ROCHESTER, NY — Brighter Days Pediatric Mental Health Urgent Care, the first pediatric mental health urgent care center in Upstate NY is now open in Rochester.
"I'm going to 100% guarantee that your children, patients, family, or friends that go to this urgent care will be shown love, faith and care," said Blaine Hayward Collins, a former patient at the inpatient mental health facility at the University of Rochester.
Now, he and other kids up to 18 years old will have access to walk-in mental health care closer to home.
Currently, the closest pediatric urgent care center is in New York City which is more than 300 miles, or an 8-hour drive, from Buffalo. The location in Rochester is about 70 miles, or about an hour's drive, from Buffalo.
"This is only the second mental health urgent care for kids in NYS and the other one is downstate. This is the only place of its kind in our region and really on this side of the Hudson," said Dr. Michael Scharf, the Psychiatrist in Chief at Golisano Children's Hospital.
Dr. Scharf said at the Brighter Days Pediatric Mental Health Urgent Care Center kids will get crisis intervention and family-centered support to ensure their safety.
He said the facility will help encourage communities in Western New York to build one of their own.
"We have a number of patients from Erie County, from Onondaga County. I expect that will only increase after opening this new service, but I'm equally optimistic and hopeful that it will lead to other regions being able to duplicate what we're doing," said Dr. Scharf.
