Meet Mercedes

“This kind of job is perfect for trying different things.” LPCC Mercedes B. said. “The ability to get
involved made me a better therapist.”

In 2017 Mercedes B. started working at Centennial Peaks Hospital. She started as a Mental
Health Tech on the evening shift trying to help people get back to their lives. After 8 months of
showing leadership on the floor, Mercedes joined the Patient Management Leadership team.
The PML team responds to crises in inpatient units and ensures patient safety.

“I have a passion for ethics in mental health. We work with people when they are at their most
vulnerable.” Mercedes showed her passion by joining similarly-minded staff in process
improvement meetings on hospital safety. “I spoke up and tried to figure out ways to be more
efficient and safe. Leadership was receptive to different ideas and how we could be better.”
Safety is the number one priority at a hospital at all times, this means continuing education and
constant training for all staff. In 2018 when Centennial Peaks transitioned to a new crisis
intervention model, Mercedes was approached to help facilitate hospital-wide training. She
helped train existing staff and helped facilitate getting new employees trained.

“I really felt like we had an impact on the staff during training. Besides training everyone to be
safe, I tried to foster the optimism that new staff bring to all situations.” Mercedes also said
Centennial Peak’s introduction of the Mental Health Tech career ladder helped her grow in her
position and continue to take on responsibility in her role. “The career ladder gave me the ability
to get involved and gave me experiences that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.”

In Fall of 2018 Mercedes went back to school to get her Masters in Counseling. “If I didn’t have
the support system here, I wouldn’t have been able to switch shifts.” She said everyone was
rooting for her!

Fast forward to May 2021, Mercedes graduated and is now working as a therapist in our
Intensive Outpatient Program. Mercedes says that she looks forward to more hands-on work in
her new role. “There are lots of directions you can go in the mental health field. Centennial
Peaks allowed me to find what I wanted to do and supported those choices.