Urgent care for mental health opens in St. Paul
ST. PAUL, Minn. – A new urgent care is open in the Twin Cities. But this one is for mental health.
Adrienne Prehatney is excited it’s here. She has recovered from depression, anxiety and chemical dependence and now she is a peer support specialist at the new Urgent Care for Adult Mental Health in St. Paul.
Prehatney said, “Instead of hearing that you can’t, which I think a lot of people with mental health challenges hear a lot, I think it’s really important to hear that you can.”
Believed to be the first of its kind in the area, this Urgent Care fills a gap in the health care system. It has a call center and a walk in clinic.
Roger Meyer, project director with the Mental Health Crisis Alliance, stated it has been a project ten years in the making. He stated three counties, three hospitals, four health plans, two consumer groups and three state agencies made it a reality.
“Really what we are speaking about is serving people in similar [ways] to the urgent care model that you experience in physical health,” Meyer said. “And with the stigma around mental health, we really wanted to cut through that and state there is a place you can go that is just for you when you are having a mental health crisis.”
Until now, patients with mental health issues visited emergency rooms and often endured long waits and could sometimes wait a few weeks to see a psychiatrist.
This urgent care is less expensive, patients get psychiatric care more quickly – within a few days – and there is follow up care as well.
The new Urgent Care for Adult Mental Health held its grand opening this week but it has actually been open since last September and in that time, Kirk Fowler, manager with Ramsey County mental health and human services, stated it has seen a 300 percent increase in the number of people walking in to seek services.
“In the east Metro alone there is probably about 2,000 people a year that walk into the ER of a hospital voluntarily who could come to our center,” stated Fowler who oversees operations at the Urgent Care.
This new Urgent Care clearly meets a previously unmet need.
“We collect data from people when they come in as far as, ‘Where would you have gone if you have not come here?’ And the top two? They would have done nothing or they would have gone to the emergency room,” Meyer said. “So that tells us that we are taking some flow out of the emergency room but we are also meeting a need that was not being met.”
Prehatney stated it would have been nice to have something like this when she was struggling with mental illness. But she is happy it’s here now. “It’s just so important and it’s so needed and it’s so valuable,” she said.
The Urgent Care for Adult Mental Health serves the residents of Ramsey, Dakota and Washington Counties, no matter their capability to pay.
They state no one is turned away.
Hours are Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday through Sunday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Their phone is answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Urgent Care for Adult Mental Health can be reached at (651) 266-7900.
Random News
- National Restaurant Association Announces 2013 Operator Innovations Awards Finalists
- Minister laments poaching of medicos
- Scott Tischler unveils healthy super bowl cheats for healthy snacks
- Clara Hughes to bike across Canada in mental-health campaign
- Smacking linked to mental disorders
- 88 Foods to Eat to Help You Get Healthy and Happy and How to Avoid the Deadly 12 Kinds of Food
- Do something to brighten the day of someone who's mentally ill
- Low-cost Coach Handbags Are On Sales Within Trainer Outlets
- This Child Made a Film About His School Lunch—and He Titled It ‘Yuck.’ (VIDEO)
- Doctors Health Press Reports on Study: Standards to Define “Whole Grain” Inconsistent and Misleading
Submited at Tuesday, August 7th, 2012 at 10:45 pm on Uncategorized by madison
Comment RSS 2.0 - leave a comment - trackback
