This psychiatrist is offering her care in her own innovative way — Nurse practitioners on wheels.
Dr. Joanne McDougal Patterson is behind the first-ever tiny home mental health clinic in metro Atlanta, GA, according to Atlanta News First.
“The Mental Wellness ReLeaf Mobile Clinic is the FIRST tiny home psychiatric clinic on wheels,” Dr. Patterson’s website states. “Standing 20 feet long, 8.5 ft wide and 13.5 ft tall, the tiny clinic can accommodate individuals in a warm, home-like setting where you will come feeling like a patient but leave feeling like family.”
The trailblazing approach looks to provide access to the “modern woman and her family” and came after the nurse practitioner saw the effects on mental health after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The idea came from me wanting to make sure that there was accessible and comfortable mental health care for the women and children in Metro Atlanta,” Patterson told Atlanta News First. “Oftentimes we hear about mental health treatment, but people don’t seek the treatment, simply because the environment is a little scary and there is a stigma and the perception of mental health is in a negative light.”
The clinic on wheels aims to cater to those who live in areas where there is limited access to resources in general. The outlet details that the facility will be stationed in Hall County, Clarke County, Gwinnett, and DeKalb counties, especially at schools so moms don’t have to disrupt their child’s school day. Additionally, Patterson wants to be in northeast Georgia.
“A lot of times you will get patients who are not on a bus route, or they’re in rural areas where there aren’t many providers to begin with, and so, being able to not just take care of suburbia or the urban areas, but also looking at the rural areas too,” she said.
The mobile clinic offers shared medical appointments (SMAs), biofeedback therapy, school-based psychiatric evaluation and medication management, and adult psychiatric evaluation and medication management, per the website.
