T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA The staff of the St. Clairsville location of Autumn Behavioral Health includes, from left, Johanna DeGenova, Cinda Marley, Robyn Thomas, Dr. Pavan Venkata, Kayla Lemunyon, Michele Goodson, Judi Stevey, Danita Wilson and Abby Witsberger.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Autumn Behavioral Health opened its doors at a new location in Plaza West in St. Clairsville on Tuesday.

In December, Crossroads Counseling Service closed, resulting in the staff being unemployed and the patients going without service. Autumn Behavioral Health was contacted about possibly moving into the Ohio Valley as a replacement of sorts, absorbing a lot of the former Crossroads staff.

Autumn Behavioral Health has nine locations around the state of Ohio and is based out of Columbus. Board-certified psychiatrist Dr. Pavan Venkata offers a wide variety of mental health and recovery options.

The St. Clairsville site plans to eventually offer a residential treatment program.

“There’s a big need for the recovering housing, so in the next few months once everything settles down with our outpatient, that is our next step,” Venkata said.

He added that Autumn Behavioral Health offers both mental health and chemical dependency substance abuse programs.

“How we are unique is that we are very big on mental health. We understand that unless we treat the underlying mental health problems, we cannot address the chemical dependency issues,” he said.

The St. Clairsville location has three board-certified psychiatrists and three nurse practitioners who are also able to prescribe medication. Venkata said Autumn Behavioral Health believes in the Biocycle Social Model, which is “an approach to understanding mental and physical health through a multi-systems lens, understanding the influence of biology, psychology and social environment. Dr. George Engel and Dr. John Romano developed this model in the 1970s but the concept of this has existed in medicine for centuries,” according to verywellmind.com.

Venkata said, “I understand that there are some substance use programs like prescribing medications indiscreetly that will be adding more to the problem and becoming a part of the problem instead of becoming a part of the solution. We see some programs where Suboxone is being prescribed without any monitoring indiscreetly.”

He added that he believes in counseling while also prescribing medications, but only if needed.

“All treatments are individualized, it’s not like one treatment fits everybody,”

Venkata said.

Autumn Behavioral Health offers individual counseling, group counseling, medication-assisted counseling, intensive outpatient treatment, case management and multiple other options and is now available for appointments by calling the St. Clairsville location at 740-895-5064. The facility is located at 107 Plaza Drive, Suite B. St. Clairsville.