Alumni Spotlight: Robbin Cole

Robbin Cole spent the last day of her mental health career absorbing all she accomplished and why she chose to be a social worker decades ago. Retirement will do that.

She got her master’s degree from the KU School of Social Welfare in 1987, but Cole will tell you that she was chosen for this career path.

Cole’s first job after getting her Bachelor of Social Work from Kansas State was at Wharton Manor Nursing Home. An interaction with a psychiatrist from Pawnee Mental Health Services helped Cole realize this was the direction she wanted to go with work.

But mental health was prominent in Cole’s life far before then.

Cole’s father dealt with mental illness. She said he had a first episode of psychosis when he was stationed in Japan during the Korean War before he was married and had children. He had a recurrence of psychosis when Cole was in the eighth grade, she added.

“I think that I had that exposure and that experience, which I guess the seeds of that sort of laid dormant until I took that job at the nursing home and started to see the potential for a career in mental health,” Cole said. “It was at that point when I was at Wharton Manor nursing home that I decided to apply to graduate school at the University of Kansas.”

Mental health chose her

Cole’s father was already a cultural outsider when she was growing up in the United States. German was his first language and he was part of a pacifist Christian community called Hutterites, which Cole said were “similar to the Amish and Mennonites.”

Cole’s parents perceived the psychosis as a religious experience as opposed to mental illness. Cole now knows this was a health care problem, and used her MSW from KU School of Social Welfare to help her community for nearly 40 years.

“As I reflect back on my own career, I think in some ways a career in mental health picked me instead of me picking it,” Cole said.

Cole went straight to being an outpatient therapist with Pawnee Mental Health Services after receiving her master’s degree. She was there for five years before becoming the director of counseling and adoption services at Catholic Charities in Wichita.

“That was where I really had that opportunity to sort of cut my teeth when it came to providing supervision and direction for the delivery of services,” Cole said, adding that her time at Catholic Charities provided a wealth of experience.

After eight years with Catholic Charities, Cole spent two years as a clinical director at Mental Health Network before returning to Pawnee Mental Health Services, where she worked for over 22 years before retiring in April. She moved up from clinical director to eventually becoming chief executive officer in May 2006 and stayed in that role for nearly 18 years.

Addressing the stigma

A lot has changed in the mental health industry during Cole’s career.

The KU alumni said the stigma around mental health was much greater in the 1980s when she received her degree. Even in retirement, Cole wants society to be aware of this.

“We shouldn't think for one minute that it's gone, because it's not gone. There, there is still a stigma attached to mental illness,” Cole said. “And, and we have continuing work to do to address that. But it is so much better than it was when I first entered this field.”

Part of reflecting on her own career means Cole gets to talk about mental health. That could be her own family’s experiences, the memories she carries from different stages of her career or the opportunities she gained from the KU School of Social Welfare.

Every step made a difference for Cole. Her father’s German background helped Cole develop relationships with international students. She hosted seven different high school exchange students, ranging from Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Brazil and Palestine.

“When you know and love people who are in other countries, it impacts how you feel about the things that are happening in other countries," Cole said. “And it really gives you more of a sense of how small the world is.”

While Cole is quick to talk about all of the people who influenced her, she can now reflect on her own impact.