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Scattergood Foundation Design Challenge Winner to Bring Mental Health Services to Retail Clinics

April 10, 2014 Category: PeopleUncategorized

The QCare in Northeast Philadelphia where “Wellness at Your Fingetips” will be implemented.


The Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation, a Quaker-based, philanthropic, grant-making foundation working to improve how behavioral healthcare is delivered in the Philadelphia region, chose the winner of its 2014 Design Challenge, “Wellness at Your Fingertips,” at the beginning of April.

This year’s design challenge asked individuals and organizations to create an intervention (an idea paired with a plan of action) that included an education, access or service component for behavioral and mental health services at retail clinics.

Retail Clinics (CVS Minute Clinic, Walgreens’ Take Care Clinic, Target Clinic, and local healthcare systems clinics) offer convenience as well as low cost and high quality care. Retail clinics tend to focus on physical health, however, and they typically don’t provide behavioral health interventions (such as screening, referral, and crisis management).

There is strong incentive to strengthen behavioral and mental services at retail clinics. They costs 30 to 40 percent less than similar care at physician offices, according to the the Convenient Care Association, a trade group of health care organizations and companies. They also tend to be open seven days a week and are accessible to low-income communities.

“We contacted as many local clinics as we could to learn more about what mental services they provide. As it turns out, there’s no clinic in the country that provides mental health services right now,” said Gregory Caplan, Drexel University School of Public Health Masters candidate student and project manager for the design challenge.

This year’s challenge accepted nine submissions. The winner, “Wellness at Your Fingertips,” was submitted by the the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services (DBHIDS)  and Screening for Mental Health Inc (SMH).

From our Partners

The Family Practice and Counseling Network, one of the partners of the design challenge, has agreed to pilot “Wellness at Your Fingertips” at its retail clinic QCare in Northwest Philadelphia at the ShopRite.

“‘Wellness at Your Fingertips’ is a concept that brings to life a true alignment of physical health and behavioral health. For the first time ever, behavioral health screenings will be available inside of a minute clinic, so that it will be as easy for folks to check in on their mood as it is for them to check on their blood pressure,” said Dana Careless, clinical operations supervisor at DBHIDS.

“The screenings are quick, free and anonymous and are not diagnostic; rather, they are meant to be a ‘check up from the neck up’ and offer a way for individuals to check in on their feelings and mood to see if additional follow up may be a good idea. The screenings will be completed via an available iPad,” she added.

The concept is an extension of work already done by the DBHIDS. They’ve offered both online and in-person behavioral health screenings, available at www.healthymindsphilly.org,  since 2012.

“The program helps to integrate mental health care into retail clinics by making behavioral health screenings readily available for any person who walks through the doors of a retail clinic,” Careless said. “At a minimum, the presence of a behavioral health screening can help to reduce stigma around addressing these issues in a setting that is typically associated with physical health concerns; at a maximum, we hope that this integration of behavioral health resources will help someone who may not otherwise have had help and could potentially save someone’s life if it is determined that immediate behavioral health support is needed.”

The project is planned to be implemented in May and Careless said they will continue to work closely with QCare and Scattergood to launch this initiative successfully.

The project should launch by the middle of May. Caplan added that they are currently in talks with some larger clinics to implement “Wellness at Your Fingertips” and are hoping to expand the program to more clinics within the Philadelphia-area in the future.

(Images via Scattergood Foundation)

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