How a Walk-In Mental Health Clinic Can Help You or a Loved One

There’s an increasing demand for quick walk-in health care. If you don’t feel well for a day, you can head to your city’s express clinic, get some medical attention and go about your business.

Minute clinics, urgent care and telemedicine all provide quick medical care for those with colds, flu, injuries and minor illnesses. These medical facilities are designed to address your health care needs quickly. But what about when you’re having a mental health crisis? Mental health clinics and psychiatric urgent care centers are popping up across the country to offer immediate mental health services and walk-in therapy sessions for those in a mental health crisis.

In a Mental Health Emergency

There are occasions where you simply need immediate mental health support. Perhaps your loved one is out of control and is now a danger to themselves. You may be dealing with a dire situation and feel so depressed that you’re thinking about suicide.

If you’re in this position, never wait for care. While you may be asking, “Where is there a walk-in mental health clinic near me,” you don’t need to turn to a specialized service.

In these urgent situations, your first step is to visit your local hospital emergency room. They have the necessary tools or are familiar with the local systems in place to protect you and provide you with the medical intervention needed to prevent a worsening outcome.

Once they stabilize the patient, these hospitals can help you find assistance for your specific needs. They have the tools to direct you to the next step.

What Qualifies as a Mental Health Crisis?

Individuals with established mental health conditions who are on the verge of a mental breakdown or who are having hallucinations, delusions or suicidal thoughts are experiencing a mental health crisis. Walk-in clinics can help stabilize these conditions and provide emergency care to prevent the situation from getting worse.

What Is an Urgent Mental Health Referral?

In some cases, an individual may receive care in a traditional hospital. A health professional in these facilities may make an open access mental health referral for crisis counseling. They can even schedule appointments for you and provide referrals to mental health clinics.

Are Mental Health Walk-In Clinics Available?

For many people, there is a growing level of accessible mental health care. Free walk-in mental health remains hard to locate, but some form of assistance may be available in your area now.

Consider Mental Health Clinics

Walk-in mental health clinics and other in-community solutions are available in some regions of the country.

For example, a mental health clinic in a store such as Walmart lets people come in to talk about things such as the grief they are feeling or to learn more about why they feel so depressed.

Some programs are following the traditional urgent care model. Perhaps you can’t sleep at night due to anxiety or are struggling with a very low period in your life.

Mental health clinics let people walk in and get assistance quickly. However, this, again, is only meant to be a stopgap until additional help is available.

Another type of mental health walk-in service provides immediate care when a routine counselor or therapist isn’t available to the patient. For example, if someone seeing a therapist a few times a week needs support on the weekend, this model can offer a solution for getting that help without waiting.

Walk-in mental health clinics are valuable because of their accessibility. They can also help to reduce the stigma of going to see a therapist. These clinics aren’t long-term solutions or crisis intervention units, but they can open the door to mental health care and assist you with low-acuity needs, such as when you need help managing stress.

What Is a Crisis Stabilization Unit?

Crisis units are located in emergency rooms and other medical health centers. They provide fast support in a desperate situation. These crisis centers, whether they’re a component of a medical facility or a stand-alone unit, work to provide mental health support right away, helping an individual to get care immediately to prevent a condition from getting worse.

As noted, walking into any ER can offer this assistance. However, some hospitals and medical facilities have specially designed crisis stabilization units that can provide a better level of immediate help.

These centers typically have skilled mental health professionals available more readily than a typical ER may have. Walk-in crisis services may be best for those who have an established mental health problem, a high-risk of a mental breakdown, are a suicide risk or suffer from severe depression.

Online Therapists for Immediate Help

A mental health hotline is one way that people can reach out for help at home. Organizations have offered this type of care, a phone-call-away, for many years.

Over the last few years, though, online therapists have emerged to provide a new level of support through the internet and apps. Services like BetterHelp and Talkspace allow people to download an app, connect with a therapist and communicate instantly via text, chat or phone call.

This type of assistance has its place in the mental health care industry, but it’s not the ideal, long-term solution. It may also not provide the highest level of support for some patients, especially those who need residential care. This level of service won’t be able to prescribe you medication if needed and is likely not as thorough as a face-to-face session.

Yet, like walk-in clinics, it opens the door to the concept of mental health support. In that way, it encourages people to seek out the help that is readily available to them.

What Alternative Options Exist to Walk-in Mental Health Clinics?

Going to a walk-in clinic is an option, but it’s far from the only solution. Many times, organizations offer immediate appointments and counselors who are available for help right away over the phone. If you’re facing a mental health emergency right now, your first step should be to visit an ER if you believe your life or health is at risk.

If you’re not at that level, but you need mental health support quickly, then turning to a mental health treatment center is an option for you. These programs can help you to get in to see a therapist, sometimes the same day. They can also assist you right now, over the phone, to get the immediate care you need.

What Qualifies as a Serious Mental Illness?

A serious mental illness is one that interferes with an individual’s ability to function on a daily basis. While there are many different kinds, seven of the main serious mental disorders that require urgent mental health care include:

• Anxiety disorders. Anxiety disorders typically cause intense anxiety and fear and are difficult to control. This includes panic disorder, PTSD, social anxiety disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.
• Mood disorders. Mood disorders make it difficult to control your emotions. Individuals with mood disorders may go from extreme happiness to extreme sadness. Common mood disorders are major depression, bipolar disorder and dysthymia.
• Psychotic disorders. Psychotic disorders are serious illnesses that affect the mind. They make it hard for an individual to think clearly, and they may lose touch with reality. This includes schizophrenia.
• Personality disorders. Personality disorders are mental disorders that cause unhealthy patterns of thinking and behaving that are outside the norm. Personality disorders include antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.
• Dementia. Dementia refers to a loss of memory, problem-solving and thinking abilities. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s.
• Eating disorders. Individuals with eating disorders have an unhealthy relationship with food. They either eat too much, don’t eat enough or purge whatever they do eat. Bulimia, anorexia and binge-eating are the most common types.

The Key Is to Get Help: FHE Health Is Here for You

If you’re facing a mental health crisis or are worried about your loved one, call FHE Health right now. At FHE Health, we work to support our patients by providing access to a 24-hour compassionate professional who can help you at any time.

Our team is available to you 24/7 at (833) 596-3502 and can offer comprehensive support or instruction to you over the phone. Call us for immediate assistance.