The Merakey Mental Health Walk-In Clinic, located on Broad Street at Allegheny, near Temple University’s main campus, is the first clinic in Philadelphia to offer outpatient mental health services to persons in non-emergency situations.
The clinic will open on September 3 and will serve adults with mental health and addiction issues. It will offer a range of short-term services such as psychiatric evaluations, counseling, prescription refills and referrals, depending on the patient’s needs.
The clinic is funded by the city and operated by Merakey, a nonprofit organization that provides support for a variety of health issues, and is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“The overall mission is to provide a place where people can get immediate and easy mental health care,” said Mark O’Dwyer, executive director of outpatient mental health services at Merakey. “The result is that more people can quickly access the mental health care system and services. This is to reduce the reliance on emergency rooms, crisis intervention centers and higher levels of care because people can get help even when they are not in crisis.”
The clinic does not provide emergency crisis services. A brief assessment is performed upon arrival at the clinic to determine patient needs.
“The main difference between our services and a crisis intervention center is who the service is actually for,” O’Dwyer said. “The walk-in clinic is for someone who is not in crisis. They might have a pressing problem, like depression, they might be nervous or anxious, but they are not at a point where they are thinking about hurting themselves or anyone else.”
Temple University Hospital offers a Crisis Intervention Center on its Episcopal Campus. The CRC is a 24-hour psychiatric emergency clinic that treats patients for related issues such as mental disorders and substance abuse.
Merakey Clinic also offers its services to individuals regardless of their insurance coverage or ability to pay.
If patients are uninsured, the clinic will help them find insurance options that work for them, Todd Loeb, corporate director of communications and administration at Merakey, wrote in an email to The Temple News.
The clinic will work with local providers to provide referrals to individuals interested in ongoing services and in need of long-term support.
People who require medication are prescribed a bridging medication to provide stabilization while they wait to be connected to longer-term outpatient treatment or to see a doctor.
“We will work with the city and our partners to monitor that value (of patients) in the first year and identify who is presenting and how many people are presenting so that we can really assess the need for this particular level of care in the city of Philadelphia,” said Nicole Connell, senior managing director of adult behavioral services at Merakey.
Emily Verespy, a final-year nursing student, believes this will make it easier for students to access mental health care.
“Temple offers many resources through Tuttleman Counseling Services, but sometimes these services are difficult to access on short notice and require time to set up,” Verespy said. “Mental health support has improved in recent years, but the creation of this clinic is one step closer to making resources available for free to anyone who needs them.”
Verespy also believes access to care benefits the Temple and Philadelphia communities. When people need help, it can be difficult to get immediate help, and it can take many steps and investigations to see a specialist. Verespy is confident the Merakey Clinic can change that, she said.
Loeb believes the Merakey Clinic, located just north of the Temple campus, is well equipped to support the Temple community.
“(The Merakey Clinic) is uniquely positioned to support the Temple University community by providing accessible, immediate mental health services tailored to the needs of students, faculty and staff,” Loeb wrote. “As the pressures of academic life, work and personal obligations continue to increase, we can be a resource that provides timely, professional support. Our urgent care facility addresses a range of behavioral health issues and can help mitigate the effects of stressors before they escalate, contributing to a healthier, more resilient university environment.”
