Mental health clinic opens up at Walmart in Texas, concept could expand

BOWLING GREEN, Ky.-Heading to Walmart you may want to get groceries, clothes or even contacts. What about therapy? A Walmart in Texas now has a mental health clinic, and the concept could soon spread across the country.

The idea is to make mental health care as accessible as primary care. You go to get a flu shot at CVS, why not see a therapist at the grocery store.

Beacon Health Options is leasing a space at the Walmart in Carrollton, Texas. They are essentially tenants and have not partnered with Walmart. Beacon’s plan is to make mental health care more convenient and approachable by opening clinics in places already occupied by lots of people.

The idea to put mental health care clinics in high-traffic shopping centers is new. The new concept could have a negative fallout according to some mental health professionals.

 “In some ways it’s great to normalize it, that everybody can seek mental health services just as if you were to get an urgent care appointment for the flu, so in that way it’s great. I think right now where we are with stigma, it may actually keep people from coming to the appointment if it’s too public,” said Colleen Marshall, vice president of behavioral health at LifeSkills, Inc. LifeSkills is a nonprofit organization that has a contract with the state to provide mental health and substance abuse treatment to people in this region of the state.

Beacon Health Options was not immediately available for comment.

There are currently no plans to open mental health clinics at Walmart stores in or around Bowling Green.