MENTAL HEALTH URGENT CARE MODEL COMES TO CHICAGO

Dr. Tamir Aldad, CEO of Mindful Urgent Care, brought the urgent care model to mental health and psychiatry. Photo provided by Wes Spangler
Dr. Tamir Aldad, CEO of Mindful Urgent Care, brought the urgent care model to mental health and psychiatry. Photo provided by Wes Spangler

 Mental health urgent care model comes to Chicago

BY TIA CAROL JONES
     Mindful Urgent Care recently launched in the Fulton Market neighborhood and provides mental health treatment for adults, teenagers and children ages 12 and older.
     In addition to offering mental healthcare services, Mindful Urgent Care is a psychiatric urgent care facility which also treats addiction.
     Dr. Tamir Aldad, CEO of Mindful Urgent Care, said he wanted to bring the service to Chicago because when Aldad was at the University of Chicago, he realized there was a huge gap in access to care. “I thought it would be interesting if we took the urgent care model and brought it to mental health and psychiatry. We ran it through a bunch of competitions at the University of Chicago. We won those competitions and we took that capital and opened our first location in New York,” he said. After that, Aldad said Mindful Urgent Care grew quickly and the opening of a second and third location followed.
     Aldad said with the access to care issue that exists in Chicago, patients can wait weeks to see a provider and in that time, their symptoms worsen, and they end up in emergency rooms, self-medicating with drugs or alcohol, or resorting to self-harm.
     “What we did was we created a program where we will see somebody same-day or next day and start them on medication to prevent a worsening of symptoms,” he said.
     Aldad said patients are seen for 12 weeks, by a prescriber, who will start them on medication and stabilize their symptoms over the 12 weeks. After 12 weeks, if they require a higher level of care, Mindful Urgent Care will facilitate a referral.
      “Many of them, 90 percent to 95 percent of them, do very well and then they transition to our continued care program, which is traditional outpatient. What we created was this acute intervention to prevent them from having to go to the emergency room,” he said.
     Aldad said one program that is in New York that is set to come to Chicago is the online group therapy program. That program supports recovery. He said Mindful Urgent Care offers a variety of online groups, depending on a person’s diagnosis. He said the organization found those online groups to be very helpful for patients and has improved results and turn out.
      Aldad said Mindful Urgent Care saw a spike of visits since March 2020 due to COVID-19, and they had to switch to virtual. He said there is a hybrid model that features brick-and-mortar and virtual right now.
     “When COVID-19 started, we saw an increase in depression, anxiety, adjustment disorder. Patients who had years of sobriety started to return to substance abuse, alcohol use,” he said. “Really an exacerbation of all symptoms of mental health since COVID. And, we were excited to be at the forefront helping these people.”
     There are also plans to open a second location in River North, a third in Lincoln Park, and even one in Champaign-Urbana. Aldad said all should be open within the next six months. He said there are plans to open more locations in the future in the city.
     “We’re trying our best to really change the way mental health is addressed by clinicians and we’re excited to bring our services to Chicago,” Aldad said.
     For more information on Mindful Urgent Care, visit www.mindfulurgentcare.com, or call 872-246-7320.

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