Filling a Gap Left Since 2000
Since then, Ottawa residents in psychiatric crisis have had nowhere at The Royal to turn without a scheduled appointment or a referral first.
How the New Clinic Works
That changes with the new Urgent Care Clinic. Unlike The Royal's existing services, which require scheduled appointments and referrals, the clinic will let people aged 16 and older seek urgent psychiatric care without one. It will be staffed by psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, social workers and other mental health professionals, giving Ottawa residents in crisis a specialized option outside of a general hospital's emergency room.
The Royal describes the clinic as a way to provide timely, specialized care for people in mental health crisis, and as an accessible alternative to emergency departments that reduces pressure on local hospitals.
Why The Royal Says the Timing Matters
The Royal's president and CEO, Cara Vaccarino, said the clinic addresses a structural gap in how mental health care gets delivered.
"We're just really bringing the Royal into a place where it should have been all along," Vaccarino said. "But when family doctors or nurse practitioners in the community need specialized psychiatric consultation, oftentimes they're left holding the bag with nowhere to go."
The need has been growing. The rate of generalized anxiety disorder among Canadians over the age of 15 doubled between 2012 and 2022, from 2.6 per cent to 5.2 per cent, according to figures cited by The Royal. That's a steep enough climb that hospital leadership points to it directly as part of the case for reopening urgent psychiatric access in Ottawa.
What It Means for Ottawa
For Ottawa residents, the clinic offers a specialized alternative to sitting in a general emergency room during a mental health crisis, at a hospital already built around psychiatric care. It also gives local family doctors and nurse practitioners, who've had few options for urgent referrals, a place in the city to send patients who need more than a scheduled follow-up.
Earlier This Month
The Royal has been expanding its Ottawa footprint in mental health care recently. In August, ottown's earlier report covered The Royal becoming the only hospital in the Ottawa-Champlain region offering OHIP-covered rTMS for hard-to-treat depression. The new urgent care clinic builds on that same push to widen access to specialized psychiatric services in the city.
Sources: Kitchissippi Times, The Royal
