Powell was the former supervisor of impatient mental health services for Ventura County.
by Carol Leish
Dan Powell became the new CEO of Vista del Mar Hospital, a private psychiatric facility in Ventura, in December of 2020. He says, “My focus is to continue the exceptional patient care to the communities that we serve. This will include expanding upon staff and team development, since we have a good team of folks that work here now who really care about the patients that they work with. They provide safe, compassionate, and meaningful care to patients.”
Powell was the former supervisor of impatient mental health services for Ventura County. He supervised the impatient psychiatric unit and a short-term crisis stabilization program at Ventura County Medical Center’s Hillmont facility for six years. He has a master’s degree in clinical psychology; is a Marriage Family Therapist (MFT); is a Board-Certified Behavioral Analyst; and is a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Specialist.
“My philosophy for treatment of patients, and my vision for treatment aligned,” according to Powell. “Thus, it was a good time to transition into the CEO role for me. I’m committed to providing exceptional behavioral health care to all patients in the communities that we serve.”
Changes have occurred at Vista del Mar since the Thomas Fire of 2017. According to Powell, “Now there is the opening of opportunities of expansion in order to provide more services, such as: outpatient and telehealth services. Along with rebuilding parts of the hospital, we are continuing to expand upon outpatient services, which includes reaching out to help more from an outpatient perspective.”
Powell said that, “With people coping with a stay-at-home order, there is more fear and anxiety of contracting COVID-19, along with fear of the future. Because of the current situation, we work actively with patients in order to address their needs and help them to better cope with depression and anxiety, especially with the possibility or occurrence of losing loved ones or of knowing others who are sick. We work with patients by treating their current symptoms and helping them to work through this process.”
“We are beginning to partner with St. John’s Regional Medical Center, in Oxnard, to jointly provide a crisis stabilization unit,” according to Powell. “This unit will be able to help more citizens of the county who need crisis intervention services. I’m pleased to work together and to be able to partner in order to provide this much needed service.”
Since coping with anxiety and depression, along with other behavior health needs, is as important as dealing with physical needs, especially during the pandemic, Vista del Mar Hospital offers needed psychiatric services, under the leadership of the new CEO, Dan Powell.
