Bridgehaven Center for Peer Excellence

Charlene McAndrews is a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner currently working at Bridgehaven Mental Health. She started her position at Bridgehaven 15 years ago and has been in the mental health field for over 25 years. Charlene graduated from Indiana University with a BS in Nursing in 1980 and started her career in pediatrics, not psychiatry. She was drawn into the field of mental health through personal experience with mental illness as well as family experiences witnessing access to care that was limited and often plagued with stigma. Charlene received her Master’s in Community Health with emphasis on Community Mental Health from Indiana University in 2008 and a Masters in Psychiatric Nursing in 2015. She taught psychiatric nursing at Ivy Tech College in Indiana as well as Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. She worked as a prescriber for 3 years and learned valuable tools to apply to the use of medications in conjunction with therapy for mental health recovery. Charlene believes in looking at the whole person (mind, body and spirit) to invite balanced recovery. She believes recovery is rooted in finding what works for each unique individual. Charlene enjoys working in her garden, riding her bicycle, walking to the farmers market, trying out new recipes and hanging out with her 4 children and 2 grandchildren whenever possible. She and her husband Dennis have been married for 42 years and live in Jeffersonville, Indiana.