [00:00:00] Originally from Michigan, living in Nevada really love the winters here compared to the Midwest. I'm a mom. I have three little kids. My husband's also a provider here, which is been really fun. We debrief a lot with each other and it's been really helpful. That was.
Speaker2: [00:00:17] Amazing. Tell me a little bit about what excites you about mental health. What do you love about this field and the work you do.
Speaker1: [00:00:24] And how is that fulfilling? Yeah, so I think mental health is is the unsung hero of the body or it's the hidden aspect where, you know, people don't appreciate how much our mental health goes into our the way our bodies function and how successful we can or can't be and how limiting it is when things aren't functioning, how they're supposed to. And so it's really thrilling to be able to help people improve in a way that they didn't think that, you know, when someone thinks their life is going to be a certain way forever and you can help them see a different way. It's it's really thrilling to be able to help them in that regard. And it you know, it impacts everything. So awesome.
Speaker2: [00:01:12] Um, you talked about people think they're going to be one way forever. Would you say that? Our life is dynamic. We're constantly evolving. We're constantly growing.
Speaker1: [00:01:22] And how does that apply to mental health care? So mental health care, I think it is it's continually changing in itself where we're still figuring things out. We don't know what like we don't know all the nuances in somebody. And so I think the more time we spend with them and the more detail that we go into with practicing medicine and trying to do therapy while we're helping them, I guess helping them in every aspect, it it's more beneficial than any other, I think, situation that they could be getting into.
Speaker2: [00:01:59] What? When you practice mental health care, what are the things you focus on for your patients?
Speaker1: [00:02:06] I love focusing on things that affect them physically, things that affect them emotionally, spiritually, socially, things that are their relationships with other people, how their body is feeling at the time. If they're not getting enough sleep, if they're not exercising, if they're not doing really good self care or even just, you know, I think sometimes people don't recognize the relationships that they're in are detrimental or the affecting the mental health in a negative way. And that's what I really like to focus on.
Speaker2: [00:02:37] What are some of the things that you think is affecting societal mental health?
Speaker1: [00:02:42] Do we all go through? Yeah. I feel like there's just a lot of lack of empathy and lack of for for our fellow man and for other people around us and also, like a lack of forgiveness just to understanding that, you know, everybody probably feels bad at one point. And so recognizing that it's not just one person suffering or because somebody acts negatively toward you, it doesn't mean that they're bad, you know? And so trying to have an understanding of who they are and where they're coming from, I feel like that's a big problem in society.
Speaker2: [00:03:20] How does preventative care for the physical improvements of. Is tending to your physical health.
Speaker1: [00:03:28] Improve your health. So they go hand in hand. You can't have you start over.
Speaker2: [00:03:32] And start with the question as an.
Speaker1: [00:03:35] Answer. What goes in? So preventative care is goes hand in hand with your mental health. If your body is not functioning how it's supposed to, it's going to affect your mental health. If you're there's a lot of ways you can be experiencing fatigue that can create issues of mental health. And a lot of times people think that there's something wrong with them or they're bad or they feel guilty because they're excessively fatigued when in all reality it could be something physical that's that's causing all of these symptoms. And so being more well rounded with physical health and mental health is going to actually help someone improve the best.
Speaker2: [00:04:14] How can people work on their physical health through telemedicine?
Speaker1: [00:04:18] Good question. Working on your physical health through telemedicine is by understanding what's wrong. You know if you're talking to. So free for when we do preventative care. You know we go into some deep things. What's affecting you physically? Why what's not functioning? And we try and do what we can through telemedicine in order to be able to take care of that order. The correct testing, also giving the right recommending the right supplements and then understanding better, I guess, through telemedicine, because we have we have to be listening more because we can't actually be in person with somebody. So we have to be more attentive and aware to what the words that they're actually saying.
Speaker2: [00:05:03] How does Telemed help people adjust their mental health and. More convenient way. And. Overcoming obstacles.
