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.

College Visit 2016 Next Month!!

8th Graders:
   Next month, all of you get a chance to tour a college campus. The classrooms, the dorm rooms, the buildings, the sports facilities, and much more! You will get a chance to hear from college students about their experience. And....you get to do this all during the school day and it is FREE! This is our 2nd annual 8th Grade College Tour and it will take place on Wednesday, March 30th. Please take the survey below so we know which college you would like to tour. About 40 students will go on each trip and we will try our best to get you into your 1st or 2nd choice.

Best Video Explaining the Teenage Brain

  I have used this video in the coaching classes I teach through Drake and AEA in order to better help adult coaches understand what is going on inside the brain of a teenager. And the part I find the most fascinating is that we are just now learning all of this and are continuing to learn more. The brain is nowhere near fully understood but we have learned a lot the past decade or more. This guy talks fast and the video is fast-paced, but if you listen closely, you will be fascinated by what you learned. And you will begin to understand your teenager a lot better. Enjoy!

4th Grade Bully/Harassment Survey: Spring 2015

Students, please take time to answer the following 10 questions about your experiences in Hartford Upper Elementary the past 7 school days. Be as honest as possible as the survey is anonymous and the data is extremely important for us to understand what the student experience is like when it comes to bullying and harassment issues. Click Submit when you are finished and begin on today's assignment.

8th Grade Fall Bullying/Harrassment Survey

 Students, please take the time to answer the following 10 questions truthfully and honestly about any bullying/harrassment you have experienced in the last 7 days. This survey is anonymous and the data gained is compared to the Iowa Youth Survey, past survey results, and future survey results. Thank you!

6th Grade Student Needs Assessment

Students who are in 6th grade, please take the following survey. Please put your first and last name in the answer blank asking for your name and then answers "Agree" or "Disagree" on each of the following questions after that. Mr. Barry will use your answers to either meet with you or set up a group of students to meet with him, Ms. Flagor, or our Lifeline Resource counseling group. Thank you!

Mr. Barry Attends Governor's Bully Summit!

  Mr. Barry had the opportunity to attend and be a panelist at this past week's Governor's Bullying Prevention Summit here in Des Moines. It was a great event with a sold out crowd of 1200, nearly half of them students wanting to make a difference. Mr. Barry representing school counselors of Iowa on the Cyberbullying panel. All of the panels and keynote presentations were recorded and broadcast live online. They will soon be posted so anyone can view them at anytime. When this happens, I will post the links so you can see the great information that I got to see when I was there. 

   Biggest thing I learned from the conference was that the problem of bullying is a large and complex problem that will take efforts from everyone to solve it. Not just teachers, but students, parents, community members, everyone. And most of the experts who spoke and even the student experts who spoke, agreed that the group that can have the biggest effect are the students. Solutions to bullying created by and led by the students have the best chance to solve the problem of bullying. In fact, many students from schools all over the state produced videos showing their ideas and these ideas were some of the best ideas I have seen in my years as a counselor. Seeing these student videos and seeing all of the students in attendance at the Summit gives me great hope that we will finally turn the tide with bullying and begin to solve the issue and make all of our schools safe again.

Stomp Out Bullying Day: Monday, October 1st

     We are asking staff, students, and community to wear blue on Monday, October 1st, to show our united effort to stomp out bullying in our schools and community. In fact, we will use the whole week to raise awareness about the problem of bullying and the long term and possibly deadly effects bullying can have on a young person. Our district counseling staff has been and will continue to get data from students, staff, and parents by using surveys. This data will not only include questions about bullying, but questions about a wide-range of needs a student, staff member, or family member may have. As a team, we then review this data and fine tune our plan to address these needs. With a problem like bullying, counselors and teachers cannot solve it on their own. We need the help of students and families as well. Mr. Barry and Ms. Flagor went to a special showing of the much-talked about documentary "Bully" this summer and participated in an hour-long post-movie conversation. The last statement, made by a high school, student really drove home the issue and solution of bullying. She said "Teachers can try all they can. Parents can try all they can. People can make laws and rules and hang up signs and have special days. But in the end, the solution to bullying is with the students. Students must step up and say this isn't right and bullying is a terrible thing. Students listen to students. So when students start sticking up for each other, only then can we truly solve the issue of bullying." I believe she is right. We can all make a difference, but we all need to plant the seed in a child's head about how terrible bullying can be and teach them strategies to avoid being bullied and how to stick up for others who are being bullied. And then we just hope that seed grows and spreads among all students. So, please wear blue on Monday, October 1st and show your support for our efforts in Stomping Out Bullying. Please see the websites below for more information.

 Stomp Out Bullying website

Stop Bullying.gov

8th Graders Email Question of the Week: What Does it Mean to be a Role Model?

My 8th graders are asked to email me their answer to my class question of the week. Each student is required to answer one question each quarter. Each week, I will post some of the best email answers I receive. Below are three of the best answers I received for the question "What does it mean to be a role model?"


  "A role model to me is someone that you can look up to and will give you advice when nessesary. A role model can really be anyone that you look up to. It can be a celebrity, a teacher, it can even be a parent."


    "I feel as if a role model is someone you can look up to, whether or not it is bad or good. Good role models are people that set a good example and have somethign you can aspire to be, where as a bad role model either has achieved something you could not even hope to achieve or do and have bad "habits"." 


     "A role model to me is someone who strives, and may fail, to be a good example. They strive for excellence. Role models treat people nicely, no matter how weird or odd they are. They don't see themselves as better than anyone. All in all, role models are just nice, fun people. I think everyone should strive to be a role model because someone is always watching."