WAUSAU, Wis. (WAOW) — Casey Balson’s time as a student at the Medical College of Wisconsin (Central Wisconsin) is almost over, but she’s looking forward to the next stage of her career helping influence the expansion of mental health care. I’m thinking of doing that.
Balson, a Muskego native, was recently matched with the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee for a psychiatry residency program.
“When I opened the email that I had been matched in Milwaukee, I was surrounded by my family because my parents and sister were there, and I was so happy that I burst into tears,” she recalled.
One of the biggest things she advocates for is increasing access to mental health care in rural areas.
“It’s tough even in Milwaukee. [to find resources] This is especially true in rural areas. We don’t have a lot of resources, we don’t have a lot of providers,” Balson said.
Her passion for mental health advocacy began before she was a medical student, and she says her colleagues created an environment where mental health was something to be talked about and studied.
“It’s a normal thing for us to talk about, it’s not something to be ashamed of, and we’ve created a really nice, cohesive environment,” Balson said.
While we’ve made great strides in how we discuss mental health, one of her biggest concerns is increasing access to medications to treat mental illness.
“If you have really bad diabetes and forget to take your insulin, that’s bad for you. Just like patients with mental illness, they need to see a doctor. But I In the society that we live in, sometimes we don’t need to see a doctor.’ Think about mental health in that regard,” Balson said.
The current problem she hears in rural areas is that getting medicine or seeing a doctor takes time, sometimes months.
For things to change, people need to keep speaking up, but they can’t do it alone.
“It’s easy to push a rock up the hill when you have a team behind you, so I definitely think that as individuals we can all work to shine a light on these areas,” Balson said. he said.
She hasn’t graduated yet, but she plans to do so by May and then begin her training program this summer.
For more information on Mr. Balson’s backstory, click here. Those wishing to contact her regarding mental health-related topics may email cbalson@mcw.edu.
