Photograph by Fiordaliso/Getty Images
A national shortage of psychiatrists has created an environment where wait times to be seen by a professional can be long and billing can be Byzantine. This can spell disaster for some who have mental health issues that need urgent addressing.
Recognizing this issue, psychiatrist Dr. Asad Mehdi and emergency physician Dr. Sophia Khan co-founded UrgentPsych, a new mental health urgent care facility in Chamblee that opened earlier this year. It is one of only a few of its kind in the country and the first of its kind in Georgia. “We are trying to decrease barriers and open up access to mental health services,” Kahn says.
She notes that one in four people will have some sort of mental health disorder or illness. When combined with the fact that Georgia has ranked 48th out of 50 in terms of access to mental health resources, it can be a grim landscape, but one that UrgentPsych hopes to change.
Photograph courtesy of UrgentPsych
The staff can treat everything from new-onset depression to medication adjustments to care for those who may be contemplating suicide. UrgentPsych takes all major insurance including Medicare and Medicaid. “We even take patients who don’t have insurance and put them on a sliding scale,” Khan says. No appointment is necessary to see a doctor, and they treat patients age 5 and up.“Half of who we see are pediatric patients,” says Khan, who says the issues seen in adult psychiatry are tenfold in pediatrics.
There’s an in-house laboratory for bloodwork to confirm that someone is experiencing a mental health crisis and not another medical condition, and the environment is more welcoming than clinical-style urgent care facilities. There are recliners, iPads, snacks, respite rooms, sensory rooms, and even a space for yoga to make an intimidating experience more comfortable. “This is the evolution of mental healthcare,” she says.
In an emergency room setting, it could take up to 24 hours for a patient to be placed in an inpatient psychiatric unit. UrgentPsych can do it within 6 hours, says Dr. Khan. “We have a relationship with psychiatric facilities for inpatient medicine so that we can transfer and transport if someone does need to be admitted.”
In addition to the Chamblee location, the duo plans on opening five more facilities around metro Atlanta.
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