Autumn Life Gains New Director of Behavioral Services

EDMOND – Curtis W. Rawls, M.S., L.P.C., has joined the multidisciplinary healthcare team at Autumn Life Center as director of Behavioral Services. Housed within OU Medical Center Edmond, Autumn Life Center offers inpatient behavioral health programs for senior adults.

A licensed professional counselor with a master’s degree in human resource counseling, Rawls’ educational background also includes sociology and criminal justice. He comes to Autumn Life from McAlester Regional Health Center, where he held a similar post with Signet Health.

Rawls has specific expertise with mental/behavioral health in community and rural settings across the state. In addition to proven administrative and management skills, Rawls specializes in assessment and evaluation; individual, family and group therapies; crisis management and intervention; and adolescent and geriatric acute psychiatric care.

“One of my goals is to encourage deeper understanding that mental and physical health needs aren’t mutually exclusive, but rather coincide greatly,” Rawls said. “We have a unique capacity to treat the mental health needs of our aging population. Currently, we offer inpatient and intensive outpatient resources to treat and stabilize people 55 years of age and older. Eventually, we hope to offer a full continuum of mental health care that affords the benefits of other available treatment options unique to senior adults, such as our senior clinic at OU Medical Center Edmond.”

Autumn Life Center for Geriatric Behavioral Health offers specialized senior behavioral health care focusing on diagnosis, stabilization and treatment using individualized treatment in a dedicated setting while having full access to the medical care of OU Medical Center Edmond. The 17-bed unit is located on its own floor within the hospital to assure privacy, confidentiality and comfort. For more information, call

(855)-625-1680.

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OU MEDICAL CENTER EDMOND

A cornerstone of the Edmond community for more than 70 years, OU Medical Center Edmond is a full-service community hospital offering a direct connection to the knowledge and resources of the state’s only comprehensive academic hospital. The facility offers patients clinical excellence in services ranging from emergency care to surgical procedures. Outpatient services include cutting-edge diagnostic imaging, a cardiac catheterization lab and outpatient physical rehabilitation programs. The Autumn Life Center for Geriatric Behavioral Health is Edmond’s only inpatient behavioral health program and is recognized for its innovative therapy programs. For more information, visit oumedicine.com/edmond.

OU MEDICINE

OU Health — along with its academic partner, the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center — is the state’s only comprehensive academic health system of hospitals, clinics and centers of excellence. With 11,000 employees and more than 1,300 physicians and advanced practice providers, OU Health is home to Oklahoma’s largest physician network with a complete range of specialty care. OU Health serves Oklahoma and the region with the state’s only freestanding children’s hospital, the only National Cancer Institute-Designated Stephenson Cancer Center and Oklahoma’s flagship hospital, which serves as the state’s only Level 1 trauma center. OU Health is the No. 1 ranked hospital system in Oklahoma, and its oncology program at Stephenson Cancer Center and OU Medical Center ranked in the Top 50 in the nation, in the 2019-2020 rankings released by U.S. News & World Report. OU Health was also ranked by U.S. News & World Report as high performing in four specialties: Ophthalmology in partnership with Dean McGee Eye Institute, Colon Surgery, COPD and Congestive Heart Failure. OU Health’s mission is to lead healthcare in patient care, education and research. To learn more, visit oumedicine.com.