The Urgent Care model allows people to access assistance for issues which cannot wait for a primary care appointment, but have the potential to escalate into an emergency*. This model provides the following benefits to patients:

​

• shorter wait times

• quick and easy access

• walk-in availability

• a quiet and comfortable setting

• referrals to other resources in the community.

​

By accessing services in this way, clients are given a high quality of care without the wait times experienced in the Emergency Room.

 

Sigma is designed to help people avoid involuntary hospitalization, psychiatric-related visits to the ER, and legal involvement by providing immediate psychiatric and therapeutic services on a walk-in or scheduled basis. We provide timely mental health evaluations, short-term counseling, psychopharmacological services, and referrals for longer-term care when necessary. 

 

We recognize that when you are in a crisis, you may feel isolated, debilitated, and hopeless - often because you have nowhere to go for help before it escalates. You may desperately be seeking help from friends, family, and medical offices.  However, friends, family, and frontline workers in medical communities struggle to find solutions for problems they are not equipped to handle. The only option then, outside of office hours, is either to go to an emergency room or wait it out. These options are insufficient, rarely meet your needs, and are inappropriate when you are in the middle of a crisis.

 

Having a mental illness and being in a crisis does not necessarily provide a basis for hospitalization or inpatient treatment. With early intervention, a higher level of care can be avoided, and people are able to remain in the community without disruption to their daily life or the stress of transitioning between their homes and the hospital.

 

*If you are experiencing a medical emergency, psychosis, are currently intoxicated, or have intense thoughts of harming yourself or someone else (and have the means to carry out your plan), these constitute emergencies, and you should call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.