Philadelphia’s First ‘Urgent Care’ for Mental Health Will Open in September

By Abraham Gutman, The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)

PHILADELPHIA — A walk-in clinic designed to support people with mental health needs will open next month on North Broad Street. Clinicians at the clinic will assist with medications, anxiety and depression, and substance use, among other issues, for patients who aren't at risk of harming themselves or others.

The new approach is billed by the city as the first mental health clinic in Philadelphia that is equivalent to urgent care, a place for people to receive care for issues that don't require the full muscle of a crisis center or emergency department.

The Merakey Mental Health Walk-In Clinic will be staffed by clinicians from Merakey, a large provider of behavioral health and intellectual disability services, who will offer same-day services regardless of the patient's ability to pay.

Providers in the clinic will support people who have mental health needs but aren't in crisis, such as patients overwhelmed with anxiety, processing grief or a traumatic event, or suffering from postpartum depression, said Mark O'Dwyer, Merakey's executive director for mental health outpatient services.

The city provided funding for the clinic as part of its expansion of behavioral health and crisis services, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services. The city did not provide details on how much funding it provided.

The clinic is part of a city-supported continuum of care that includes the Philadelphia Crisis Line, mobile crisis units, and crisis centers.

"The clinic aims to reduce avoidable visits to crisis response centers and emergency rooms by helping people get the mental health care they need when they need it," DBHIDS said in a statement.

In addition to therapists, the clinic's staff will include a psychiatrist or a psychiatric nurse practitioner who could prescribe medication.

The clinic will open its doors to patients on Sept. 3, and it will be open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Its address is 3125 N. Broad St.

To ensure that patients in distress are comfortable, the clinic was designed in the style of a living room, said Nicole Connell, Merakey's senior executive director for behavioral health in Southeastern Pa.

"We wanted the space to be welcoming and inviting," Connell said. "So that individuals can receive their services with dignity and comfort."

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