A Profound Impact on Mental Health with Dr. Robert Arnio
Perhaps it is innate, or more likely because Dr. Robert Arnio was born the seventh of 11 children into a Lead/Deadwood logging family, that he has always gone out of his way to help others. Learning how to be responsible for himself while contributing to the good of others were values he learned early in life through observation.
Dr. Robert Arnio was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 2023 for his contributions to the betterment of mental healthcare across South Dakota. South Dakota Hall of Fame board member and 2015 Inductee Ann McKay Thompson sat down with Dr. Arnio to discuss the ways in which he has championed excellence in South Dakota.
After marrying his high school sweetheart Janice, he worked nights in the Homestake Mine to put himself through his undergraduate studies. Dr. Arnio shared that a challenge he faced early on in life was a perception that college was not an option for him, coming from a large family in the logging industry.
“Coming from a working-class family, I didn’t expect or plan to go to college, but my girlfriend, now wife of 56 years, encouraged me to go to college.” shared Dr. Arnio, “When I took my first psychology class, I was just fascinated, and that was a pivotal moment in my life.”
He was accepted into the graduate psychology program at the University of Iowa where he obtained his Ph.D. After graduation, he and his family returned to South Dakota where he worked at West River Mental Health Center in Spearfish as a psychologist and interim director. In 1981, he co-founded Psychological Associates, recruiting the largest number of doctoral-level psychologists of any private clinic in the state. Under Dr. Arnio’s direction, the staff there provided over 6000 hours of mental health services per year to the community over 32 years.
“There’s an old saying, ‘I never worked a day in my life’ because I enjoyed it,” mused Dr. Arnio, “particularly when I worked with other groups and other people. When I worked with others, I had an opportunity to make systemic changes in very important areas.”
One place Dr. Arnio made a profound change was in mental health support for adolescents. In a six-month period during the mid-1980s, there was a staggering number of teen suicides in Western South Dakota—six times as many expected statewide for all ages in a year. Some parents sought help from Dr. Arnio after a teen had ended their life, so he knew first-hand the excruciating pain these families experienced.
Dr. Arnio soon mobilized community resources to develop a school-based prevention program modeled after the program from Cherry Creek School in Denver. He worked with the University of South Dakota to help evaluate the impact of the program, which demonstrated there were clear increases in student self-esteem, thereby reducing high-risk behavior. This format of addressing mental health adjustment through school programs was the early stage of what is now called a Social/Emotional learning curriculum. These types of activities are used in some form in nearly all schools today.
When asked, what he hopes his legacy is, Dr. Arnio reflected on the fact that as a young man, he didn’t necessarily have a plan for his future, but found through the encouragement of mentors, that many things in life are possible.
“If we work together, we can have a far greater impact than we ever imagined possible when we were younger,” said Dr. Arnio.
To learn more about Dr. Robert Arnio’s contributions, you can visit his legacy page on our website.