In charge at the David Lawrence Center, it’s ‘busy but manageable’

Dr. Mark Lovett As chief medical officer for the David Lawrence Center, Dr. Mark Lovett oversees all of the facility’s medical services. And at a facility like David Lawrence, which is Collier County’s only not-forprofit mental health treatment center, that’s a sizeable task.

Every day, the center’s outpatient services draw new clients. The inpatient services are frequently full. It’s a balancing act, but one that Dr. Lovett, 49, doesn’t mind — not if it means he’s able to able to properly serve the community.

“We really are a full-service provider,” he says. “We do offer in-service level of care, but on the other side of that, we do see lots and lots of people for counseling.”

An increasing number of those counseling patients are children. From July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009, the center provided care to 23,100 individuals. Of those, 32 percent were children, the majority of which suffered from child and adolescent disorders, adjustment disorders and mood disorders.

“Child psychiatry is one of the most critically underserved specialties of all the medical specialties,” Dr. Lovett says.

The center recently expanded its children’s outpatient services to meet the demand. Although they added clinical and medical staff, however, Dr. Lovett remains the center’s only child and adolescent psychiatrist.

Also as part of the outpatient expansion, the center launched the Juvenile Assessment Center Web site, which grants parents access to free mental health and substance abuse information. The center also worked with the court system to redesign diversion programs in an effort to increase referrals to the center’s outpatient substance abuse programs.

Dr. Lovett is pleased with the level of outpatient services the center provides. The inpatient services, though, continue to be an area where he hopes to see eventual expansion.

The center currently has a 51-bed capacity, including 16 licensed adult crisis beds and four licensed children’s crisis beds. The average length of stay is almost six days and almost three days, respectively. The center also has an adult substance abuse residential program with 12 beds. There, the average stay is about 24 days.

In emergency cases, it’s often necessary to work with other area community mental health facilities to find a place for a patient, Dr. Lovett says. But requiring a Naples resident to go to a Fort Myers — or farther — treatment facility distances them from their family and might make their recovery difficult in other ways.

“In many other communities, you don’t struggle to find a bed for somebody,” he notes. “We definitely need more. It definitely is frustrating.”

A veteran of the community mental health profession, Dr. Lovett has more than 20 years of experience in the field. He earned his bachelor’s degree and medical degree from the University of Kansas, then completed post-graduate work at Kansas University.

He moved to Southwest Florida in 1998. For seven years, he acted as the children’s medical director at the David Lawrence Center, , followed by two years as the center’s medical director. Although he continues to do some limited private practice, he regards direct clinical care as the most satisfying part of his professional life.

Community mental health is pleasantly unique because there’s an opportunity to serve everyone, he says, adding he also finds it less isolating than private practice, and he appreciates the team approach at the David Lawrence Cenetr and the opportunity to work together with his clinical and medical staff.

“It’s serving all the residents, all the citizens, regardless of the funding source. You’re not so worried about the funding. In private practice, it’s a business in a different way,” he says. “I can really focus on more on the mental health needs.”

As a board-certified adult, child and adolescent psychiatrist, Dr. Lovett has treated a variety of those mental health needs. He was a major in the United States Army Reserves from 1998 until 2006, and served in Iraq in 2005 and Germany in 2006.

During his Iraq deployment, when he was stationed at Camp Victory, he was the only psychiatrist for thousands of soldiers. Nevertheless, he says, “It was very enjoyable.”

While the soldiers’ overall morale was high, there was certainly a need for psychiatric services, he recalls. “They had a lot of difficulties,” he says of the soldiers. “They had a lot of trouble with acute stress, things they had seen.”

Being in Naples, and at David Lawrence, has been an excellent opportunity for Dr. Lovett and his family, even if some days are a little hectic, he says.

“It’s busy, but it’s manageable.” 