Melissa J. Henke, MD, currently serves as Medical Director for the North Dakota Professional Health Program, along with serving as Medical Director for the Heartview Foundation, and as a Psychiatric Consultant for Henke Psychiatric Services.
North Dakota Professional Health Program, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit entity. The purpose of the Corporation is to address the potentially impairing health conditions of physicians and physician assistants and students whose ability to practice is diminished due to chemical dependency, substance abuse, psychiatric illness, or problems associated with the process of aging. This includes assisting physicians and physician assistants and students with obtaining the drug, alcohol, mental health, and other treatment they need to maintain their license and return to practice.
The ND Professional Health Program, Inc. is a voluntary, confidential, non-disciplinary monitoring program to support licensees of the ND Board of Medicine and UND School of Medicine students experiencing substance use or mental health problems. The program is designed to encourage health professionals to seek a recovery program before their condition harms a patient or damages their careers.
The NDPHP was created by legislative action through Legislation in 2014 and written into Century Code 43-17.3 North Dakota Century Code t43c17.3 (ndlegis.gov)
Melissa J. Henke, MD, currently serves as Medical Director for the North Dakota Professional Health Program, along with serving as Medical Director for the Heartview Foundation, and as a Psychiatric Consultant for Henke Psychiatric Services.
Dr. Henke is Board Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and the American Board of Preventive Medicine in Addiction Medicine. Her professional affiliations include the American College of Physicians, the North Dakota Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the North Dakota Psychiatric Society.
Dr. Henke was appointed as Assistant Professor of Clinical Neuroscience at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She also serves as a Board Member of The Banquet and as an Advisory Council Member of North Dakota Recovery Reinvented.
Dr. Henke previously worked at Sanford Bismarck Health Systems as a Staff Psychiatrist.
Dr. Henke received her Doctor of Medicine from the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences and completed her residency in Combined Internal Medicine and Psychiatry from the University of Kansas Medical Center, where she was Chief Resident for the Department of Psychiatry.
Thomasine Heitkamp is a licensed clinical social worker in North Dakota and Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor at the University of North Dakota. She has an MSW from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and has been employed as an academic at the University of North Dakota for the past forty years. Her background includes administering a regional multi-state addiction (ATTC) and mental health (MHTTC) training and technical assistance unit. She has published on evidence-based practices in addiction and mental health in peer-reviewed journals. She has authored toolkits on professional well-being and is an advocate for rural treatment providers. She has many years of administrative and grant experience including serving as an Associate Provost at the University of North Dakota.
Randy Perkins graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Ft. Lewis College in Durango, Colo., a nursing degree from Jamestown College, and a master’s degree from the University of North Dakota.
Randy is a Family Nurse Practitioner at Jamestown Regional Medical Center’s Wound Clinic and Physician Assistant in general medicine at James River Correctional Center. He was previously a Physician Assistant and Family Nurse Practitioner for the North Dakota State Hospital and a Physician Assistant for Jamestown Dakota (Essentia) Clinic.
Randy formerly served as a board member for the North Dakota Academy of Physician Assistants (NDAPA) and was committee chair for the NDAPA Impairment Committee.
Julie Ann Blehm received a bachelor’s degree in biology at Concordia College and attended the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences (UNDSMHS). She completed her years of residency at the UNDSMHS IM residency program at St. Luke’s Hospital and at the University of Iowa Affiliated internal medicine residency program at Iowa Methodist Medical Center.
She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics and is a Fellow in the American College of Physicians. Julie is currently employed as Senior Medical Director at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota. Her previous positions include Department Chair of Clinic Internal Medicine at Sanford Health for nine years, Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Continuity Clinic, and Associate Dean of the SE campus of UNDSMHS. She recently finished a four-year term as governor of the North Dakota chapter of the American College of Physicians and still serves on the national Medical Practice and Quality Committee and the Volunteerism Committee.
Her community activities include serving as Chair of the ND Museum of Art Board of Directors, part of the executive committee of the Cass-Clay YMCA, Chairman of the current capital campaign at the YMCA, member of the F-M Symphony Board, member of the ND American Foundation for the Prevention of Suicide Board, and member of the Concordia College National Alumni Board. She serves as Vice-Chair of the ND Special Olympics Board of Directors and was a member of the medical team for Team USA in the Special Olympics World Games of 2013. This year she is also part of the medical team for Team USA for the summer World Games.
Lance Schreiner is a founding member of the North Dakota Physician Health Program. Lance has been a litigation specialist defending physicians and representing hospitals throughout North Dakota, his home state, for more than 30 years and enjoys the challenge of litigating cases that require an in-depth knowledge of both the law and medicine. He obtained a political science degree from the University of Texas Arlington and graduated from the University of North Dakota School of Law, with distinction, in 1979. He joined Zuger Kirmis & Smith in 1981 and has since tried more than 50 jury cases. His work has been commended in several national publications including a preeminent AV rating by the nation’s leading legal peer review publication, Martindale-Hubbell, and has been named in Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers of the Midwest since the inception of those publications. Lance is an advocate for at-risk youth in his community and serves on the Board of Directors of Charles Hall Youth Services, a non-profit foster care agency in Bismarck, as well as the Heartview Foundation, a non-profit alcohol and drug treatment program.
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Up to 20% of Healthcare providers will be affected by a mental illness or substance use disorder during their lifetime.