A walk-in clinic designed to support people with mental health needs will open September 2024 on North Broad Street. Clinicians at the clinic will provide assistance with medications, anxiety and depression, and substance use, among other issues, for patients who aren't at risk of harming themselves or others. The new approach is billed by the city as the first mental health clinic in Philadelphia that is equivalent to an urgent care center, a place for people to receive care for issues that don't require the full muscle of a crisis center or .
The Merakey Mental Health Walk-In Clinic will be staffed by from Merakey, a large provider of behavioral health and intellectual disability services, who will offer same-day services regardless of the patient's ability to pay. Providers in the clinic will support people who have mental health needs but aren't in crisis, such as patients overwhelmed with anxiety, processing grief or a traumatic event, or suffering from , said Mark O'Dwyer, Merakey's executive director for mental health outpatient services. The city provided funding for the clinic as part of its expansion of behavioral health and crisis services, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services.
The city did not provide details on how much funding it provided. The clinic is part of a city-supported continuum of care that includes the Philadelphia Crisis Line, mobile crisis units, and crisis centers. "The clinic aims.