Unalaska, AK – Iliuliuk Family & Health Services is in the process of conducting a staff overhaul of their behavioral health services.

Edwin Feraco, the director of behavioral health services, will be leaving the clinic on March 25, after offering his resignation last week. This leaves the clinic temporarily without behavioral health specialists, as IFHS looks for replacements for both the director and clinician positions.

Sonia Handforth-Kome is the executive director of the clinic, and she says that medical staff will be assisting the department during this interim period.

"Because we have an integrated service, our medical clinicians also handle behavioral health issues from the medical side," says Handforth-Kome. "They have been working with behavioral health pretty extensively over the years, so we hope to keep the disruption to a minimum."

She adds that the clinic is more focused on finding permanent replacements than filling behavioral health services with temporary staff members because of the importance of establishing long-term relationships when treating mental health issues.

The staff overhaul of behavioral health services comes a week after a board meeting where multiple members of the public registered formal complaints about the direction and management of the department. The complaints primarily focused on Feraco's lack of an Alaska license.

Meanwhile, the IFHS board of directors has also launched its search for a new executive director. Handforth-Kome will be leaving the clinic at the end of September, and the board held a special meeting on Friday to discuss the transition process and how recruitment efforts will proceed. At that meeting, a committee focused on the transition was established, and board member Frank Kelty was selected as its head.