Mental Health Clinic Opens on National Avenue

A new community behavioral health clinic has opened on the city’s South Side.

Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers has opened a non-emergency mental health clinic at 1635 W. National Ave., with a $3.7 million donation from Froedtert Hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin and staff support from the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division (BHD).

The new clinic is intended to provide preventative and early intervention treatment for adults suffering from severe mental mental illness and substance abuse disorders.

BHD will have staff at the clinic operating what will be called Access Clinic South. BHD already operates an Access Clinic at 9455 W. Watertown Plank Rd. on the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center campus. These Access Clinics provide outpatient mental health treatment to uninsured county residents.

Along with mental health treatment and services, the new clinic on National Ave. will also serve as a jumping off point where patients can connect with other behavioral health and rehabilitation services in the community. Area residents, whether they have insurance or not, now have access to psychiatric assessment, medication evaluation, peer support services, counseling and the potential for referrals to outpatient clinics.

“The opening of our National Ave Clinic could not come at a more critical time,” said Dr. Julie Schuller, president and CEO of Sixteenth Street, in a statement announcing the opening of the new clinic. “The pandemic has amplified the behavioral health and substance use disorder issues affecting our community, and the need for accessible, culturally affirming behavioral health services has never been more acute.”

BHD, as part of the county’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has been building out a decentralized system for accessing and receiving care in the county. Part of that is the No Wrong Door approach, which allows county residents to access a wide array of services at any point or location where they come in contact with the department.

David Muhammad, DHHS deputy director, said the new clinic was a “key development in the transformation of the behavioral health system by bringing services closer to where people live, giving them the opportunity to receive preventative care.” The new clinic will support the county’s mission to advance racial equity and improve health outcomes, he said.

BHD recently partnered with Ascension Wisconsin, Advocate Aurora Health, Froedtert Health and Children’s Wisconsin to develop a new $12 million Mental Health Emergency Center at the intersection of N. 12th St. and N. 12th Ln. just south of W. Fond du Lac Ave.