Philadelphia’s First Mental Health Emergency Clinic to Open in September

A walk-in clinic designed to support people with mental health issues will open on North Broad Street in September 2024. Clinicians at the clinic will offer help with medications, anxiety and depression, and substance abuse, among other issues, for patients who are not at risk of harming themselves or others.

The city is billing the new approach as Philadelphia’s first mental health clinic that is similar to an urgent care center, a place where people can receive care for issues that don’t require the full capacity of a crisis center or emergency room.

The Merakey Mental Health Walk-In Clinic is staffed by clinicians from Merakey, a large provider of behavioral health and intellectual disability services, who provide same-day care, regardless of the patient’s ability to pay.

According to Mark O’Dwyer, director of Merakey’s outpatient mental health services, providers at the clinic support people who need mental health care but are not in crisis. These include patients who are overwhelmed by anxiety, who are coping with grief or a traumatic event, or who are suffering from postpartum depression.

The city funded the clinic as part of its expansion of behavioral health and crisis services, a spokesperson for the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services said. The city did not provide details on how much funding it provided.

The clinic is part of a city-supported health care offering that includes the Philadelphia Crisis Line, mobile crisis units and crisis centers.

“The clinic aims to reduce unnecessary visits to crisis centers and emergency departments by helping people get the mental health care they need, when they need it,” DBHIDS said in a statement.

In addition to therapists, the clinic’s staff also includes a psychiatrist or a psychiatric nurse who can prescribe medications.

The clinic will open its doors to patients on September 3 and will be open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The address is 3125 N. Broad St.

To ensure patients in need feel comfortable, the clinic is designed to resemble a living room, said Nicole Connell, senior executive director of behavioral health at Merakey in southeastern Pennsylvania.

“We wanted the space to be welcoming and inviting,” Connell said. “So people can receive their services with dignity and comfort.”

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