Six months in, McLean County’s revamped Behavioral Health Urgent Care center is adding more hours to its schedule as more staffers are hired — and is seeing encouraging signs about who’s using it.
Behavioral Health Urgent Care (BHUC) opened in January at 520 N. Center St. in downtown Bloomington. It’s now operated by the McLean County Center for Human Services (CHS), which the county hired to manage what was previously known as the Triage Center. It opened in 2020.
“We certainly are over the last several months gaining momentum, and we are serving more clients than we had at the beginning of the year,” said Kim Freymann, chief medical officer at CHS. “We’re making some strides in the right direction.”
BHUC services include crisis screening, crisis intervention, short-term counseling, linkage to resources, and peer support.
BHUC is now open from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. A newly-hired and trained staffer will soon allow BHUC to be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, too.
There are gaps, such as Saturdays. Fleshing out that schedule depends on hiring. There are always two BHUC staffers on duty at any given time: a recovery support specialist (or peer) position, and a mental health professional.
“It has (been) a bit more difficult (to hire). Post-COVID, we’ve had some challenges with hiring staff. Prior to COVID, we had a lot of resumes coming through the doors and a lot of resumes to choose from – and qualified resumes. It’s trickling in now,” Freymann said. “With the recent graduations in May from the local universities, that’s certainly helped quite a bit. We’ve had some bachelor-level psychology and social work, human service-related, resumes coming through, which has been nice.”
A marketing effort is now underway to educate the community about BHUC’s existence. There are billboards and ads on buses, plus smaller items that can be given away, like wallet cards and magnets. A new website redesign is set to launch in the next couple weeks.
CHS has provided some of these materials to primary care physicians who can make referrals. CHS is also meeting quarterly with the staff at Carle BroMenn’s emergency department staff.
“BHUC is appropriate for a certain group of folks. The emergency room is certainly appropriate for those higher risk clients. The clients who are having suicidal thoughts, those who have a plan or intent to harm themselves, the emergency room is certainly the place for them. But if there’s any way we can deter folks who are not at that high-risk level to our Urgent Care, that’s what we’re hoping to do,” Freymann said.
BHUC is free of charge to those 18 and older experiencing a behavioral health crisis. It also can bill out to insurance if someone has it.
So far, just over half of BHUC clients have been on Medicaid, the public insurance program for low-income people, Freymann said. But one early positive sign for awareness is that BHUC is already seeing some clients with private insurance, who’ve been referred by a private therapist.
“I’m very excited about that. Not only is it a service for those with Medicaid, but it can also be for the entire community as well,” Freymann said.
