A Click Away From Mental Healthcare: Virtual Urgent Care at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

With the potential of expanding access to care, interest in virtual care has increased in recent years. In August 2023, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) opened a virtual urgent care (VUC) clinic, focused on mental healthcare. This nurse practitioner-led clinic offers several consultations a day. This paper aims to share the initial experience of CAMH's VUC. Of the patients in this study, 87% are satisfied with VUC and 31% mentioned going to their nearest emergency department were VUC unavailable, indicating some progress in meeting patient needs and improving system navigation and utilization. We believe that the findings will help all virtual care initiatives.