Lauran Prest is Psychiatrist, D.O. at Moab Regional Hospital.
Lauren describes challenges in Rural Health, and what her scope of work entails.
Lauren states that some of her duties include:
- “Primary psychiatric illness and substance use disorders. I build programs and supervise an interdisciplinary team, write grants, network with community partner organizations, and serve as the department chair.”
- “Most of my clinical time is spent running a specialty addiction clinic, Recovery Clinic, for dual diagnosis patients who have a severe substance use disorders, as well as a Collaborative Care Clinic, which works with patients who have complex psychiatric illness.”
- “Provide inpatient and emergency room psychiatric consults, as well as serving as consultant to the county jail and Drug Court program providing both psychiatric and addiction medicine services.”
- “Our clinic has plans to expand services further south to better provide addiction care to more remote, and rural communities, including the Navajo reservation.”
Challenges in Rural Health:
- “All of my patients are considered underserved, low income, and/or marginalized. I do serve a few members of the Latinx community and Native American community (Navajo tribe), though most of my patients are Caucasian. At least half my patients are initially uninsured when they find us, this is true primarily for the substance use disordered population, but we connect them with MRH financial aid and Medicaid when they qualify.”