Speaker1: [00:05:10] Yeah. So telemedicine is life changing for people, I think because I've had so many patients that have they're afraid to turn on their camera initially because they have so much anxiety and fear toward meeting me or meeting a new provider. And so there's no way that they would actually make the trek to come in to see a provider. And so it's it's amazing when that person decides to turn on their camera and you know, that you've built a rapport with them. But I think telemedicine increases the access that we have to people. And also it really helps people be able to, when they're on the fly, they're doing things where they normally would forget their appointment or or just disregard it. They they can it helps us track them better and help them improve even more.
Speaker2: [00:05:57] A lot of people find the smallest excuse to skip their visits, especially when they're going to the office. What happens if someone decides through our clinic? I don't know if I see my provider today. Do you call them? Do you reach out to them or are you still there for them?
Speaker1: [00:06:10] Yeah. When somebody misses their appointment, we call multiple times. We send links to try and do a video visit. We call I text if the voicemail is full or if there's they haven't been responsive. There's even people where it's actually easy to. Hey, I haven't seen you in a while. I'm worried about you or anything I do to help you send a quick text or a phone call. It's really it's really accessible.
Speaker2: [00:06:33] Awesome. How about for your personal life? How has working in tele psychiatry been beneficial for you, your family, your.
Speaker1: [00:06:40] Quality of life? Yeah. Working in tele psych I think has been awesome for our family. Partially because commute is less. We have we end up having more time, better work life balance, especially for my husband. He was driving a ton, commuting a far distance daily and now it's been it's been so helpful because I feel like we were complaining how we don't have time together, We don't have these things, but having an extra hour a day is a big deal, but also because it allows us to be able to travel and go and spend, do extended extended stays with family members that we wouldn't normally see in a very regular basis, or we would be limited because of that.
Speaker2: [00:07:24] I remember when Devin wanted to get you into this field and, you know, he saw a lot of fulfillment in his life. He shared that with you. How would you share with your colleagues if they were interested in mental health? Would you encourage them? What would you tell them? And kind of just pitch it to a friend who's asking you like, should I give you this space?
Speaker1: [00:07:41] Yeah, if I knew somebody who wanted to get into mental health or even was remotely interested in somebodies well being, I would say this it's the best way for you to grow as a person because you're living these principles, because you're teaching these principles constantly. Self help is a big part, I think, of mental health. And so I've noticed a change in our lives that since we've been in psychiatry, that we seek after self help, we do things that are constantly trying to build us up socially, spiritually, physically, you know, and making sure that if we have any issues, we can reach out to each other or extended family members. And it's just made it bring it brought it more to the forefront of our own lives.
[00:08:32] Thanks for my questions.
Speaker2: [00:08:40] Does that air conditioner thing.
Speaker1: [00:08:44] Is it rattling?
Speaker2: [00:08:45] Yeah. I just hit the head off her. I mean, like, the mike's good. I was just. I thought it was my stuff. I was like, What is that?
Speaker1: [00:08:56] Light. The light? Or what are.
Speaker2: [00:08:58] You eating that rattle?
Speaker1: [00:09:00] I wonder if it's.
Speaker2: [00:09:05] Hi. How are you doing, Suzanne? I'm Antonio. Oh, cool. How are you doing? Good. How are we doing? Hey, we're still alive, right? Yeah. Okay, Give me. Can you just sit for, like, 10 minutes? I'll be with you. Five, 10 minutes. Awesome. Thank you so much. Can you pick up some examples? Not not yet. But think of some examples of. You mentioned people are fatigued and I think that request drive, but really is a physical issue. Can you list some examples of when people are struggling with their mental health? You've identified it was a physical issue, what those examples are and what those results have been once we address that. Sure.
