Relief Mental Health aims to help people ‘grow and heal’ in Rockford

Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — When Relief Mental Health charted a course for growth about two years ago, it identified Rockford as a city in need of more mental health services.

The company started in Oak Brook in January 2020 with a focus on providing transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, which is designed to help people who haven’t seen results from antidepressants or other traditional treatments.

It now has 10 locations and has been in Rockford for more than a year, at 1641 N. Alpine Road, suite 207, inside the Edgebrook shopping center. And it’s added more options for patients, including SPRAVATO intranasal esketamine.

“We identified Rockford as kind of a treatment desert, where there really weren’t a lot of options,” said Susan Mueller, founder and CEO of Relief Mental Health. “Our clinic has definitely grown in the past couple of years. We’ve been able to treat people who otherwise wouldn’t have had a place to grow and heal.”

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TMS uses electromagnets to send targeted magnetic waves to stimulate nerve cells in the brain as a treatment for depression. It was approved by the FDA in 2008 for major depressive disorders.

“It’s changing your brain. It’s correcting neural pathways that may be disrupted,” Mueller said. “It’s actually correcting those pathways in your brain.”

Multiple clinical trials have shown the procedure is successful at treating depression, although the success rate varies by study.

“Our company sees a success rate of about 85-90%,” Mueller said.

Success refers to a patient experiencing a reduction in their symptoms at a rate of 50% or more.

Mueller attributes the high success rate to a combination of the frequency at which their doctor checks-in with patients and adjusts care if necessary, and the ability to combine TMS with intranasal esketamine, which is the psychedelic approved by the FDA for mental health treatment.

“The combination of the two is a slam dunk when it comes to treating patients with depression,” Mueller said. “We have about a 90-95% success rate there.”

How it works

Patients typically undergo a 20-minute daily treatment five days a week for six weeks. After that, treatment is tapered down to three, two and finally once per week for a total of nine weeks.

Continued therapy is encouraged after treatment, and Relief Mental Health offers therapy in-house or works to coordinate patients with outside providers.

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TMS is covered by most major insurance companies, Medicare and Tricare. It’s also FDA approved to treat obsessive compulsive disorder.

“It’s very low cost to the patient. It’s accessible,” Mueller said. “We can usually get patients in within a couple of days of their first phone call, which is amazing. A lot of mental health providers can’t do that, their waitlists are so long.”

Patient directed

Relief Mental Health offers appointments before and after a typical 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. work schedule so that patients can fit care around their life, Mueller said.

“Everything we’ve ever done has been patient directed,” she said. “Mental health does not wait. We’re going to figure out a way to get people into care as quickly as possible and to find the best way to treat them.”

Earlier this year, a group of health care organizations, nonprofits and other institutions joined together to format a strategy to meet the region’s long-term mental health needs. Mueller said she had the opportunity to talk to Mayor Tom McNamara about the initiative at a recent open house the company held.

“Getting a chance to talk to him and really hearing about the real issues and the crisis in Rockford,” she said, “It makes me feel even better that we went out to Rockford.”

About | Relief Mental Health

Where: 1641 N. Alpine Road, suite 207, Rockford

Services: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), SPRAVATO (esketamine) psychedelic, therapy

Contact: 855-205-4764; info@reliefmh.com; reliefmh.com