Richmond psychiatrist Martin Buxton takes people watching to another level.
On an overseas excursion, he’s as apt to watch the tour guide, observing mannerisms and expressions, figuring out what makes this particular person tick, as he is to look and marvel at the actual subject of the tour.
Martin Buxton
Psychiatrist Martin Buxton (Photo by Tharon Giddens)
He’s always had this fascination with people, he says. In school, he’d focus on his chemistry teacher, trying to parse out the instructor’s story instead of concentrating on the experiment or lesson.
It’s a trait that has served him well, and has led him down an always evolving career continuum. He kept his options open in med school and served a rotating internship, which exposed him to a variety of specialties. It was nice, he says, to treat someone with pneumonia, or to deliver a child, but he realized that for him, such specialties would lead to boredom. He turned to mental health, and his career in psychiatry, working over the years with children and adolescents, adults and addictions.
“I never thought I’d do this type of practice,” he says.
The path continues, but the pace slows as of today, as Buxton enters retirement. He’s leaving his post after 15 years as chief of psychiatry for Johnston-Willis and Chippenham hospitals, and as medical director of the Tucker Pavilion, the 137-bed behavioral health services facility at Chippenham. He’s been on staff at the hospitals since 1994. He’s also retiring from service at his practice, Insight Physicians, where he served as president and was the last of the practice founders still with the 33-year-old group. He will continue as medical director with the Family Counseling Center for Recovery.
“That will get me out of bed in the morning and on the go,” he says.
Buxton reflected on his career and field in a free-ranging talk in his Tucker Pavilion office on Wednesday. It’s a career that had its origins in his interests, but was partially shaped in a cab.
He was an undergraduate at Rutgers and earning money by driving a cab in New York City. The anonymity of the experience was perfect for observing the behaviors of his fares. They also would open up, talk about things they never would reveal in other circumstances.
“I found it fascinating to see what was going on,” he says.
The self-proclaimed “student of people” was learning some important life lessons.
He completed medical school at the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara in Mexico, then served a residency and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School. He became interested in adolescent substance abuse treatment during the residency. It was a fascinating field, filled with comorbidities and challenges, he says.
He came to Richmond with his wife, Pat, in the early 1980s for an interview and fell in love with the city.
Listening and watching were hallmarks of his work with patients, says Beverly Damon, a registered nurse who worked with Buxton since the adolescent unit opened at Tucker in 1996. He brings a depth and breadth of knowledge to the job and never pigeonholes patients, always respectful and conveying concern, and willing to take the time to educate the patient and family members. “Everybody just loves him,” she says.
After decades of service, he has some patients he's been following for years. He finds himself at times working with children whose parents had been patients of his when they were just preschoolers.
Such long-standing relationships have led to some hard goodbyes in the past few weeks as retirement approached, says his son, David Buxton. “It’s been incredibly complicated and difficult for him to say goodbye,” he says.
Watchfulness is apparently a family trait that’s shared by the younger Dr. Buxton, who is also a child and adult psychiatrist, and a palliative care doctor. As a child after a soccer match he would talk about whether the coach was upset with his players or argued with his wife instead of talking about the score or on-field action.
Psychiatry was a natural career choice in other ways as well. His mother, Pat Buxton, is also a therapist, and when his parents first moved here, they practiced together. Conversations around the dinner table centered on general themes of the field, about certain disorders, medications and treatments.
“It was kind of one of those things that [was] totally integrated into my life growing up,” he says.
Bonnie Condrey, office manager for Insight and Buxton’s administrative assistant, on Thursday described how she’s been helping him clean out his office and going through the last 34 years of his life. She noted how Buxton easily puts everyone at ease, how he instantly becomes your best friend.
“He’s just been amazing,” she says.
HEALTHY DEVELOPMENTS
A roundup of the week’s health and medicine news
- The Goochland Free Clinic and Family Services has reached its $7.1 million capital campaign goal to fund its new, all-in-one center and to establish a $1.5 million endowment. The nonprofit is consolidating services in a facility at 3001 River Road West in Goochland. Contributions are still being accepted.
- U.S. News & World Report has released its annual national rankings of children’s hospitals. The Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU ranked 45th in nephrology in the assessment.
- Health Brigade, formerly the Fan Free Clinic, wants to hear from its old friends as it prepares to mark its 50th anniversary in 2018. If you were seen there, or volunteered or served with the clinic, you’re invited to share your memories in a listening circle. Circles will be offered at the Ginn Auditorium at the nonprofit, 1010 N. Thompson St. Sessions are offered at noon and 5:30 p.m. each Wednesday from July 12 through Aug. 9. RSVP to kjones@healthbrigade.org.
- An array of state laws go into effect on Saturday. Check out a roundup of items, including health and medical legislation, from WTVR, or see the complete list here.