Speaker1: [00:09:57] Great. Okay. So some examples of things that we found in preventative care or that has been confusing if somebody is. One that's often occurs is a man comes in depressed, fatigued feeling just general like there's increased anxiety in his life and he's feeling off. His relationship isn't what it what it had been with his spouse previously or with a significant other. And a lot of times it's their testosterone. So we've checked their testosterone. If there's anything remotely resembling it, that's and we've treated the testosterone and it's actually made a huge difference where these patients feel awesome. And we send them back to the psychiatrist and they say, see the psychiatrist once every or their provider once every three months or so because they're feeling so well. That's been a big one. Another big one is thyroid. So a lot of times people are feeling fatigue. Again, fatigue happens all the time or people are feeling like weight gain, weight loss. They have palpitations, they feel like it's their anxiety, but it's actually an issue with their thyroid. It's been a big help to be able to change this or to be able to find it and then be able to address it.
Speaker2: [00:11:15] Talked about supplements. What supplements do you encourage in your care and is it a customized thing? You get to know your patient first and then recommend something that might help them.
Speaker1: [00:11:24] Yeah. Supplements I have found that are helpful are actually really based off of what their symptoms are or what their complaint is. You know, decrease libido. There's certain certain ones that I found have been helpful ashwagandha or you know, I've had patients who have problems with gaining weight. Ashwagandha is also another one or because sorry, excuse me because they are on a stimulant that's killing their appetite. We put them on something like ashwagandha and they actually do a lot better and have an increase in their appetite. And then I'm trying to think of other ones that we use quite a bit. Some people with low energy, we use NAD blanket on some other ones. Oxytocin. Uh.
Speaker2: [00:12:12] Yeah. They address.
Speaker1: [00:12:14] Let me think of something.
Speaker2: [00:12:14] What's an easel? How are you doing? Oh, for sure. Okay? Yeah, for sure. And then I will also be meeting with Samantha to. Oh, do you want me to meet someone? If you just want to observe the meeting with Samantha, go ahead. Yeah. Why don't you sit in this corner for a little bit? Everybody, this is Elijah. Hi. Hi. Hi. Of our team.
Speaker1: [00:12:41] Awesome.
Speaker2: [00:12:42] The intern.
Speaker1: [00:12:43] Great. Awesome.
Speaker2: [00:12:46] Is it cool if I take the mask off? For sure? Um, all right, how about just another shout out for, like, everything is connected, right? Our mental health is connected to our physical health or spiritual health. Like just another summary of that statement.
Speaker1: [00:13:01] Okay, So our our mental health is really dependent on how we feel physically, so that when we're feeling good physically, we're going to be able to feel good mentally and vice versa. I mean, we don't realize how often somebody has chronic pain that's going to affect their mental health and make them feel increased their depression, increase their anxiety, increase their feelings of wanting to socialize with other people. And it is one of the most important things that we're making sure we're catching everything as opposed to just being one sided. Awesome.
Speaker2: [00:13:38] If people come to anywhere clinic, will they expect to have all of these things address that? Could you say like if you. If you sign up for if you sign up to see one of our parades anywhere clinic, we'll not only address your mental health and make sure to adjust your physical health and. Make sure you're totally healthy, you know, like something like that.
Speaker1: [00:13:56] I think that's what sets anywhere clinic apart is because that is the culture. It is passed down from the top where we focus on biological factors, psychological factors, social factors and spiritual factors, because we know that we can't just do medicine. We know we can't just do one thing and expect everything to get better. And that is the culture here and what makes us successful. Awesome.
Speaker2: [00:14:24] Um. You don't have experience with ketamine therapy you.
Speaker1: [00:14:29] So my personally.
Speaker2: [00:14:32] Yeah. Could you comment on how can we in therapy is helping people.
Speaker1: [00:14:37] Yeah. So I have a lot of patients that actually have done ketamine lozenges, a few that have done IM or IV, and it has been really groundbreaking for them. They have done, you know, SSRIs or other antidepressants for a long period of time, and ketamine is leaps and bounds more successful for them. I've had people say that they've decided there's there's things that they never realized in their life or they've they've come to these huge milestones have watershed moments to understand. I used to think a certain way, but do I really have to think this way anymore? And it's been extremely beneficial.
