GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A new facility is working to make mental health treatment more accessible.
Pine Rest opened its new psychiatric urgent care center in April. The facility is the only one of its kind in West Michigan.
The new urgent care facility will allow anyone dealing with a mental health issue to walk in and be seen the same day.
"The average person suffering with depression or anxiety has done that for a long time and before they get up the courage to ask for help," said Program Director Megan Zambiasi. "Then when they do call and find out it will be a really long wait, that can be discouraging."
The name urgent care was chosen because it is already a familiar term in people's minds.
“Urgent care, the name alone, I think sounds familiar to people. People are familiar with what a medical urgent care is, what they do. So having something like that for psychiatric disorders is very similar," Zambiasi says.
“We’ve been seeing a lot of people that are brand new to us, that we’ve never seen before. And they tend to be, so far, a little bit younger than what we would usually see," she said.
Fore more information about what sort of situations the center can accommodate, visit their website.
