North Valley Hospital receives award for community partnership

North Valley Hospital has invested significant time and dollars in supporting efforts to curb suicide and address mental health issues in our community. For the past two years North Valley Hospital has partnered with the Nate Chute Foundation to reduce the suicide rate in our community. The Montana Hospital Association recently awarded North Valley Hospital with their “Community Partnership Award” at their annual conference, held virtually Oct. 5-9.

North Valley Hospital was one of 11 nominees from around the state nominated for this award. The criteria focused on projects that demonstrated community need and commitment of resources to that need. Leadership and creativity, with a measurable impact were also part of the judging process.

While North Valley Hospital is equipped to handle the health support for suicide, the Nate Chute Foundation well positioned to reach the community’s youth and other at risk populations through education and outreach.

The Nate Chute Foundation was founded in 1999 following the suicide death of 18-year-old Nate Chute, a graduate of Whitefish High School. The idea came from his friends who wanted to make sure that such a tragedy would not happen again. Their passion, along with Terry Chute and Jane Kollmeyer, and drive to create the Nate Chute Foundation, is currently led by Executive Director Kacy Howard. Its mission to educate, intervene and provide follow up services for the community around suicide and its multitude of impacts.

In 2019, North Valley Hospital, through the support of its Foundation, began its partnership with the Nate Chute Foundation with a $62,500 donation, allowing the Nate Chute Foundation to hire staff and further develop resources and training materials. In June 2020 the hospital awarded the organization with $62,750.

North Valley Hospital’s Foundation Board of Directors and community volunteers under the leadership of Foundation Executive Director Alan Satterlee have took on the goal of raising funds for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and suicide prevention in collaboration with the Nate Chute Foundation. Thanks to Dr. Doug Muir and North Valley Behavioral Health for having the foresight to propose, advocate for, and implement the groundbreaking new treatment for adults suffering from severe depression and to North Valley Hospital’s Foundation for successfully raising more than $380,000 to not only accomplish their goals, but to form a five-year alliance to fund the efforts of the NCF in the community.

“We thank the generous donors who stepped up with multi-year financial commitments to fund this important work,” Satterless said. “Financing important public health initiatives that tend not to be reimbursable from traditional insurance sources often require support from the philanthropic community. We are blessed to have that generosity and foresight with donors right here in our North Valley Hospital family.”

We honor the loss of all those who have died by suicide and those left behind who deal with the guilt, unanswered questions, grief and loss that is hard to fathom. The Nate Chute Foundation is an incredible community organization more empowered than ever thanks to its collaboration with North Valley Hospital.

North Valley Hospital CEO Kevin Abel said of the award, “We are honored to receive the recognition from the Montana Hospital Association and will continue to collaborate with others in the community that share in our mission and our goals.”

Riley Polumbus is the Marketing and Community Relations Manager at North Valle