Unity Point Health Des Moines Opening New Behavioral Health Urgent Care

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  April 20, 2020

UnityPoint Health – Des Moines to open Behavioral Health Urgent Care

Des Moines, IOWA (April 20, 2020) – Beginning today, UnityPoint Health – Des Moines will be opening and operating a new behavioral health urgent care clinic in central Iowa to provide services to individuals who are needing mental health services, psychiatric evaluation and assessment, addiction medicine, crisis services and community resources. The new UnityPoint Health – Behavioral Health Urgent Care will be open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., 7 days a week and is located at 1250 East 9^th Street in Des Moines. This location will serve patients of all ages. Patients younger than 18 years of age must have a guardian with them.

“We know this clinic will fit an immediate need and our team of experts is ready to connect patients with all of our resources,” said Kevin Carroll, Vice President of Behavioral Health at UnityPoint Health – Des Moines. “Residents of central Iowa with mental health or substance abuse issues can now get immediate, walk-in help seven days a week. This will be a tremendous new resource for parents, schools, employers and our community.”

Services provided at the new Behavioral Health Urgent Care will include receiving an initial assessment from a licensed mental health clinician and then being connected to appropriate interventions. Additional interventions could include but are not limited to:

·       Inpatient psychiatric admission

·       On-site coordination to Eyerly Ball Community Mental Health Services and Orchard Place Child Guidance Center

·       Connection to other community resources for basic needs

Patients are advised to utilize the Emergency Room instead of the Urgent Care Clinic if they are needing immediate medical attention (i.e. open or fresh wounds), are a minor who does not have a guardian to sign a consent to treat, demonstrating aggressive behavior or having a crisis outside of the hours listed above. For all other behavioral health, psychiatric and addiction related care, patients should access the new Behavioral Health Urgent Care.

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About UnityPoint Health – Des Moines
UnityPoint Health – Des Moines has more than 7,700 employees and 1,000 physicians providing convenient care to patients in central Iowa through our integrated network of clinics, hospitals and home care services. UnityPoint Health – Des Moines is made of up Iowa Methodist Medical Center, including Younker Rehabilitation and central Iowa's only Level I Trauma Center; Iowa Lutheran Hospital; Methodist West Hospital; Blank Children’s Hospital, including pediatric sub-specialty clinics; John Stoddard Cancer Center; Grinnell Regional Medical Center; Eyerly Ball Community Mental Health Services; UnityPoint Clinic; UnityPoint at Home and UnityPoint Hospice.

6th Grade Minute Meetings!

Welcome 6th graders to Carlisle Middle School! Today, you will spend 1 minute with me. In that time, I will introduce myself, talk about what I do and where you can find me, and then you will answer these 4 quick questions. By the end of the day, I will have met all 143 6th graders! Have a great week!

If You Do Five Things with your Child: Talking with Your Child about Depression and Suicide

   

   This is some advice I have used before with parents and groups that I have spoken to when it comes to dealing with teens and/or your own children and the issue of self-harm and suicide.


1.  Communicate with your child and build a relationship of trust that will allow them to openly come to you when they are having depressive or suicidal thoughts and feelings. 

2.     Do not judge. Do not get mad. A local college student who travels around talking to young people told us at a workshop that the turning point in his life was when his mom walked in while he was cutting and she did not get angry. She took the razor and said “You need help. I am here to help. I love you. Now….let’s go get help.”. Saved his life, changed his life.

3.       Watch for signs of depression.  And address it when you see it. Mental health “injuries” and “sickness” are just like physical injuries and sickness. Seek medical help and support.

4.       Get other eyes on your child. You can’t watch them all of the time, but let their coach, counselor, principal, teacher know. And partner with these people.

5.       Love.  Sounds so simple, but love with your words. Love with your actions. Love with your closeness, your hugs, your touch.

More infographics....This Time on Sleep

Lots of infographics today. Thank you to Larry Ferlazzo and his Websites of the Day for some of these. These two infographics I found on his blog as well and they are good. Simply put, our teens do not get enough sleep. Maybe studying these charts may help them understand the importance of sleep. Hopefully, they are all getting lots of sleep now that summer break is here!

30 Lesser Known Facts About Sleep infographic

Great Resources for Information on Sleep (or Lack of) and It's Effects on Teens

  Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo and his website Websites of the Day, I found some great resources on the amount of sleep young people need. And most importantly, the effects of getting too little sleep. One of the most important things I learned from these resources came on the Infographic found towards the bottom of this resource page. Brains are constantly developing through the first 16-24 years of life and they do most of this while a young person sleeps. So if a young person is not getting enough sleep, then their brain cannot develop as quickly. Interesting! Lots of good stuff to learn and a great reminder to keep the electronics out of the room and have your child get plenty of sleep, even on the weekends and during the summer!

Click here for Sleep resources!

Des Moines Register's January Feature Topic: Young People with Mental Illness

I have enjoyed following the Des Moines Register's monthly features on a topic that affects kids and families in Iowa. Today's topic made me go buy a couple copies of the issue so that I could share some of the articles with our staff and students. I'm not a fan of the Des Moines Register's policy of only letting you view 10 articles online each month, but I guess that is the way the world is changing. Either way, hopefully you have not used up your views yet so that you can click on the following links. I suggest you save/print anything you want to read later. As a counselor, I have seen more and more mental illness in our young people and it seems the more bizarre and complicated issues are coming up more and more. A typical day may have some conflict and some bullying issues, but more and more, days seems to get filled with anxiety issues, depression issues, students seeing or hearing things that aren't really there, PTSD issues, and several other issues that do not allow the student to have much success in the classroom. At Carlisle, we have a great counseling staff, but many of these issues require much more than an occasional visit with the counselor. And with the number of students we have, many of these students only get 1 or 2 short check-ins or visits with the counselor each week. But we do have other resources we can help parents and families look into in order to get their child more help. The world is changing and for some reason or another, our kids are developing more and more mental health issues. But just like the flu or a broken bone where we immediately get our child checked out, we need to treat mental health problems just the same. We must get our children checked out and we must put just as much effort into getting them healthy as we would if their illness was a physical one.

      Please take a moment to click and read the links from the Des Moines Register below. The first step to finding solutions is education and these articles are very educational.

 Lead story on Mental Health issues in Kids click here! (Notice you can see their 4 previous focus features further down the page and a list of their upcoming topics on the right hand side.)

More Children Suffering from ADHD click here!

Parental Advice for Dealing With Children with Mental Disorders click here!

Mental Health Guide click here!

5 Ideas to Improve Mental Health click here!

Questioning Long Term ADHD Medication click here!

Video of 2 Orchard Place Volunteers Trying to Make a Difference click here!