Cleveland location opened this past March
By Jennifer Minyard, The Bolivar Bullet
The mission at Ely Behavioral Health is to provide compassionate and personalized behavioral health services to individuals and families seeking brighter days. Cay Ely has been providing mental health services through her new clinic in Cleveland since its opening in March.
“I’m a psychiatric nurse practitioner and I see all age groups from five on up,” she said. “I diagnose every mental health diagnosis that there is – anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar, ADHD, PTSD, and OCD.”
Ely became a nurse practitioner 17 years ago after returning to school to start a new career.
“I was in pharmaceutical sales, and calling on psychiatrists, and got really interested in mental health,” she said. “I have a nursing background. I got my nursing degree and practiced as an oncology nurse. Then I got into sales, and then went back to school to get my master’s and become a psychiatric nurse practitioner. I’ve been doing it for about 18 years now.”
After working at Leland Medical Clinic, she opened her own clinic there. She would like to expand to other areas of the Delta, but has no definitive plans as to when or where.
“As an independent contractor, I’ve always been an independent contractor, and I just saw a need for these clinics,” she said. “I’m in Cleveland on Mondays and Tuesdays, and I’m in Leland on Wednesdays and Thursdays. And then I try to do just telehealth on Fridays.”
The need for mental health services has been on the rise in the past few years, especially among teens.
“I think that there’s just an increasing amount of anxiety and depression among adolescents. It kind of exploded for different reasons with COVID, social media, et cetera” said Ely. “There’s such a need, and we are hoping to hire a therapist, too. I refer out for therapy, but we’d like to get the therapist in with us.
“We really hope to reduce the stigma associated with seeking help for depression or anxiety or anything like that. Your mental health is as important as your physical health,” she said.
Ely Behavioral Clinic is located at 213 N. Pearman Ave. and is open from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. They accept all insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid.