The (new) doctor is in

With decades of knowledge and experience, Dr. Derek Trapasso steps into the role of Exeter’s medical director to start the 2024-25 school year. A graduate of Albany Medical School, Dr. Trapasso has worked for several renowned hospital systems in greater Boston and the Seacoast of New Hampshire with stops at Mass General, Wentworth-Douglas Hospital and Exeter Hospital, where he started the pediatric care program. A month into the school year, we sat down with Dr. Trapasso to learn more about his approach to caring for the students of Exeter.

What types of health and wellness services does Exeter provide for its students?

It’s really amazing the work that comes out of the Lamont Health and Wellness Center in that we really provide four different services. We have a team of mid-level providers, two physician assistants and a nurse practitioner. Their care ranges from illnesses and injuries to a lot of the primary care that you might get out of your pediatrician or your family practitioner’s office. You then have the entire Counseling and Psychological Services program upstairs on the third floor and all the amazing work that they do. The athletic training department is part of the health center and then also a nutrition program led by a registered dietician. So we’ve got four amazing services that are all coming out of this one building.

How do all those services work together?

When I think about what it means to be healthy, I believe that there’s sort of three fundamental pieces to that. There is your physical health, your mental health, and your emotional health. And it’s so amazing that here at the health center we can address all three of those things. I liken it to a three-legged stool, when all of those legs are in balance, the stool is incredibly strong. When one of those three things is out of balance, that’s when the stool topples over. We’re here to be able to support students in all three of those things.

Tell me about the working relationship with Exeter Hospital should a student need care beyond the on-campus health center?

It’s really important for the medical director to have a relationship with the local hospital where the students are going to go should they need it. One of the nice things is not only am I the medical director here, but I’m also on staff at Exeter Hospital. When we have patients that need the emergency department or when we’ve had students that have been admitted, I can go and see them in the hospital. We have access to the medical record here, and so we can know exactly what’s going on. That close relationship between the health center and the hospital allows our patients to receive seamless care.

How do you keep parents informed of the care their child is receiving?

We entrust our students with a lot of responsibility when they come here and part of that is being accountable for their own health and wellness. So we do ask for a certain amount of independence from our students to be able to come here and to get care and to know when they need to ask for help. But at the same time, we also need to keep parents informed. So we balance that independence of our students while also making sure our parents are well-informed. It’s part of the growth experience that happens here. Not only are the students growing from the academic standpoint, but they’re learning how to transition into adulthood and how to take more responsibility, more ownership for themselves.

Any parting thoughts?

I think it’s important to know that we’re here to support students in whatever way they need. I think it’s also important for them to know that the health center is staffed, open and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, whenever there are students on campus. Parents should know that if they have questions, they can reach out to us by phone or email. Parents are entrusting us with their kids, sometimes from down the street or sometimes around the globe and we’re here to take good care of them.