Speaker2: [00:15:20] Awesome. What did you think when you first heard about ketamine? And you're going have fun with this one?
Speaker1: [00:15:25] When I first heard about ketamine, I was like, What are we doing? Like, This is not okay. But after having the experience of seeing ketamine and actually understand your research, So I went to a ketamine conference and there was so much incredible research that showed there's major effects, major positive effects, way more than what anybody ever suspected. And I never really expected myself. And I feel like telling my mom, this is always weird, but oh, yeah, we should we should do ketamine. It's so great. But knowing how much it helps people, it's I'm a believer, I guess I should say. That was awesome.
Speaker2: [00:16:09] Um, do you miss anything about coming into the office to see your patients?
Speaker1: [00:16:14] If I do, I miss anything about coming in to seeing patients in the office. Yes and no. Yes, because I. There is a connection. Sometimes you have with people that you can get a generalized picture by seeing someone in the office. But I feel like with psychiatry that telemedicine does a really great job at at helping you understand the full picture just by seeing them. It's really the only part of medicine where you don't really need to take vitals. So not seeing someone in the office I think is frankly, I guess, frankly, it's just as good. Um.
Speaker2: [00:16:54] Uh. What's your favorite natural antidepressant?
Speaker1: [00:17:00] My favorite natural antidepressant is exercise. How does that help you? It helps because it's the one thing you can rely on consistently day in and day out to give you a boost in your mood. Probably. It's probably one of the most reliable forms where you know it's going to work
Speaker2: [00:17:20] Would you advise families to seek mental health together?
Speaker1: [00:17:24] Couples do it together. I would absolutely advise couples and families to seek mental health together. I grew up as my father, as a talk therapist, and I felt like we had family therapy quite often, and it built our relationships to help us to understand how to speak to each other and made our bond closer, but also helped us understand. When you grow up, you have people don't always separate their families very well. They get enmeshed. And I think that having an understanding or an appropriate relationship through therapy with your family, you can help to separate when you need to separate and come together when you need to come together.
Speaker2: [00:18:01] The last few years have been tough on society at large. Covid and everything we've been going through isolation, job loss, social justice. Can you comment a little bit on how you've seen that impacts society from a mental health perspective?
Speaker1: [00:18:16] The last few years have been really tough on society. I think COVID has caused people to be more secluded when we're used to having these relationships with other people. Being more social and having to like some forced agoraphobia, even though it's not necessarily a phobia, it's caused a disconnect. I think some dissonance and some divisiveness. I guess I compare it to when you're driving in a car, you're driving in a car and you don't necessarily recognize that there's a person in that car. You can get angry at them because it's just a car. But when you see that person, it becomes it's personal and you understand they have feelings and emotions where I feel like that's similar to what's happening in society, where we don't personalize other people, we don't recognize other people and the struggles that they're dealing with. And so it becomes a lot more, I guess, just impersonal in general. Don't have a lot of emotions or connection to people, which makes it harder.
Speaker2: [00:19:13] If I'm struggling with my mental health.
Speaker1: [00:19:15] What should I do? You struggle with your mental health. Reach out to us. Where? Anywhere. Clinic Where? Everywhere. We're willing to help. Reach out to a friend. Somebody you feel like you can talk to. That's probably the first step. Somebody feel comfortable If you don't feel like you have any of those people in your life, then you need to seek somebody. Seek somebody you can trust, somebody you feel that may even be a pet for some, some consoling, but usually somebody you feel confident that you can talk to is the first step.
Speaker2: [00:19:46] You give me a mental health care Anytime, anywhere.
Speaker1: [00:19:50] Mental health care, Any time, anywhere.
Speaker2: [00:19:52] Fantastic. Anything else that you wanted to share?
Speaker1: [00:19:56] I'm good. You were.
Speaker2: [00:19:57] Phenomenal. Thank you. That's awesome.