From the Guidelines
Patients with mental health issues should not visit urgent care unless it's a crisis situation, as urgent care centers are not equipped to handle mental health concerns and lack specialized mental health professionals. For mental health issues, patients should:
- Contact their primary care physician or mental health provider for non-emergency concerns.
- Use crisis hotlines or emergency services for immediate, severe issues.
- Visit the emergency room if there's a risk of self-harm or harm to others. Urgent care centers are designed for immediate physical health concerns like sprains, minor infections, or cuts requiring stitches, and may not have access to psychiatric medications or proper follow-up care 1.
According to a study published in Pediatrics in 2016, mental health problems are among the leading contributors to the global burden of disease, and pediatric populations are not spared of mental health problems, with 21% to 23% of children and adolescents having a diagnosable mental health or substance use disorder 1. Another study published in Pediatrics in 2019 emphasizes the importance of recognizing mental health emergencies and providing brief interventions or full diagnostic assessments as needed 1.
For ongoing mental health care, patients should establish a relationship with a psychiatrist, psychologist, or therapist who can provide consistent treatment, medication management if needed, and appropriate therapy options, ensuring better continuity of care and more effective long-term management of mental health conditions. This approach prioritizes the patient's morbidity, mortality, and quality of life, and is supported by the most recent and highest quality evidence available 1.
From the Research
Frequency of Urgent Care Visits for Mental Health Issues
- Patients with mental illness are at an increased risk for frequent and non-urgent emergency department visitation 2.
- The findings of a study suggest that the characteristics predictive of non-urgent emergency department use for mental health care include age, season, time of day, access to primary health care, mode of arrival, hospital type, referral source, and patient diagnosis 2.
- Users of mental health services were found to be heavily over-represented among urgent and emergency care users, and they made more contacts per-person 3.
- A scoping review found that access to urgent psychiatric care for youth was associated with reduced ED volumes, fewer health system costs, and fewer hospitalizations 4.
Trends in Mental Health-Related Emergency Department Visits
- The weighted number of pediatric mental health-related visits increased from 4.8 million (7.7% of all pediatric ED visits) to 7.5 million (13.1% of all ED visits) with an average annual percent change of 8.0% from 2011 to 2020 5.
- Significant linearly increasing trends were seen among children, adolescents, and young adults, with the greatest increase among adolescents and across sex and race and ethnicity 5.
- While all types of mental health-related visits significantly increased, suicide-related visits demonstrated the greatest increase from 0.9% to 4.2% of all pediatric ED visits 5.
Managing Frequent Attenders of Urgent Care Services
- A case management approach was found to be effective in addressing the needs of frequent attenders of urgent care services, with reductions in loneliness, anxiety, and use of urgent care services 6.
- The participants' quality of life improved from baseline to four months, but then stabilised at 12 months 6.
- Healthcare services must encourage the appropriate use of urgent care services to reduce system pressures, but also to improve the well-being of patients 6.