To reach the Care Now Clinic, call 740-324-7800
MOUNT VERNON — A new behavioral health urgent care center in downtown Mount Vernon will provide a rapid response for individuals experiencing an emotional or mental health issue.
The Care Now Clinic, operated by Behavioral Healthcare Partners of Central Ohio, opens today at 206 S. Mulberry St. It offers early crisis intervention services for those age 12 and up.
The Care Now Clinic is similar to a medical urgent care center, which bridges the gap between a family physician and the emergency room.
“If someone has a sprain, you don’t want to wait to get in to see your family physician, but the injury doesn’t require you to go to an emergency room. So you go to an urgent care center,” explained Kathryn St. James, president and CEO of BHP. “We are missing that [interim] level of service for behavioral health care.”
She said the clinic is an important part of closing that gap in the continuum of services.
“Behavioral health care is a mystery,” she added. “We are trying to make it feel like a concept folks know. They know about walking into an urgent care center.”
The clinic is open from 8:30 am to 6 pm Monday through Friday. The last appointment will be at 5 pm, but appointments are not required. Walk-ins are welcome.
“There has been an explosion of folks needing this level of service. Either the needs have expanded during the pandemic, or people are accessing care for the first time,” St. James said.
The growing need for rapid intervention is evident at the local level as well as statewide and nationally. Recent statistics show the Knox County 911 operations center received 34 calls relating to attempted or threatened suicide in January alone. Another 15 calls related to mental health.
In December 2021, the numbers were 29 and nine, respectively.
St. James said the national wait time to see a mental health provider is five to eight weeks.
“That is such a long time for people to wait,” she said. “If we can provide a brief solution, a focused solution, for these folks — skills, recommendations — something they can start to work on to make them feel better, what we are really providing is hope.”
St. James is unsure about the number of patients who will access the Mulberry Street clinic. BHP’s Newark urgent care center, which opened in November 2021, sees about 30 people a week. About 60% are new to behavioral health services.
The Mount Vernon staff includes counselors who work with individuals to provide brief intervention and care coordinators who link clients to community services. The counselors have crisis intervention training and will be able to tell immediately if an individual needs elevated to a higher level of care.
The receptionist is a certified medical assistant who can triage whether the individual needs behavioral health or medical care.
“We have nurse practitioners who are able to provide psychotropic medication the first time or as medication refills,” St. James said. “We can provide that bridge for medication until their next appointment.”
St. James said that by providing consistency with medication and extra care, the clinic can help individuals “in the moment” and then transition them into more long-term care.
“How do we help meet the needs that the community has?” she asked. “We can’t solve all of the problems. We really do see ourselves as a bridge to get people the help they need.”
The 1,985-square-foot clinic includes a reception area, counseling rooms, and office space. All of the counseling rooms and offices are equipped with a telehealth monitor.
When people call in, staff members will do a risk assessment. If warranted, the caller will be invited to an immediate face-to-face discussion via Zoom. Lower-risk clients also have the option to talk via Zoom.
“So, we can hopefully meet people where they are,” St. James said of the telehealth capability. “Let’s make all doors open to people, no matter what it looks like.”
An added benefit of telehealth is that should the Mount Vernon clinic be extremely busy, staff at the Newark office or BHP can provide care.
St. James hopes to provide after-hours or weekend hours soon. Until then, after-hour callers will be referred to BHP for 24/7/365 help.
The plan is to add a peer support person through a partnership with The Main Place. In addition to follow-up calls to clients, the support person will assist family members.
BHP held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Feb. 19 to celebrate the clinic’s opening.
“This is very urgent, this measure that we are taking today,” Mayor Matt Starr said of the clinic’s opening. “This is another part of the continuum of care we can offer in the community.”
Carol Grubaugh, executive director of the Knox County Chamber of Commerce, congratulated BHP staff on the opening of the clinic and noted how appropriate the name, Care Now Clinic, was to the service BHP is providing.
