Avenir Behavioral Health Center

It's Halloween Spirit Week here at Avenir. Today was Wild, Wild West Day. Here are some of our awesome team members showing off their flannels, cowboy hats, and southern drawl. We really could not ask for a better group! Starting at the bottom right is Nurse Extraordinaire Veronica, and going counterclockwise we have our Director of Nursing Kary, Social Worker Latoya, Technician Iris, Intake Clinician Samantha, Executive Director Eric, Discharge Planner Gabby, Technician Jibrihl, Discharge Planner Alanna, Social Work Intern Georgina, and lastly our Assistant Director of Nursing Cortney.

Avenir has a few weekend nursing positions available. We are currently looking for both RNs as well as LPNs to cover several weekend day shifts. If any of you are interested, please reach out and let's chat!

Did you know? ➤ Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for ages 10-14 and 25-34 ➤ A person dies by suicide every 11 minutes in the U.S. September is Suicide Prevention Month, but it's always time to raise awareness and remind individuals, friends, and families about resources that are available to help prevent suicide. Suicide is preventable, and there are resources and support services available. If you or someone you know is feeling increasingly depressed, or suicidal, reach out to us at (623) 335-9901. We can help.

Unfortunately, we're losing one of our rockstar Social Workers in a few weeks. Because of that, we are now looking for someone to fill some pretty big shoes. If you're a Master's Level Social worker looking for work, please reach out to us. This is an on-site position, so we can only consider people within a reasonable distance from the hospital. Also, this will be a direct-hire position, and we will not be considering staffing agencies, etc. Lastly, it will also be posted on indeed later today if you'd like to review the details. Thanks!

We would like to introduce you all to Derick Wheeler! Derick is our new Director of Business Development. He'll be focusing on building brand awareness, fostering goodwill in the community, and developing a strong network of referral partners. With nearly 20 years of leadership experience, he previously launched, grew, and operated an outpatient counseling office for more than 15 years—an experience that gave him a deep understanding of both the operational and human sides of behavioral health. Derick takes a data-driven approach while creating genuine, collaborative connections that help people access the care they need. When he’s not out connecting with providers and community leaders, Derick enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, traveling, and exploring local events and activities.

As we've now wrapped up the first day of the Southwestern School for Behavioral Health Studies Conference, we're grateful for having the opportunity not only to reconnect with some colleagues, but also to begin building new partnerships with others. I want to give a huge shout-out to Derick and Gabby for assisting with this, and being the Avenir Experts at the table! If you didn't get a chance to visit us today, we'd love to chat with you at some point this week... and Gabby does love to chat. She wasn't named that by accident. 😁

Avenir will have an exhibitor table at Southwestern School for Behavioral Health Studies conference in Chandler this week. We welcome everyone in attendance to stop by to meet Derick, our new Business Devopment Director, and Gabby, one of our Diacharge Planners. While you're chatting, be sure to grab some swag from us! Also, our Executive Director Eric will be presenting Tuesday afternoon. We're sure he'd love for those of you at the conference to join his presentation!

As we wrap up the 2025 ASU School of Social Work Summer Institute, we want to thank ASU for once again hosting an incredible conference, acknowledge our honor in sponsoring the event, and for accepting our Executive Director as one of your presenters. We truly are honored to be a part of it! Thank you!

Avenir will have an exhibitor table at ASU's Summer Institute conference in Flagstaff next week. We welcome everyone in attendance to stop by, chat with us about our services and exciting expansion that's underway, and grab some swag! Also, our Executive Director Eric will be presenting Tuesday afternoon on the topic of Solution Focused Therapy in an inpatient setting. We're sure he'd love for those of you at the conference to join his presentation!

Optum's Platinum Recognition model evaluates program performance on 5 key metrics, and any program that meets at least 4 out of 5 metric benchmarks is designated as a Platinum Provider.  Avenir is honored to receive this recognition, and looks forward to continued partnership with Optum!