Meet Dr. Cotter: A Healthcare Hero and Client Ally

Meet Dr. Leslie Cotter, a Compass Health psychiatrist who was recently honored by the Puget Sound Business Journal as a 2024 Health Care Hero. Dr. Cotter is a former professor who started as a part-time Compass Health team member serving the outpatient mental health needs of the Whidbey Island community. Thirty years later, her career – and calling – has helped countless clients navigate the most intensive behavioral health conditions.

Today, Dr. Cotter serves as a psychiatrist for the Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) in Snohomish County, an outreach program serving adults facing severe and persistent behavioral health challenges. She also supports our Evaluation and Treatment (E&T) Facility and Crisis Triage & Stabilization Center.

In her role with PACT, Dr. Cotter focuses on direct community outreach, meeting clients where they are – in their homes, in local hospitals, and in community spaces – and connecting them to the resources they need. She works tirelessly with her patients to establish trust, work toward client safety and health, and for them to know the PACT team cares about them personally and is there to support them.

We recently sat down with Dr. Cotter to learn more about her career at Compass Health, her time with the PACT team, and her passion for psychiatry. Read on for her insights.

Q: How did you originally start working with Compass Health?

A: My tenure with the agency began 26 years ago, through a part-time position in the adult outpatient program on Whidbey Island. At that time, I was raising my family, but very much wanted to continue to further my career in psychiatry. Compass Health allowed me to do both – and over the years, that has continued. The organization has opened doors to many different career and educational opportunities, allowing me to become the doctor I’ve always wanted to be while still being able to pursue my personal interests.

Q: How did you transition from the outpatient program on Whidbey Island to the South PACT program?

A: After living in England for a period, during which I continued to work part-time at Compass Health on visits to the States, I transitioned to supporting our intensive services, including the E&T, the Crisis Triage & Stabilization Center, and PACT. This transition, while not without its challenges, has allowed me to provide one-on-one support to community members with serious mental health conditions, and build meaningful relationships with them that enable me to play a role in supporting them to navigate what can be long and sometimes unusual and circuitous paths to health and recovery.

Q: What does your typical workday look like?

A: PACT is a team-based program that provides wraparound services, and is comprised of clinicians, psychiatric providers, counselors, nurses, peer specialists, vocational and chemical dependency specialists and support staff.  We connect with clients multiple times a week to ensure we are meeting the goals of our shared treatment plans and to provide support to prevent mental health crises, escalations of their symptoms or decompensation of their illnesses.

As a psychiatrist, on a given day, that might include conducting several home visits with my clients to monitor their well-being and prescribe treatment. These types of visits are essential because they enable me to connect with my clients where they feel safe and comfortable, to observe their environments and to identify safety issues, ensure food security, and to make visits convenient for clients by avoiding transportation challenges.

Once back in the office, our entire team will meet to discuss treatment plans for all clients. This daily meeting allows a deep-dive approach to assisting clients, addressing the complexity of each client as a whole person, and allowing the team to plan treatment based on observations and perspectives of the wide array of professionals on our team. In between client visits and team meetings, I monitor hospitalizations and jail intakes to make sure my clients receive appropriate medical care that aligns with their treatment plan through PACT. This ongoing follow-up is essential to ensure we stay connected with our clients so that their treatment remains intact.

Q: What inspired you to pursue a career in psychiatry?

A: I chose to pursue a career in medicine, and ultimately psychiatry, when I was studying for my undergraduate degree in Canada. I knew I wanted to help people and make a difference in the lives of those who were suffering. Medicine became the obvious choice for me as I always thrived on forming relationships with people, which naturally transitioned into working with patients who are severely psychiatrically ill and need the most help. Psychiatry has always felt like a calling for me, and working with our most severely ill community members has deepened that sense of purpose even further, and become a calling within a calling.

Q: How has your work impacted your life?

A: Despite the stress it can cause, I love my work because it’s very personally fulfilling. Supporting people who suffer from, in my opinion, the worst possible illnesses is a very humbling and inspiring experience. My clients have taught me so much about resilience, fortitude, and what it means to be compassionate.

Q: If you could inform a broad audience about your work, what would you share?

A: I would like people to know how fulfilling it can be to do this work. One aspect of my career that I’m grateful for is helping those people with a psychotic illness and showing them that they matter, and that they have an ally who is going to work with them to make things better. This is also a mutual relationship and I would say our clients give me as much as I could ever give them in terms of their daily courage and humanity.

I hope the public learns more about psychiatric illnesses and substance use disorders. If you don’t suffer from these illnesses, it’s difficult to understand the reality of them. I believe the more we share about these disorders, the more people will empathize and have compassion for those in our community who endure unspeakable suffering and are struggling with their mental health.

To read more about Dr. Cotter’s impactful work to improve the lives of community members, check out her PSBJ Health Care Hero award write-up: https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/c/health-care-heroes-2024/25534/health-care-heroes-leslie-cotter.html?b=1720817586%5E22421375

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