What I Really Think About the Walmart Offering Mental Health Care

Beacon Care Services, a company that manages mental health care for 40 million people, has opened a small clinic in one Walmart in Carrollton, Texas. The company plans to expand the initiative to more locations across the country.

And I don’t know whether to vomit or applaud.

Walmart’s ubiquity is one point in its favor — they’re everywhere. And for some people, whether they love or despise Walmart, it’s the only choice they have for groceries, household goods or much of anything else. Those areas are also likely to be underserved by the mental health system, such as it is.

And sparse as the options offered by the Walmart walk-in clinics are – treatment for anxiety, depression, grief, relationship issues and stress management – it’s more than a lot of people have access to now. The trial site is said to be staffed with one licensed clinical social worker, have a sliding fee scale for those with no insurance and will soon be approved for Medicaid reimbursement (hopefully). There will even be remote Skype therapy services if necessary.

All that is good, as far as it goes. But does it go far enough? Will people be able to get more than a pat on the head and a pep talk as they do their weekly or monthly shopping? How will the walk-in clinic handle referrals for people with serious mental illness or a need for psychotropic medication — something that clinical social workers can’t provide? How many people can get help from a single professional? How good is internet therapy? And what percentage of Walmart shoppers have access to the internet?

The walk-in clinics are touted as reducing stigma around mental health issues. After all, the thought is, getting your mental health services at Walmart will become as natural as getting a haircut or an eye exam there. Well, maybe. On the other hand, how many people are willing to have their friends and neighbors see them publicly, sitting in the waiting room or ducking surreptitiously through the door? It seems to me it might perpetuate stigma, rather than lessening it.

Besides, Walmart is hardly a bastion of high-quality goods and services. Will the mental health services be second-rate as well? It could be that even second-rate care is better than no care at all. But it’s surely not enough to deal with issues that require long-term therapy with actual treatment plans; scheduled repeat visits; building a relationship with a particular therapist; access to medications; and all the other aspects of more effective treatment, especially considering complicated disorders like bipolar, OCD or anorexia.

I fully admit that I hate Walmart — the way they have driven out local Mom and Pop stores, for example, and the way they treat their employees. But I have many choices of where to shop near where I live, and access to both therapists and psychiatrists, and insurance that covers my appointments and medications. If I weren’t looking through the lens of privilege, I might see things a lot differently.

So for now, I guess my attitude is to wait and see. One test location does not a Walmart Psych Empire make. Perhaps it will succeed; perhaps not. Perhaps it will become the Great Clips of the psychotherapy world.

But while I’m waiting, I’m not holding my breath.