People Are Stressed Out and Anxious. Is It Time for Behavioral Health Urgent Care to Take Off?

There have been murmurs about operators launching behavioral health urgent care centers for years now, but the movement has not really gotten a foothold. There are signs that could be changing, however. Sisters of St. Mary, a major health system in the St. Louis area, has opened one such facility at DePaul Hospital while Los Angeles County, CA is finishing up construction of its own Mental Health Urgent Care Center. Local media coverage of both initiatives notes that both the stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic and the difficulty patients may have in getting timely care at this time underscore the importance of immediate care when patients are in crisis or simply need a medication refill related to depression, anxiety, or psychosis. Given the likelihood that at this point there may not be a behavioral health urgent care center in your area, and understanding that the pandemic is putting unprecedented pressure on people while doing the simplest of things, it may be wise to establish referral relationships with area mental health professionals who are willing and able to see patients on relatively short notice.