{"id":2366,"date":"2026-05-08T09:12:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/psychiatry\/?p=2366"},"modified":"2026-05-08T09:12:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:12:57","slug":"psychiatry-department-continues-to-find-ways-to-improve-access-to-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/psychiatry\/2026\/05\/08\/psychiatry-department-continues-to-find-ways-to-improve-access-to-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychiatry Department continues to find ways to improve access to care"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Behavioral Health Service line continues to explore new ways to expand access to care for patients needing behavioral health treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2017, the department has seen a 108 percent increase in clinic visits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeyond growth in volume, we expanded the range of services offered, including new subspecialty clinics for patients with psychosis, treatment-resistant depression and intellectual\/developmental disabilities, adding to our existing subspecialty clinics in child, geriatric, addictions, anxiety and women\u2019s reproductive psychiatry,\u201d said David Cates, PhD, Vice-Chair for Clinical Services in the Department of Psychiatry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The growth has been driven by continued expansion in multiple areas of behavioral healthcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the past 7 years, the department has been innovating to reach more patients and shorten its waitlist. In 2019, for example, the Behavioral Health Connection was established to help members of the community identify and connect with behavioral health services, including assistance with overcoming obstacles to treatment, such as transportation, housing, and finances. Originally funded by a local philanthropist, the program is now part of the psychiatry clinic\u2019s annual operating budget. This program has served more than 10,500 clients and has had over 17,000 encounters since its launch.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, in an effort to better serve patients in psychiatric crises, the department partnered with the Department of Emergency Medicine to open the Adult Psychiatric Emergency Service (PES). The PES provides trauma-informed emergency psychiatric care in a healing environment while alleviating pressure on the main Emergency Department.  The PES has admitted more than 8,500 patients since launch, with 67-77 percent discharged within 24 hours and 54 percent discharged home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Primary Care Consultation Clinic (PCC), launched in July 2023, also expanded access to psychiatric expertise, particularly for Nebraska Medicine primary care patients.  In this clinic, psychiatric providers complete a single consultation visit and provide guidance to primary care providers in managing patients with mild-to-moderate psychiatric conditions. \u201cThanks to the creativity of our faculty and partnership with the Family Medicine Residency, one component of this initiative involves psychiatry faculty\u2019s training family medicine residents to complete psychiatric evaluations,\u201d Dr. Cates said, \u201chelping ensure that family medicine physicians have the knowledge and tools needed to treat patients with mild-to-moderate psychiatric conditions.\u201d The PCC has served over 1,000 patients since launch, with 78 percent able to return to primary care after the single consultation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201dFor the past several years, our talented psychologists and licensed mental health providers (LMHPs) have also been expanding group psychotherapy options,\u201d noted Dr. Cates. \u201cFor many patients, groups are equally effective as individual therapy, while allowing a given clinician to reach many more patients.\u201d Nebraska Medicine\u2019s behavioral health service line currently offers ten different treatment groups for conditions ranging from PTSD, anxiety, and depression to ADHD and substance use disorder.  Group therapy visits have increased by 176 percent, from 788 in 2019 to 2,173 in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Department leaders continue to explore new sub-specialty clinics, group therapy options, and innovative care models to expand access to behavioral healthcare for patients.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Behavioral Health Service line continues to explore new ways to expand access to care for patients needing behavioral health treatment. Since 2017, the department has seen a 108 percent increase in clinic visits. \u201cBeyond growth in volume, we expanded the range of services offered, including new subspecialty clinics for patients with psychosis, treatment-resistant depression and intellectual\/developmental […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":574,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPsychiatry Department continues to find ways to improve access to care<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/psychiatry\/2026\/05\/08\/psychiatry-department-continues-to-find-ways-to-improve-access-to-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Psychiatry Department continues to find ways to improve access to care\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Behavioral Health Service line continues to explore new ways to expand access to care for patients needing behavioral health treatment. 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