Children’s Wisconsin chooses Green Bay for third mental healthcare walk-in site
Children’s Wisconsin is planning to open a third mental healthcare walk-in clinic. The service will start late this year at Bellin Psychiatric Center in Green Bay, with the opening date dependent on staff recruitment.
The pediatric health system has supported more than 3,400 kids at its walk-in clinics since 2022, when its first one opened in Milwaukee. A similar site opened last year in Kenosha.
Under the model, kids between 5 and 18 can get care immediately with no appointment, referral or previous history with Children’s. The clinics off therapy sessions, safety evaluations and support in connecting to resources.
“All they need to do is walk in the door and we will help them,” said Amy Herbst, vice president of mental and behavioral health at Children’s.
Debbie Patz, vice president of the Bellin Psychiatric Center, said the clinic “will help the whole system by providing an immediate option for families to assess what is needed now, provide valuable education for the family for the future and allow them to leave with a plan to move forward.”
Children’s said in 2023 that it will open three walk-in clinics, beyond the one in Milwaukee, thanks to a $3 million gift from Kohl’s. Talks on what that final walk-in clinic will look like, and whether it will be more innovative, are ongoing, Herbst said.
Edited excerpts from Herbst’s interview with Wisconsin Health News are below.
WHN: Why did you choose Green Bay?
Herbst: We were seeing families driving from that area of the state to our Milwaukee location to access mental health walk-in care there. We knew that we could do a better job by getting closer to those families and making it easier for them.
WHN: Why are you working with Bellin?
Herbst: Collectively, we can take better care of kids than if we all stood alone. When we were able to recognize that we had so many families driving from that Green Bay area to Milwaukee, we started to look at what our options were in that area. We were able to partner with Bellin Health, which we’re grateful for their partnership, because they have space already available. That allowed us to be opening the walk-in clinic in Green Bay more rapidly.
WHN: What results have you seen so far from Milwaukee and Kenosha sites?
Herbst: We are seeing what families told us they needed. Families were saying, ‘We need something other than waiting for care, and we need something other than going to an emergency department when we feel like we’re having an urgent mental healthcare need.’
What we experienced so far in Milwaukee, since 2022 and now also in Kenosha, since 2024, is that families are coming to the walk-in clinics when their child is having an urgent mental health need and they feel like they cannot wait and need to be seen immediately. Generally speaking, the kids are coming to us needing care for anxiety, depression and issues with trauma.
School avoidance is also something we see a fair amount of. The kids and the parents are saying, ‘We need help right now with these things. We need to make sure that we’re safe. We need to make sure that we’re making the right decisions. We need help with something long term.’ That’s essentially what we’re doing for them.
WHN: Are there still plans for another clinic?
Herbst: We are in discussions with Kohl’s and many partners across the state of Wisconsin to consider, ‘Where might we open a fourth walk-in clinic’ — so that would be the third one that is supported by Kohl’s — ‘or is there another option?’
We’ve learned so much since we opened the clinic in Milwaukee in 2022 that maybe there’s an opportunity for us to think about this even more innovatively than what we initially considered years ago … Maybe there’s a way to provide urgent mental healthcare not in a clinic setting. Is there a way to do something virtually? Is there a way to do something that is integrated in something else where we already see kids, like in the schools, our specialty clinics or family homes?
WHN: This effort was tied to a five-year plan that Children’s launched in late 2019 to improve kids’ mental health. Where does that effort stand?
Herbst: We are in the process at Children’s of updating our mental health strategy. We’re busy in the midst of that work right now, and will be probably throughout the remainder of 2025.
That updated strategy will take a look at, ‘What is the impact that we’ve had so far? Where are we getting the best outcomes? What are the gaps that still exist in the state of Wisconsin, and are those gaps that Children’s should be filling on their own or in partnership with others?’
We are continuing our commitment to improving kids’ mental health in Wisconsin. We are going to take a good look at what we’ve done already and what still needs to happen, and update that strategy and then continue to focus on improving kids’ mental health.
This article first appeared in the Wisconsin Health News daily email newsletter. Sign up for your free trial here.
