Small Business Solutions

September 10 is worldwide suicide prevention day and Vermont is increasing efforts to add care centers for mental health care in the state.The Department of Mental Health, alongside the Howard Center, and other community partners is set to open a Mental Health Urgent Care center next month. This will be the first urgent care of its kind in Chittenden County and the fourth in the state. It will allow adults in need to be quickly evaluated and matched with providers and programs to get them the best care possible.”I see the creation of this program really as a suicide prevention measure,” said Charlotte McCorkel, the Howard Center’s senior director of client services.The center is set to open on October 28th and will run on a walk-in basis for adults with increasing or acute mental health needs, not emergency situations.”The walk-in nature of the clinic itself will be assisting suicide prevention, because when the individual is feeling desperate and like they have nowhere to go, they will now have somewhere to go that will receive them,” said Maureen Leahy, with the UVM Medical Center. “It’s a beautiful space and trained individuals and they can start feeling well.”The new center would ideally operate every day but the Howard Center, which is staffing the program, said that’s not possible.Instead, it’ll run Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.”We knew based on the programs we have that are 24/7 that are struggling with staffing, and a number of nonprofits and social services that have had to close due to staffing, that we would not be able to sustain a 24/7 model,” said McCorkel.The center has grant funding for three years which will cover most of its services. The hope is to keep it running long-term.”Three years is going to give us a really good idea of the size and scope and the overall cost and gives us the opportunity to look at both conventional billing models, but also maybe some unique billing models for a program like this,” said Dr. Rob Althoff, Chair of Psychiatry, UVM Health Network.More information about the project can be found here.