Paula D. Beard, MA, MSW, RSW
As the owner and director of River Valley Mental Health Inc., Paula brings over 25 years of experience in various healthcare environments to her therapy and consulting practice that serves individual and organizational clients in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and abroad.
She has a Master of Arts in health leadership and a Master of Social Work with a clinical specialization. Paula has a general therapy practice and supports people experiencing grief, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and substance use disorder. She also has a special interest in operational stress injuries impacting healthcare providers, paramedics, dispatch and call-takers, police and firefighters.
Before opening her therapy and consulting practice, Paula spent years in leadership roles in patient safety at the federal and provincial levels. This included leading pan-Canadian and international efforts related to recognizing, responding to, and reducing harm from patient safety incidents including support for Global Patient Safety Alerts, disclosure, and incident analysis.
Her clinical background includes two years as a social worker and therapist and 18 years as an advanced care paramedic which helps inform her work supporting the mental health of emergency services and other medical professionals.