Clinic offers mental health treatment on the spot

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Even on her worst days, Shirley Thompson used to have to wait weeks to see her psychiatrist to get help with her bipolar disorder.

“You can’t put a date on your depression,” she said.

It’s a problem shared by millions of mental health patients across the country. Acute shortages of mental health professionals fuel growing delays for appointments.

But now, Thompson finally has a way to get help. Fast.

Instead of waiting weeks for her next scheduled appointment, she can stop in at a moment’s notice to see her psychiatrist at the Hennepin County Mental Health Center.

The center is on the cutting edge of a movement to deliver mental health care quickly and conveniently — mirroring the minute-clinic model for flu and colds.

For now, the center, located on the outskirts of downtown Minneapolis, sees only patients already connected to a doctor there — the service is not open to walk-ins off the street. Nationally, clinics are experimenting with other quick delivery methods, from mobile apps to iPad kiosks. A grocery store in Philadelphia recently began offering online screenings for mental health to its customers.

“There’s a shortage of psychiatrists and prescribing nurses all over the place,” said Sally Kratz, manager for the county’s Mental Health Center.

Almost 91 million adults live in areas where there are so few mental health professionals that it’s difficult to find treatment, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Nationwide, the problem is getting worse as more psychiatrists retire without enough graduates in the pipeline. During a recent five-year span, as the U.S. population grew nearly 5 percent, the number of psychiatrists hardly budged, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. So experiments with delivering care in new ways are sprouting.

“The wave of the future is really more along the lines of having integrated care where a provider or group of providers can really treat the whole body at the same time and know how things will interact,” said Alyson Ferguson of the Scattergood Foundation, which funded the Philadelphia kiosks.

The Hennepin County program aims to reach patients who have had trouble keeping appointments — a factor that is crucial to their care.

Often, depression contributes to missing appointments, county officials said, as some patients get confused easily and have trouble keeping track of dates.

“Previously, if you missed an appointment, it could take months before you came back in,” Kratz said.

The center treats about 3,800 people a year — mostly those with serious or chronic mental illnesses, many of whom also are battling chemical addictions. It offers all patients diagnostic tests, individual and group therapy, and medication management.

But on drop-in days at the center, patients can receive an instant 20-minute consultation with a therapist and also have their medications adjusted. To make room for drop-ins, each therapist at the Hennepin County center reserves several hours a week for patients who don’t have an appointment.

The county is seeing results. In the past two years, the number of patients participating in mental health consultations with their therapist has gone up from 110 to 375, according to county officials. There also have been fewer costly visits to the emergency room for psychiatric care since the drop-in hours started.

“Being able to get in quickly and get responsive care has made a difference,” Kratz said.

For Thompson, who has myriad issues, quick access to her psychiatrist on days when she needs it most has helped her stay on track.

She’s survived drug addiction and prostitution, and says she is now focused on staying healthy and being a good mother to her toddler son, Zantrell. Her psychiatrist proudly noted that Thompson had recently graduated from a parenting class.

“I’m happy that I’m able to walk in that door and see people saying that I’m a good mom,” Thompson said. “That’s the best feeling.”

Her 1-year-old is often by her side at the drop-in visits.

“I’ve been through a lot,” she said, wiping tears from her face, and sometimes that has made it difficult for her to get to appointments and continue her treatment. “I basically was about to give up. With this walk-in clinic, there is no giving up. I can walk in here, guaranteed to be seen. It’s like a security blanket.”