Schizophrenia, severe mood or personality disorders, and other psychotic illnesses where you may experience a loss of contact with reality are considered to be serious mental illnesses. They need serious care.
Your illness may be chronic (continues for a long time) or lifelong. You may need different levels of care throughout your life.
If your serious mental illnesses is due to severe trauma or stress, it might last for a short time with treatment.
If you are struggling with everyday life activities because of a serious mental illness, we can help you. Our specialized programs for adults aged 18 to 65 are designed to meet your needs, whether you need inpatient care or services at home. Our mental health experts apply the latest research and evidence-based practices to your care so we can help no matter what you’re going through — or where you are on your mental health journey.
If you’re in a mental health crisis, you may need intense treatment. Pathways is inpatient care that offers you 24-hour support in a safe and secure place. It’s a home-like atmosphere where you’ll live with others who are dealing with serious mental health crises and work toward recovery and getting back out into the community.
It's essential to keep up your recovery while you’re in inpatient care. Our psychiatric rehabilitation program works with adults ages 18 to 65. You’ll create a mental health wellness plan to help you stay in control of your mental health and look forward. This means looking forward — maybe you want to get a job, be a tenant, or enroll in school. You'll set your own goals and our staff will help you achieve them through teaching, coaching, and planning.
In psychiatric rehabilitation, you’ll participate in group programs that focus on life-building skills, including:
When you have a serious mental illness, you may think no one knows how you feel. Feeling understood is a crucial part of your recovery. Our peer support specialists have experienced serious mental illness personally and successfully come through the other side. They’re ready to help others in similar situations.
Peers have special training and are professionally certified to help with your recovery. Part of your care team, they:
The goal of treatment is to keep you stable so you can avoid a mental health crisis. Staying stable means staying on your treatment plan. Our outpatient clinic helps adults ages 18 to 65 get the support they need.
Our outpatient clinic:
Serious mental illnesses can start early in life. If you feel disconnected, have illogical thoughts, or hear or see things that are unusual, the STEP clinic can help diagnose and find treatment for you. We help teens and adults ages 14 to 40 who have a primary psychotic disorder.
Our STEP Clinic:
STEP also offers wrap-around services to help teens and young adults build life skills early. These services include a variety of supports for work and school.
Serious mental illness often involves taking medicines that are vital to helping your get and stay well. This clinic is for people getting care through Western Behavioral Health outpatient or STEP clinics.
The clinic will help make it easy for you to manage your medicines:
To get well and stay well, it's crucial that you take your medicines as prescribed. When you don't, it can keep you from getting better or lead to a mental health crisis.
Our mobile medication program provides education and help in your community. We help people ages 18 and older stick to their treatment plan and take their medicine as directed.
UPMC Western Behavioral Health will help you coordinate the services you use to manage your mental health. The program helps people ages 14 to 65. We’ll help you:
Some mental health issues can make it hard to even leave your house. Or maybe you don’t have a reliable way to get to clinics or appointments. This is where our mobile community treatment team can help. We remove barriers by caring for you at home.
Our community treatment service provides the same care you’d get through inpatient care, including:
Finding a place to live — and keeping it — can be a huge challenge for people with serious mental illness. If you are experiencing housing problems or homelessness because of your severe mental health needs, our Neighborhood Living Program may be able to provide you with housing and support services.
We have two supportive housing programs for men with serious mental illnesses who used to be chronically homeless.
UPMC Western Behavioral Health works with more than 400 households in our area. We help you with care, as well as:
Our goal is for you to find independence — to successfully live on your own while building your mental health.
For a mental health emergency, call 988.
To make an appointment for care near you, call our main phone number at 1-877-624-4100 or 412-624-1000.
UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital
3811 O’Hara St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
If you or a loved one is having a mental health crisis or thoughts of suicide and need help now:
Call resolve Crisis Services at 1-888-796-8226. This 24/7 helpline is free to people who live in Allegheny County.
Or go to the resolve Crisis Services walk-in clinic:
