Casa de Salud Expands to Provide Mental Health Care for Immigrants and Refugees in St. Louis
Casa de Salud has been providing healthcare services to the immigrant community of the St. Louis region since January of 2010. About four months ago, Casa de Salud expanded into a building next door to its Midtown clinic to offer for the first time onsite mental health services. “This is a gateway to those who might not have been willing to reach out and get mental health service,” said Katrina Orlet, a mental health therapist with Bilingual International Assistant Services, better known as BIAS. In their efforts of bringing the gap of physical and mental health, the new mental health center has four consultation rooms used by Casa partners and three more for professionals starting out and not affiliated with a practice or agency.
Like the clinic, the building housing the mental health care facility is owned by St. Louis University. Casa pays no rent or utilities, and maintenance issues also are taken care of by the landlord. The build-out of the new 3,850-square-foot space, formerly a storage facility, was covered by $500,000 from donors and a $500,000 loan from SLU.