A new mental health urgent care center will open at 1 South Prospect Street in Burlington on Oct. 28.
It will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and will serve people 18 and older.
The center is a collaboration between Howard Center, University of Vermont Medical Center, Pathways Vermont and Community Health Centers, with funding from the Vermont Department of Mental Health.
Those organizations decided to work together in the summer of 2022, when up to 20 people a day were waiting in the UVM Medical Center emergency room for an inpatient psychiatric bed.
"The emergency department as a therapeutic setting for people experiencing mental health needs is just not — not the case," said Maureen Leahy, administrative director of psychiatry at UVM Medical Center, during an informational webinar on Tuesday.
Leahy added that the new mental health urgent care center is designed to be an alternative to the emergency room. It's for people who are having a mental health crisis, but don’t need acute medical or inpatient psychiatric care.
This is a walk-in clinic, so people don't need an appointment or a referral to receive services, they can simply come and show up and ... get the care that they need.Charlotte McCorkle, Howard Center
The center plans to offer clinical mental health services, peer support, minor medical care, safety planning and assistance with medications. That's according to Charlotte McCorkle, senior director of client services at Howard Center.
"This is a walk-in clinic, so people don't need an appointment or a referral to receive services, they can simply come and show up and... get the care that they need," McCorkle said. "People will also be able to come back the next day or following their initial service to receive follow up care."
The center's organizers are emphasizing accessibility, and how it will be open to people with multiple diagnoses including substance use, intellectual disabilities, traumatic brain injuries and experiencing a suicidal crisis.
Particularly when it comes to suicide prevention, organizers say they're trying to make the center feel as warm and welcoming as possible to reduce the stigma attached to mental health services.
"We know through research that the number one reason people delay accessing help for any sort of mental health concern is stigma or fear of the reaction if they admit that they're struggling in a certain way," McCorkle said.
The new mental health urgent care center will be located in a building that offers many different services, and anyone who walks in will be called a "guest." Staff will also be trained in suicide prevention and care, and can help figure out next steps.
"When the individual is feeling desperate and like they have nowhere to go, they will now have somewhere to go that will receive them," said Maureen Leahy with UVMMC. "And it's a beautiful space, and trained individuals, and they can start feeling well."
When the individual is feeling desperate and like they have nowhere to go, they will now have somewhere to go that will receive them.Maureen Leahy, UVMMC
During Tuesday's webinar, the center's organizers made a point to say they will also provide wound care.
"A lot of the wound care needs in our community might be based on substance use or might be based on other social determinants of health," McCorkle said. "We really do want people that need wound care to access the service, and then we can help them with other supports."
To meet the needs of the immigrant and refugee populations and people of color, the mental health urgent care center will offer language interpretation, hire racially diverse staff who are open about their mental health challenges, and provide employee trainings on unconscious bias and cultural humility.
Organizers say they're building the center around the people who will use its services — and that they'll continue reaching out especially to marginalized communities to learn what they need.
"If that means that we have to pivot in three months or six months to make an operational change that will make the environment or the staff more ready to serve this population, then we will," Leahy said. "This is, I believe, an iterative process."
When the mental health urgent care center opens in Burlington, it will be the fourth in Vermont. The other three are located in the Northeast Kingdom and Addison and Washington counties.
Here are some resources if you or someone you know is considering suicide:
- National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call 988 or text 988
- Click here for an online chat with the the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
- Veterans Crisis Line & Military Crisis Line: call 1-800-273-8255, press 1
- LGTBQ crisis line: call 1-866-488-7386 or text 678678
- Crisis Text Line: text "VT" to 741-741
- Gun locks, firearm storage and information on Extreme Risk Protection Orders: GunSafeVT.org
- Resources with the Vermont Suicide Prevention Center
Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message.
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