![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Alyssa-Putman-at-Ridge-BH-8-27-15.jpg\")
<\/a>Putman, a Van Wert County native and graduate of Crestview High School — where she played on a state championship softball team — has just two weeks under her belt in her new administrative role at Ridgeview, a 66-bed mental health treatment facility located on Lincoln Highway near Middle Point.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s quick to point out, though, that her background and education, as well as the mentoring of her former boss, Pat Tracy, have prepared her to take on the responsibilities of operating the local residential mental health treatment facility.<\/p>\n
Putman, who has a bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology, as well as an MBA and a master\u2019s degree in healthcare administration, said Ridgeview was a perfect fit for what she wanted to do as a career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I wanted to be in management, and I first thought I wanted to be in nursing homes,\u201d Putman said, adding that she spent some time in community healthcare-hospice, \u201cbut I later decided it wasn\u2019t a good fit.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when she decided to apply at Ridgeview, which was then seeking employees to staff the local facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fell in love with the place, and with the patients we service,\u201d she said of the hospital, which provides short-term residential care to people dealing with mental health issues, often with co-occurring chemical addictions. \u201cThat mental health field was intriguing to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ridgeview is basically a transitional facility that provides short-term intervention care for patients who need immediate inpatient mental health treatment. The typical stay at Ridgeview is typically 20-30 days, longer than the average of five days someone might spend in a hospital psych ward, but less than a long-term residential facility.<\/p>\n
Patients are treated for a variety of mental health issues, including bi-polarism, depression and schizophrenia, as well as for co-occurring substance abuse problems that often come with mental illness.<\/p>\n
“Mental health patients often try to self-medicate,” Putman said.<\/p>\n
After seeing what was happening at Ridgeview, Putman said she was excited about the opportunity the facility provided to help what she called an underserved population that often had nowhere else to turn.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust becoming that voice that a lot of our patients don\u2019t really have for themselves, to be the advocate for those who are suffering from psychiatric illness,\u201d she said. \u201cJust being able to provide that opportunity to be that light of hope, that ray of hope for somebody that everybody has turned their back on, that really means a lot to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also commended the staff at Ridgeview for its compassionate care of the facility\u2019s patients, noting that staff members have also made her transition into the administrator\u2019s position much easier.<\/p>\n
Putman first became director of human resources at Ridgeview in 2013, and later was promoted to assistant administrator in July 2014 following completion of her healthcare administration degree. She noted that Tracy, who was promoted to a regional position with Oglethorpe Inc., Ridgeview\u2019s Florida-based parent company, spent the past year training her to move into the administrator\u2019s position when he left.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe mentored me, but neither of us thought (her becoming administrator) would come this soon,\u201d Putman noted.<\/p>\n
Her new duties include overseeing administration of Ridgeview, as well as ensuring that the facility complies with any and all regulations.<\/p>\n
While the transition is going smoothly, Putman said there are plenty of challenges ahead for both her and Ridgeview, which is currently completing facility enhancements to become an 84-bed facility — a project the new administrator said should be completed by October 1.<\/p>\n
Completion of the project should also mean the addition of approximately 50 new employees to the current staff of 231, bringing the total employment to nearly 300.<\/p>\n
While Putman said she is looking forward to seeing the project completed, she also added, with a laugh: \u201cThe last two weeks have probably aged me 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor When you first meet her, Alyssa Putman seems a little young to be heading an organization that has grown to be one of Van Wert County\u2019s largest employers. After talking to her, though, it\u2019s easy to see that the 26-year-old not only has the training, but the passion needed to be the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 03:00:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}