In March 2020, the pandemic sent the entire health system mobilizing as everyone tried to figure out how to handle the possible flood of patients resulting from COVID. Paul R. Crosby, M.D., was tasked with leading the Lindner Center of HOPE’s pandemic response.
“Mental health hospital patients in other parts of the world were getting hit hard with COVID because of the way we do our therapeutic work in terms of group work and interactions,” says Dr. Crosby, who wanted to find a way to keep both patients and staff safe while still providing life-saving services. “We knew we couldn’t close our doors.”
Dr. Crosby and his colleagues across the state and region shared best practices regarding quarantining, masking, visitation policies, cleaning and all the other things that came with a pandemic. By employing safety measures, the Lindner Center of HOPE managed to get through the first two years of the pandemic without a single case of COVID infection acquired within its hospital acute care and residential services.
Since then, they have seen a 30% increase in requests for mental health services.
“The pandemic affected everyone’s mental health as people lost jobs, got sick, grieved those who died and lived in a chronic state of fear and uncertainty,” says Dr. Crosby, who expects that there will continue to be an elevated need for mental health services for a couple of decades.
Due to this increased need, they have hired 20 new medical staff in the past year. They are planning to build more space for outpatient and residential services, including a mental wellness center that will emphasize prevention, provide holistic and integrative service offerings, and ultimately allow more of the community to engage with the Center and benefit from its mental health expertise.
“The Lindner Center of HOPE would not exist without the robust community financial support we’ve received through the years,” says Dr. Crosby. “We are extremely grateful for it. It makes it possible for us to deliver the highest quality mental health care while innovating and improving how mental health care is delivered.”
A child and adolescent psychiatrist, Crosby joined the Lindner Center in 2008 and became CEO in July of 2021.
Dr. Crosby works to lead an organizational culture of empathy, compassion and excellence where everyone who comes to the Lindner Center is met wherever they are on their personal mental health journey. The Center’s skilled professionals leverage the latest science to best help them achieve mental wellness and get back to feeling like “themselves” again.
“One reason I went into child psychiatry is because I realized the positive ripple effects that can result from helping someone at a young age with whatever mental health concerns they’re having,” he says. “Our mental health affects every decision we make for our entire lives. That’s what excites me about leadership. If I can do a good job in providing a place for our providers to give the very best care to our patients, I know that I am helping amplify those positive ripple effects far and deep into our patients’ communities, families, schools and workplaces. An individual’s mental wellness affects everybody around them.”
Dr. Paul R. Crosby is the president and CEO at Lindner Center of HOPE. The Lindner Center is located at 4075 Old Western Row Rd., Cincinnati, Ohio 45040. You can also visit lindnercenterofhope.org.