Sara Bennett is a board-certified Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. For the past two years, she has served as a Behavioral Health Nurse Practitioner for Wayspring, based in Louisville. Before Wayspring, Sara’s career included providing therapy and mental health services for families who were involved in the foster care system.
Sara believes supporting mental health is mission critical to the recovery journey.
“I would say the most impactful aspects of recovery actually have less to do with substance use and more to do with mental and emotional changes patients can make to be involved in life in a more fulfilling way,” she said.
In addition to completing initial evaluations for new Wayspring patients, Sara also conducts monthly sessions with individuals through a combination of telehealth and in-clinic visits. Sara specializes in addressing mental health issues, helping patients manage depression and anxiety, as well as maintaining a positive mindset toward recovery and working through old habits, trauma, and life circumstances that are challenging their sobriety.
Sara is part of a broader team that considers the full scope of each patient’s situation. During regular huddles with other Wayspring colleagues, each patient’s needs are discussed and addressed. For instance, when an individual expresses SDoH-related challenges such as housing, transportation, or food insecurity, Sara ensures Wayspring’s outreach and engagement team is following up to identify solutions and resources.
This work is personal for Sara. She is in recovery from alcoholism and has lost several family members to substance use, including her brother. Sara routinely calls on the pain from her own past to connect with the patients she sees on a daily basis.
“My own recovery process gives me more credibility with patients,” she said. “There are times when sharing an experience from my past is relevant and helpful. Patients are surprised that I come from that place of understanding. It takes down a wall. These conversations aren’t as much about the problem we both share, as they are about the solution that changed my circumstances and now is being presented to them as well.”
Sara is quick to point out that while the work she does is important and transformational, we should also be commending patients for their part in successful recovery.
“You can make the same resources available to ten different people, but the people who succeed are the ones willing to participate,” she explained. “Their ability to buy in and take action is just as important as anything we do as a team. It takes them and us together to succeed.”
One of Sara’s favorite things about Wayspring is the organization’s value-based care model. According to Sara, this model allows the team to fully align with community providers and collaborate without having to compete.
“Every provider in this space is trying to save people from dying from this disease and to give them the best possible chance at a stable, successful life,” she said. “Wayspring has the same mission. It’s so powerful when we can work side by side with facilities and physicians to care for the people who need us most.”