Lyn Wilson, who will take the helm at Valley Behavioral Health’s Tooele Clinic next week, is excited to come home.
The Tooele native actually started her career in mental health and the treatment of substance abuse at the Tooele VBH clinic 25 years ago before VBH took the clinic’s reins from the state.
The statewide nonprofit, which runs a chain of mental health clinics and services throughout Utah, had a vacancy when former Tooele Clinic director Alex Gonzales left in October to pursue other professional opportunities. The VBH selected Wilson to fill the position — a move Wilson said was a bit of a surprise.
She has, after all, spent the last five years directing programs for addicts in the Salt Lake County Jail.
Wilson said she believed VBH had made the unusual appointment because of her experience, both in terms of expertise, and number of years served.
“The staff here is great, they’re just new, just young,” she said. “So they needed an old lady.”
Though Wilson said she has done essentially the same thing her whole career, her professional life has taken a long, winding road to get to this point.
She initially didn’t plan to go into mental health services. When she finished her bachelor’s degree, she was a single mother on welfare. She had to choose a major the state would fund, so she went into child and family development, thinking she would work for the same social services that had given her the opportunity to transcend her circumstances.
But she didn’t get the job she applied for. Instead, her first job offer came from a substance abuse program — and, seeing few other alternatives, she took the position. Meanwhile, she applied for graduate school, and was placed on a waiting list. When she got tired of waiting, she said, she moved to Tooele and bought a daycare.
Wilson said she quickly recognized her mistake, sold the daycare, and took a job with Division of Child and Family Service, where she remained until a substance abuse counseling position opened at what would become the VBH Tooele Clinic. She has since gone on to earn a master’s degree in mental health counseling.
Substance abuse counseling just happened to be the perfect fit for her, Wilson said. Her father struggled with substance abuse, she said, and learning about the disorder and the ways it could be treated fascinated her.
“There was a lot of hope,” she said. “If people didn’t use, they functioned well.”
Wilson admitted her first reaction to her appointment was to rejoice at the unexpected reduction of her winter commute, but said she is also thrilled to be working in her hometown once again.
“You get that — even though Tooele Valley has grown — there’s still some of that real commitment to the community,” she said. “There’s a warmth, a true compassion here.”
Her goal for the Tooele Clinic is to maintain the clinic’s current high standards of care, keeping the clinic “right on the cutting edge, and growing where the need is,” she said. She’s eager to develop a new Continuity and Crisis Services Team that VBH announced at the same time it appointed Wilson, but she said her top priority is currently to work on filling vacancies in the clinic’s child services division, which she said is currently understaffed.
And from there, she said, she’ll set about familiarizing herself more thoroughly with the clinic, the community, and aspects of mental health treatment she’s never had much opportunity to work with before.
“I’m really excited,” she said, “because now I have a lot of new to learn.”