STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Susanne Choby’s last ski run down Baldy at the end of the day did not end well. Tired, she fell right in front of the River Run Lodge, tearing her ACL.

But the trip to the hospital on that fateful day in March only strengthened her resolve that she wanted to be part of the Sun Valley community, as a woman she’d just met followed her to her car to get her insurance card then accompanied her to St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center.

Now, Choby is back, primed to take over on May 1 as the new psychiatrist at St. Luke’s Wood River Mental Health Clinic in Hailey.

Choby, who will work with late teens and adults, comes from West Virginia where she had a private practice and was an inpatient psychiatrist at Highland-Clarksburg Hospital.

“I was astonished at the friendliness in this community,” said Choby. “What stands out here is the unwavering kindness to outsiders, insiders and passersby.”

Choby, who will turn 40 in August, took up skiing a few years ago, and that’s part of what led her to the Wood River Valley.

She began assessing communities that she thought she would enjoy living in two years ago. She rated them based on community, outdoor and other activities, as well as demographics regarding schools, tax base and the median age of the population.

Jackson, Wyo., was not affordable. But she found Hailey met her criteria, as did Portland and Bend, Ore., a few towns north of Seattle and a couple towns in Montana.

When psychiatrist Tim Stoddard left to return to Coeur d’Alene in September 2016, she knew she’d found her match—particularly since everyone she asked said they would love to live in Sun Valley if they could.

“I was looking for the best kept secret,” she said. “It’s beautiful here and everything is world-class. The lodge is like Disneyland--breathtaking, everything perfect. But what really resonates with me is that this place is real. It has a certain level of authenticity. My first meal was at a Mexican restaurant on Main Street where I had a 20-minute conversation with a woman who works there and she was great, telling me what she liked about living here. It was my first inkling that this is a really cool place.”

Little surprises—finding out, for instance, that Sun Valley has a world-class arts and music scene—didn’t hurt. And Choby was taken with the variety of personalities, ranging from a young counterculture vibe to the classic self-reliant rancher Western personality.

“There are a lot of different voices speaking that blend into an amalgamation. It feels like a university town.”

Choby grew up in West Virginia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Illinois. She considered going into biomedical engineering in high school because her father was an engineer in the oil and gas industry. But the University of West Virginia, where she went on scholarship, didn’t offer that so she went into biology instead.

She became board certified in Internal Medicine, Psychiatry and Neurology, obtaining a fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry.

“Choosing a medical specialty is like choosing a spouse. They say, ‘You’ll just know,’ ” said Choby. “I like the analytical puzzle solving skills involved in medicine. There’s always a question to be answered. But I also like the fact that I can use my personal communication skills in psychiatry. Psychiatry allows me more time to connect to my patients. And at the end of the day I might be able to say, ‘Hey, I helped make someone’s life a little better.’ ”

As a forensic psychiatrist, Choby diagnoses whether someone is competent to stand trial. She’s also worked in quite workman’s compensation cases involving steel mill workers and coal miners who have suffered PTSD, or debilitating anxieties related to cave-ins and other work-related accidents.

She spoke at a White House roundtable discussion with President Barack Obama and HHS Secretary Silvia Matthews Burwell in February 2015 regarding the impact of the Affordable Care Act on uninsured and underinsured patients in Appalachia.

“I’m excited by the new breakthroughs with new anti-depressants and other medications, as well as precision medicine that is developing better ways to predict which medications will help individual people,” she said.

Once Choby gets her knee fixed, she plans to throw herself into hiking, mountain biking, standup paddle board and Nordic and telemark skiing.

She’s looking forward to the symphony. A pianist, she recently took up the violin.

“I love music and the violin is more portable than a grand piano!” she said.

She gets on reading streaks where she will read every book she can find about a certain subject, such as World War II or Henry VIII. Then she’ll reread “Catch 22” and other classics she read in high school. And she loves to try cooking different ethnic dishes, from Thai to Indian

She doesn’t have a TV—she’s been too busy working on home renovations, landscaping and gardening projects. And she stopped going to the movies in West Virginia because the large theaters there were too chaotic.

“But I drove by the theater here and I can’t wait to go to the movies again. I’m also looking forward to the film festival,” she said.

Improving mental health and reducing suicide and substance abuse ranked among the top three priorities in St. Luke’s Wood River’s recent Community Health Needs Assessment. And St. Luke’s Clinic-Mental Health Services has been well used, treating more than a thousand clients since it opened in 2013.

Having someone of Dr. Choby’s caliber helps reinforce St. Luke’s commitment to addressing the community’s needs, said Cody Langbehn, St. Luke’s Wood River’s administrator.

“I like the fact that she doesn’t fit the stereotype of a psychiatrist,” he said. “She’s outgoing, friendly, very straight forward and honest. She’s easy to like.”

“Her expertise and compassion are evident the moment you meet her,” added Erin Pfaeffle, manager of St. Luke’s Clinic-Mental Health Services. “She speaks Spanish. She’s coming to us from rural West Virginia so she understands rural medicine. And she has a lot of experience with chronic pain management.”

Pfaeffle said donor support through the St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation has helped make mental health services possible.

And Choby praised the level of community support she has seen in the valley.

“There was a lot of stigma regarding mental health in West Virginia. Seeking treatment was considered shameful, not to be talked about, not a legitimate medical problem. When you have community support, it makes robust mental health treatment so much easier.”

One in five people deal with anxiety disorders, she noted. Many of those who take antidepressants feel ashamed—that they’re a failure.

“As a doctor, I look at it as just another illness,” she said. “The only thing any of us can do is e open, nonjudgmental and compassionate with one another.”

For more information regarding the services, call 208-727-8733.

DID YOU KNOW?

Idaho has one of the highest percentages—23.3 percent—of mental illness in the nation. Its suicide rates are also consistently higher than the national average.

The percentage of Wood River Valley residents who report using illicit drugs is twice that of Idaho as a whole.

Depression is the most common type of mental illness, affecting more than 26 percent of the U.S. adult population. Depression is projected to be the second leading cause of disability throughout the world by 2020.