Baptist Medical Center is expanding its mental health acute care clinic to include children.
Terrie Andrews with Baptist Behavioral Health said Thursday the clinic was created to make sure people with mental health issues can get immediate help.
“Often times you can wait for weeks, sometimes months, to see an outpatient provider. And what we’re trying to do is quickly provide access to patients so that we can avoid any type of crisis.”
Andrews said the clinic serves people, whether they’re in crisis or they’ve run out of their medicine and need a little extra to tide them over until they can get in to see their own doctor.
She said they’ve helped hundreds of adults since the mental health acute care clinic began as a pilot program a year ago.
A pediatric clinic is also coming soon. It’s expected to begin seeing young patients by the fall of 2020.
The acute care clinic and upcoming pediatric clinic are both at Baptist Medical Center’s main Downtown campus on Prudential Drive.
Baptist Health hopes to be able to open additional satellite clinics around Northeast Florida.
Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson at choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter at @cydwjctnews.
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