Back To School: Pediatric behavioral health walk-in clinic aims to help parents, students
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Back to school is an exciting time, but it can lead to stress and anxiety for students and parents.
To help students navigate through this difficult time, UPMC has opened the first pediatric behavioral walk-in health clinic.
UPMC Children's Hospital President Diane Hupp said it's normal for kids to experience anxiety when heading back to school. But she said sometimes they don't know how to handle it.
The new pediatric behavioral health walk-in clinic at UPMC Children's Hospital is designed to help children and parents.
"When school begins, there will be an uptick in the need for behavioral health support," Hupp said. "So, we intentionally said mid-August right before school and when school begins, we wanted to offer this clinic."
Hupp said there are behaviors that reflect your child is experiencing above-average anxiety around the return to school. When your child presents behavioral changes that become more significant and more regular, Hupp said it is time to seek help.
"They may become more socially isolated, they may pull out of some of the normal activities that they do, they may start avoiding school and not wanting to go to school and losing focus on their studies," Hupp said. "Those are all reasons to begin to think we might need to get some help."
The clinic opened Monday and is located on the third floor of UPMC's Children's Hospital. It is open from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.
UPMC said the clinic sees patients up to 18 years old, adding that children can come with a parent or guardian and get care on the same day, with no appointment required.
"We're not admitting patients that need in-patient care. We are performing assessments, interventions and connecting them to resources," Hobbs said.
