UR Medicine Opens City’s Largest Outpatient Mental Health Services Center

Local officials joined UR Medicine to celebrate the opening of a new community-based outpatient mental health center in Rochester. Cutting the ribbon, from left, are Monroe County Executive Adam Bello, Strong Memorial Hospital COO Kathy Parrinello, URMC CEO Mark Taubman, M.D., Lazos Fuertes Director Telva Olivares, M.D., Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, Director of Adult Ambulatory Services Kathryn Castle, Ph.D., Psychiatry Department Chair Ben Lee, M.D., and Rochester Councilmember Michael Patterson.

City residents now have easier access to mental health services with the July 27 opening of UR Medicine’s Adult Outpatient Mental Health Services center on North Chestnut Street. The 18,000-square-foot site is the new home for several existing mental health programs offered by UR Medicine, including the General Adult Ambulatory Service and Lazos Fuertes, which offers bilingual and bicultural services to Spanish-speaking patients.

Relocation of these services, previously at Strong Memorial Hospital and Science Parkway, brings them closer to city residents who rely on them for care. Consolidating them in one space improves patients’ access to the range of adult mental health services the program offers: short-term, intermediate, and longer-term services, as well as medication evaluation and management.

The spacious center includes 60 clinic rooms, as well as several larger spaces for group therapy sessions and conference rooms for meetings/educational events. The site will have room to accommodate additional caregivers over time, increasing UR Medicine’s ability to serve more patients. Combining these services in one site also improves providers’ ability to collaborate on patient care as well as resident and medical student education.

Located between the Central Business District and South Marketview Heights, the center also enhances UR Medicine’s partnerships with agencies that provide health care and social services to city residents.

“Community partners are central to our strategy of caring for underserved residents across the community; this is a great, easily accessible location for supporting many of those partnerships with Jordan Health, Trillium Health, and the YMCA of Greater Rochester and Catholic Family Center,” said Kathy Parrinello, Chief Operating Officer of Strong Memorial Hospital.

“This new center is the latest of several important additions to mental health services,” said Hochang (Ben) Lee, M.D., John Romano Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “In just the past year, Mental Health & Wellness Services has added new clinics, a crisis call line, a rapid access clinic for primary care physicians to refer patients for short-term consultation appointments for their patients, the Golisano Pediatric Behavioral Health and Wellness Building, and other services to improve access for new patients while also improving the patient experience. We look forward to welcoming our patients at this wonderful new facility.”